How Green Was My Valley is a 1941 drama film directed by John Ford. The film, based on the 1939 Richard Llewellyn novel, was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and scripted by Philip Dunne. The film features Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning five, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor.
The film tells of the Morgans, a close, hard-working Welsh mining family living in the heart of the South Wales Valleys in the 19th century. The story chronicles the destruction of the environment in South Wales coalfields, and the loss of a way of life and its effects on the family.
§Plot
The film opens with a monologue by an older Huw Morgan (Irving Pichel - voice): "I am packing my belongings in the shawl my mother used to wear when she went to the market. And I'm going from my valley. And this time, I shall never return." The valley and its villages are now blackened by the coal mines that fill the area.
A young Huw (Roddy McDowall), the youngest child of Gwilym Morgan (Donald Crisp), walks home with his father to meet his mother, Beth (Sara Allgood). His older brothers, Ianto (John Loder), Ivor (Patric Knowles), Davy (Richard Fraser), Gwilym Jr and Owen all work in the coal mines with their father, while sister Angharad (Maureen O'Hara) keeps house with their mother. Huw's childhood is idyllic, the town is beautiful - the town not yet overrun with mining spoil - and the household is warm and loving. Huw is smitten when he meets Bronwyn (Anna Lee), a girl engaged to be married to his oldest brother, Ivor (Patric Knowles). At the boisterous wedding party Angharad meets the new preacher, Mr. Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon), and there is an obvious mutual attraction.
Trouble comes when the mine owner lowers the wages, and the miners strike in protest. Gwilym's attempt to mediate by not supporting a strike estranges him from the other miners as well as his older sons, who leave the house. Beth interrupts a late night meeting of the strikers, threatening to kill anyone who harms her husband. While returning home, crossing the fields in a snowstorm in the dark, Beth falls into the river. Huw dives in to save her with the help of the townspeople, and temporarily loses the use of his legs. He recovers with the help of Mr Gruffydd, which further endears him to Angharad.
The strike is eventually settled, and Gwilym and his sons reconcile. Yet many miners have lost their jobs and the town is poorer. Angharad is courted by the mine owner's son Iestyn Evans (Marten Lamont), though her heart is set on Mr Gruffydd. Mr Gruffydd loves her too, to the malicious delight of the gossipy townswomen, but cannot bear to subject her to an impoverished churchman's life. Angharad submits to a loveless marriage to Evans, and they move out of the country.
Huw begins school at a nearby village. Mercilessly picked on by the other boys, he is taught to fight by boxer Dai Bando (Rhys Williams) and his crony, Cyfartha (Barry Fitzgerald). After a beating by the cruel teacher Mr Jonas (Morton Lowry), Dai Bando avenges Huw with an impromptu boxing display on Mr. Jonas to the delight of his pupils.
On the day that Bronwyn gives birth to their child, Ivor is killed in a mine accident. Later, the four Morgan sons are fired in favor of less experienced, cheaper laborers. With no job prospects, they leave to seek their fortunes abroad. Huw is awarded a scholarship to university, but to his father's dismay he declines it to work in the mines. He moves in with Bronwyn to help provide for her and her child.
When Angharad returns without her husband, vicious gossip spreads through the town of an impending divorce and where her true affections lie. Mr. Gruffydd is denounced by the church deacons, and after delivering a stinging condemnation of the town's small-mindedness, he decides to leave.
Just then, the alarm whistle sounds, signaling another mine disaster. Several men are injured, and Gwilym and others are trapped in a roof fall. Young Huw, Mr. Gruffydd, and Dai Bando descend with others in a rescue attempt. Gwilym and his son are briefly re-united before he succumbs to his injuries. Huw rides the lift to the surface cradling his father's body, his coal-blackened face devoid of youthful innocence.
Narration by an older Huw recalls, "Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still, real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever. How green was my valley then." The film ends with a montage of touching family vignettes showing Huw with his father and mother, his brothers and sister.
§Cast
§Background
William Wyler, the original director, saw the screen test of McDowall and chose him for the part. Wyler was replaced by John Ford. Fox wanted to shoot the movie in Wales in Technicolor, but events in Europe during World War II made this impossible. Instead, Ford built a replica of the mining town at the nearly 3,000-acre (12Â km2) Fox Ranch in Malibu Canyon.
The cast had one Welsh actor, Rhys Williams, in a minor role.
§Awards
§Academy Awards
- Winners
- Best Picture - Darryl F. Zanuck
- Best Director - John Ford
- Best Supporting Actor - Donald Crisp
- Best Black-and-White Cinematography - Arthur C. Miller
- Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Interior Decoration - Richard Day, Nathan H. Juran and Thomas Little
- Nominations
- Best Adapted Screenplay - Philip Dunne
- Best Supporting Actress - Sara Allgood
- Best Film Editing - James B. Clark
- Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture - Alfred Newman
- Best Recording Sound - Edmund H. Hansen
§Other awards
- New York Film Critics Circle Awards: NYFCC Award; Best Director, John Ford; 1941.
- Silver Condor Award for Best Foreign Film at the 1943 Argentine Film Critics Association Awards in Argentina, John Ford, USA; 1943.
- 1990â€"National Film Registry.
- American Film Institute Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still -- real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever. How green was my valley then." - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
§Adaptations
How Green Was My Valley was adapted as a radio play on the March 22, 1942 broadcast of the Ford Theatre, with Sara Allgood, Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowell, Maureen O'Hara and Walter Pidgeon.
It was also adapted on three broadcasts of Lux Radio Theater: on September 21, 1942, with Allgood, Crisp, O'Hara, McDowell and Pidgeon; on March 31, 1947, with Crisp and David Niven; and on September 28, 1954, with Crisp and Donna Reed.
A Broadway musical adaptation, entitled A Time For Singing, produced by Alexander H. Cohen, opened at the Broadway Theatre on May 21, 1966. The music was by John Morris; book and lyrics by Morris and Gerald Freedman, who also served as the director. Cast included Laurence Naismith as Gwillym, Tessie O'Shea as Beth, Shani Wallis as Angharad and Frank Griso as Huw.
§See also
- How Green Was My Valley (novel)
- The Proud Valley
- The Stars Look Down
- 1926 United Kingdom general strike
§References
§External links
- How Green Was My Valley at the Internet Movie Database
- How Green Was My Valley at the TCM Movie Database
- How Green Was My Valley at AllMovie
- How Green Was My Valley at Rotten Tomatoes
- How Green Was My Valley at Reel Classics
- How Green Was My Valley at Film Site web site; contains plot detail.