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:

Rich is their humor! Deep are their passions! Reckless are their lives! Mighty is their story!

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Miner | Village | Wales | Gossip | Melodrama

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:

For the scene where the miners greet their women by putting their earnings in baskets, actress Maureen O'Hara stopped the scene's filming once she noticed that her basket was a modern Kraft basket and not a basket of the movie's period. Director John Ford was so upset by being corrected in front of the cast and crew that he closed down the set and told O'Hara to wait on a nearby hill until he called for her. Fuming, O'Hara waited an hour before an assistant came to retrieve her but was satisfied to see that the basket had been changed upon her return.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Roddy McDowall's character comes home after being beaten by his teacher, there is no blood or marks on his back.

Quotes:

Beth Morgan: I have come up here to tell you what I think of you all, because you are talking against my husband. You are a lot of cowards to go against him. He has done nothing against you and he never has and you know it well. How some of you, you smug-faced hypocrites...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Myra Breckinridge (1970)

Soundtrack:

Rhyfelgyrch Gwyr Harlech

How Green was my Valley was the greatest film of all time.

Greatest movie of all time. I saw this first during World War II, and it made such an impression upon me that I had to go back time after time. Now 60 years later it lingers in my memory over any other movie I have ever seen. No movie before or since has left such a lasting impression upon me.

It could easily be brought back to the modern screen as a classic film that will never die. I wish I could own it on DVD, but I have no idea where I can obtain it. It would be at the top of classic films of all time as an asset in my library. It appeared at a time in our history when the world was being torn asunder and we did not know what tomorrow would bring. It was so uplifting at a time when we needed that uplift.