How Green Was My Valley (1941)

My Review

The Best Picture of 1941 is….”How Green Was My Valley.” This drama film follows the story of a Welsh coal-mining family over decades starting at the beginning of the 20th Century. Director John Ford (“The Grapes of Wrath” 1940) and screenwriter Philip Dunne created a sappy, overly sentimental story which is poorly written and is extremely tedious to watch for the movie’s 118 minute running time. It is just downright boring, adapted from the 1939 novel of the same name by Richard Llewellyn.

At the head of the cast is 11-year-old Roddy McDowall as Hugh Morgan, a role at the beginning of a career which lasted for six decades. Co-stars include Walter Pidgeon as the church pastor, Donald Crisp and Sara Allgood as his parents, Maureen O’Hara as their daughter, John Loder, Patrick Knowles, Richard Fraser, James Monks, Evan S. Evans as their other sons, Anna Lee as a daughter-in-law, Barry Fitzgerald and Rhys Williams as a boxing enthusiasts, Ann Todd as Hugh’s classmate, and The Welsh Singers as themselves.

“How Green Was My Valley” was the fourth highest grossing film of 1941 for producer Darryl F. Zanuck and 20th Century Fox. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning five – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Crisp), Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography/Black-and-White (Arthur Miller). Non-winners include Best Supporting Actress (Allgood), Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Recording, and Best Musical Score (Alfred Newman). It was filmed in the Santa Monica Mountains in Southern California, to replicate Wales.