How Green Was My Valley (1941)

How Green Was My Valley
Directed by John Ford
Written by Philip Dunne based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn
1941/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#155 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Huw Morgan: [narrating] 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.[/box]

This is the film that famously trounced Citizen Kane at the 1942 Oscar ceremony.  There is no denying its beauty.

Huw Morgan (Roddy McDowall) looks back through the eyes of age at his childhood home in a Welsh coal-mining village and how a traditional way of life gradually fell apart. Gwyilm Morgan (Donald Crisp) and his wife (Sara Allgood) have a brood of six children – five boys and daughter Angharad (Maureen O’Hara).  Huw is much the youngest.  Gwylim and all the older boys work in the coal mine.  As the story begins, the eldest son weds Bronwyn (Anna Lee) and Huw becomes devoted to her.

Angharad loves the local preacher Mr. Gruffyd (Walter Pidgeon) from afar.  Her great beauty attracts the son of the local mine owner.  In desperation, she reveals her love to the minister, who obviously loves her too, but inexplicably he rejects her and she is doomed to a loveless marriage.

Meanwhile, the coal economy strains the family to the breaking point.  The sons become union men in defiance of their father and move out.  Then they are gradually forced to emigrate by diminishing wages and firings.  Huw eventually goes to work in the mine at a heartbreakingly young age.  Mine disasters plague the village.  But despite everything, humor and love ties everything and everyone together in the end.  With Barry Fitzgerald and Arthur Shields.

This is a spectacular looking film.  The landscapes and textures are brilliantly composed and shot.  Most of the acting is first-rate and Roddy McDowell gives one of the best performances ever by a child actor.  The thing that mars the movie for me is the discordant presence of the pedantic and boring Walter Pidgeon at its center.  His character is self-righteous in the extreme and rubs me the wrong way throughout.  It’s a shame because I know he is meant to be sympathetic.

How Green Was My Valley won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp), Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Arthur C. Miller), and Best Black-and-White Art Direction.  It was nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Sara Allgood), Best Screenplay, Best Sound Recording, Best Film Editing and Best Scoring of a Dramatic Picture (Alfred Newman).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yjfCUExOH0

Trailer