How Green Was My Valley (film)

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How Green Was My Valley

Theatrical release poster
Directed by John Ford
Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck
Screenplay by Philip Dunne
Based on How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
Narrated by Irving Pichel
Starring Walter Pidgeon
Maureen O'Hara
Anna Lee
Donald Crisp
Roddy McDowall
Music by Alfred Newman
Cinematography Arthur C. Miller
Editing by James B. Clark
Distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Release date(s) October 28, 1941 (1941-10-28)
Running time 118 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Welsh
Budget $1.25 million
Box office $6,000,000

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 written by Philip Dunne. The film stars Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards,[1] winning five and beating out for Best Picture such classics as Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Suspicion and Sergeant York.

The film tells the story of the Morgans, a close, hard-working Welsh family at the turn of the twentieth century in the South Wales coalfield at the heart of the South Wales Valleys. It chronicles a socio-economic way of life passing and the family unit disintegrating.

In 1990, How Green Was My Valley was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Contents

[edit] Plot

The story is told through the eyes and with the voice-over narration of Huw Morgan (Roddy McDowall), now a middle-aged man leaving his home, a mining town in the Rhondda Valley, and recalling the events that most impressed his younger self. The boy Huw is played by Roddy, but the voice-over is that of unseen actor Irving Pichel.

Huw's first memories are of the marriage of his brother, Ivor (Patric Knowles), and the burgeoning, unspoken and ill-fated romance of his sister, Angharad (Maureen O'Hara), with the new preacher, Mr. Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon). Because of the forbidden nature of the romance, Angharad marries another man (whom she later divorces), and Mr. Gruffydd leaves the chapel in disgust after being subjected to untrue town gossip - his romance with Angharad is never consummated, nor do they ever marry. Still too young to work in the local coal mine like his father, Gwilym (Donald Crisp), and his five older brothers, Huw senses the seriousness of an imminent strike by the rift it creates between his father and the other boys when three of them move out of the family abode.

During the tensions of the strike, Huw saves his mother (Sara Allgood) from drowning and in so doing temporarily loses the use of his legs. As Gruffydd aids in Huw's recovery, insisting on a positive attitude, he suggests that it is only the first of many trials the boy will have to face. Other subplots are explored in the film, which concludes with the death of Gwilym Morgan in a mining accident.

[edit] Cast

Sara Allgood as Beth Morgan and Roddy McDowall as Huw Morgan.

[edit] 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 (12 km2) Fox Ranch in Malibu Canyon.[2]

The cast had only one genuinely Welsh actor - Rhys Williams, in a minor role.

[edit] Awards

[edit] Academy Award

The film was nominated for ten awards.[3]

[edit] Other awards

American Film Institute Lists

[edit] 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.

[edit] In popular culture

In the 1996 Frasier episode "High Crane Drifter" (3.17), Frasier is trying to watch How Green Was My Valley, first in a theater, where he was disturbed by "old ladies" who kept repeating, "Look how young he looks. He's dead you know." Later, he attempts to rent the movie from Friendly Video, where he describes the movie and is beaten to the rental by a woman who was standing in line behind him. He says "You're renting How Green Was My Valley?" She answers, "Yeah, I heard it was great." Frasier answers, "You heard it from me!" Frasier finally returns home and finds that he still cannot watch the movie after having visited three video stores to find it because he is interrupted by his heavy metal-playing neighbor.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "NY Times: How Green Was My Valley". NY Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/23422/How-Green-Was-My-Valley/awards. Retrieved 2008-12-13. 
  2. ^ Reel Classics
  3. ^ "The 14th Academy Awards (1942) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/14th-winners.html. Retrieved 2011-08-13. 
  4. ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies Nominees
  5. ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes Nominees
  6. ^ AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores Nominees
  7. ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) Ballot

[edit] External links
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