How Green Was My Valley (1941)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

John Ford

Writers:

Philip Dunne (screenplay)
Richard Llewellyn (novel)

Release Date:

9 April 1942 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama | Family

Tagline:

Millions Have Read This Great Novel... Millions more will see an even greater picture!

Plot:

At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans (he stern, she gentle) raise coal-mining...

Plot Keywords:

Village | Wales | Whipping | Color In Title | Courtship

Awards:

Won 5 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Walter Pidgeon	...	Mr. Gruffydd
Maureen O'Hara	...	Angharad
Anna Lee	...	Bronwyn
Donald Crisp	...	Mr. Morgan
Roddy McDowall	...	Huw (as Master Roddy McDowall)
John Loder	...	Ianto
Sara Allgood	...	Mrs. Morgan
Barry Fitzgerald	...	Cyfartha
Patric Knowles	...	Ivor
Welsh Singers	...	Themselves
Morton Lowry	...	Mr. Jonas
Arthur Shields	...	Mr. Parry
Ann E. Todd	...	Ceinwen (as Ann Todd)
Frederick Worlock	...	Dr. Richards
Richard Fraser	...	Davy

Also Known As:

Richard Llewellyn's How Green Was My Valley (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Welsh

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Australia:PG | UK:U | West Germany:12 (f) | USA:Approved (certificate #7480) | Canada:G (video rating) | Brazil:Livre | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:S | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Ranch, Malibu Creek State Park - 1925 Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

It only took two months to make the film.

Quotes:

Huw Morgan: [Narrating] I think I fell in love with Bronwen then. Perhaps it is foolish to think a child could fall in love. But I am the child that was, and nobody knows how I felt, except only me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Frasier: High Crane Drifter (#3.17)" (1996)

Soundtrack:

Arglwydd, Arwain Trwy'r Anialwch

Lost paradise?

The story is told by an adult who remembers his childhood:Roddy McDowall gives a very sensitive performance in this part,he's simply the best actor of a topflight cast (to think that nowadays McDowall is remembered by the young generations mainly for his part of Cornelius the ape)All the scenes which involve the boy are simply wonderful,particularly the one with the daffodils (it 'd have been shot in color!),and the one with his father in his arms at the end.John Ford ,as usual , is a master when it comes to depict a small community who's got to stand together to survive.And he does not spare us the tragedies ,the bigotry ,the slander,but he adds humor,joie de vivre (the men,turning their nose on tea and wanting beer).

But sometimes it seems too good to be true:the boss's offspring marrying a miner's daughter,even when she's a beauty like Maureen O'Hara?The boss asking the poor father's permission?We are far from Emile Zola's "Germinal" :both stories happen about during the same era ,both with the miners' life both are radically different.Zola's world is a bleak,desperate world ,his depiction of the families' houses and meals (when there is food) and the pictures of Ford's movie are worlds apart.But the biggest difference is the omnipresence of the Lord's will:in "how green" the minister is a cool young handsome man (Pidgeon),in "Germinal" ,the priest's only a silhouette,but a selfish cruel one,unconcerned to man's plight:Zola's miners do not put their trust in a God anymore .

Wales and the east of France ,were they that much different?You can only say they were novels and movies,and reality is probably somewhere between them.