How Green Was My Valley (1941)

Directed by John Ford

Starring Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O’Hara

If you are in the mood for something nostalgically uplifting, I’d recommend How Green Was My Valley.

I saw it last week for the second time in more than 40 years. I remembered it as sentimental. It is. But a sentimental pleasure from beginning to end.

Based on the1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, the film tells the story of the Morgans, a hardworking mining family in Victorian Wales.

Directed by the great John Ford, it stars Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O’Hara. Also on the marquee: Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall.

How Green Was My Valley is, at one level, a social critique of the English mining industry at the height of the Industrial Age. That didn’t work for me. The direction and execution of the story was too romanticized to stir up any serious sympathy for the working class. And yet, on some cheesy, corny, emotional level it was fun to watch.

Interesting Fact: The film won 9 Academy Awards, including Best Picture (over Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, and Sergeant York). It still gets a high (89%) approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

From Empire: “This John Ford film is typically epic with a faithful screenplay to Richard Llewellyn’s famous novel. Strong performances from Crisp and O’Hara, although McDowall as the young lead gives a particularly memorable performance, while the setting shows Wales at its most beautiful.”

From Variety: “Performances are impressive all the way: fine yet forceful, punchy yet almost underplayed in their deeper meanings, gay and bitter, romantic and frustrated in properly arresting shades and moods, colors and contrasts. All the way it’s an exposition of the cinematic art that pars the best.”