Simply A Masterpiece

How sad is this?

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck Copyright 26 December 1941 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Rivoli: 28 October 1941. U.S. release: 26 December 1941. Australian release: 9 April 1942. U.S. length: 10,730 feet. 119 minutes. Australian length: 10,902 feet. 121 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A Welsh mining family copes with the Depression.NOTES: Nominated for the following Academy Awards: Best Picture (won); Best Supporting Actor, Donald Crisp (won); Best Supporting Actress, Sara Allgood (the voters preferred Mary Astor in The Great Lie); Best Directing (won); Best Screenplay (incredibly passed over in favor of Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller's Here Comes Mr Jordan), Best Black-and-white Photography (won); Best Sets (won); Best Sound Recording (in another amazing aberration, the Academy preferred That Hamilton Woman); Best Film Editing (William Holmes received the ultimate honor for Sergeant York); Best Music Scoring (Bernard Herrmann carried off the statue for All That Money Can Buy).How Green Was My Valley figures on many Ten Best Pictures of the Year lists, including The New York Times, The Film Daily (with 500 votes - nearly twice as many as the third place-getter - it was second to Mrs Miniver), and The National Board of Review (second to Citizen Kane). John Ford won The New York Film Critics' Award for Best Direction.COMMENT: Today's brain-washed kids may find it slow-moving and too remote from their own having-it-so-easy experience, but it would be supremely difficult to find anyone over forty who is not touched and moved by How Green Was My Valley. One of the cinema's great emotional experiences - doesn't matter how many times you see it - the film is so involving, its characters so sympathetically real and so superlatively played by a well-nigh faultless group of players: Even dull old Walter Pidgeon is brilliantly cast!Maureen O'Hara was never more convincing, while Roddy MacDowall contributes a performance so intensely luminous it actually lights up the screen. Rarely have writing and acting been brought so powerfully close to perfection not only by the direction but by the incredibly skilful narration delivered with such insight and beauty by Irving Pichel.Zanuck's vision as producer, Ford's adroit staging and dramatic sense of composition, Miller's appealingly atmospheric photography, Day and Juran's impressive sets, and Newman's deft use of Welsh song and chorus contrib¬ute mightily to the heart and soul of How Green Was My Valley. With such a powerful story and such forceful acting, the film would undoubtedly have made its impact on a less generous budget and less inspired craftsmanship. But with unlimited funds at its disposal and unlimited technical expertise lovingly poured into every aspect of its production, How Green Was My Valley comes across with such stunning power as to lift it to the rarest heights of motion picture achievement.

Old Huw Morgan is leaving his Welsh mining village lamenting the state of his village and his family. He recalls his life starting as a child living in the lush green valley. His father and all of his older brothers work the coal mine. Huw (Roddy McDowall) is the youngest. He waits for the men with his mother and sister Angharad (Maureen O'Hara). The work is hard but honorable. Angharad is taken with the new preacher Mr. Gruffydd. The idyllic life is threatened with a new owner, lower wages and a tough strike.Master director John Ford films this beautifully. I don't usually like narration and this one isn't one of the exceptions. The story is an old fashion personal epic. The cast is strong. It does feel dated and not necessarily a classic that is in the top rank of cinema. This won Best Picture over 'Citizen Kane' and is still beloved by its fans. However they're not at the same level for cinephiles today.

My observations: Beautiful Maureen O'Hara. Talented Roddy McDowall. Poignant performances by Donald Crisp and Sara Allgood. Rhys Williams very good; I also saw him in "The Corn Is Green", with Bette Davis. Shields and Fitzgerald also in "The Quiet Man", and so is Maureen O'Hara. Walter Pidgeon very funny later in "Julia Misbehaves" (Greer Garson), where Walter is upstaged (smacked around?) by a trained seal. Beautiful Welsh singing. Makes me think of their Eistydfodd (sp.?) annual singing contest. Gritty, scary mine sequences. That flooding gave me the creeps.Lovely fake-Welsh village. So what about the fakeness and fake backdrops, etc.? Saves a ton of money, and besides the British Isles were all involved in that war business. Not good to have Nazis attacking John Ford's film crew if he had shot in Wales. Crappy husband Maureen married, but beautiful home and clothes she got ahold of. Still, there was nothing good about being separated from her true love, Walter Pidgeon. You have to remember that Walter would co-star with at least two beautiful women, Greer Garson and Maureen O'Hara. Walter (Gruffydd) gives their comeuppance to a whole church-full of gossipy hypocritical nitwits out for blood, even though they don't get it and it's over their cotton-filled heads. It looks as though very few of them have any personal romantic notions, so of course they would be jealous of Maureen and Walter, lol. (Does "church lady" ring a bell?).Two movies I am reminded of here. "The Corn is Green" (already mentioned) is set in Wales, and deals with coal miners and their lack of formal education. "Corn" has a central young male character "Morgan Evans" who tries to get formal education. IN "HOW GREEN" THE FAMILY NAME IS MORGAN, AND ANGHARAD IS MARRYING "MR. EVANS". Rhys Williams is assistant to the schoolmarm (Bette Davis) in "Corn". The second movie is "The Little Minister" (1934), where Katharine Hepburn (wealthy woman in disguise as a gypsy) is in love with the new minister (John Beal). Apparently her father/benefactor wants her to marry someone else, but she has her eye set on Reverend Dishart. I thought of this when I saw Angharad (Maureen) in love/attraction with Gruffydd/Walter.One more thing: One of the "gossips" in "How Green Was My Valley" was portrayed by Mary Gordon, who portrayed Nanny Webster (older, wise woman) in "The Little Minister". I recognized Mary's face right away.The mine tragedies in this movie are horrendous, yet believable. Even though I know it is all fake, it is very realistic and brings horror and painful watching.Talk about painful watching, when I saw Huw/Roddy getting beaten up by the young tough boys, I wanted to stop recording and erase this movie. Getting treated so badly by the schoolmaster was also pretty evil. Finally, I forced myself to continue watching. When Rhys Williams and Barry Fitzgerald descend upon the schoolmaster and give him a taste of his own medicine I thought that it was an hilarious scene. I was able to finish watching the movie.10/10

John Ford directed this Academy Award winning film(Best Picture & Director) that is set in a Welsh mining town, seen through the eyes of young Huw Morgan(played by Roddy McDowall) who works in the mine with his family. Despite his age, Huw is determined to help his family, and have his parents(played by Donald Crisp & Sarah Allgood) be proud of him, though they really want him to better himself by going to school. Film also deals with the trials and tribulations dealing with the unseen mining owners, and the unsafe conditions of the mines, which will one day have tragic consequences...Good film is overpraised, since its beating "Citizen Kane" in the 1941 Academy Awards is legendary. Though I agree it was the wrong choice, this is still an effective little movie, with fine performances by all.