The Corn Is Green Reviews

A late career triumph for both Kate and Cukor this marvelous TV version of the play Ethel Barrymore made famous years before feels like it was written with Hepburn in mind so well does the part fit her. High production values give it the feeling of a feature film and the performances are most enjoyable from all the actors. A wonderful story of the value of learning and the quest for knowledge along with the need to temper it with caring and human interest this is a reminder of the superior quality that used to be offed on American television and rarely is today. Beautiful location filming in Wales completes the charm of this fine offering. Well worth seeking out for anyone looking for superior entertainment.

Ick. I would have thought that Hepburn's talent could revive any corpse of a film. This film proves otherwise. Incredibly dry and dull. The whole product, right down to the nauseating transitional melodies, reeks of Hallmark made-for-TV.

This is essentially a Hepburn showpiece and it's derived unchanged from the underlying stagecraft ... and everyone else on deck is pure summer stock. Hepburn arrives unwanted in a Welsh coal-mining town, struts around in Victorian garb and behaves willfully ... as Hepburn does do so well. Her aim is to impose a one-room schoolhouse on the miners and the town's overlords.

That said, there's just nothing much of interest for the viewer to see here. Kate back-sasses the local lawyer a wee bit. A young miner starts reading books ... and washing his hair ... and dressing in fine clothes. That sort of thing.

Good ol' feisty Kate comes up surprisingly dull here ... since she's bouncing her barbed script-lines off of a set of actors that are little more than cardboard cutouts. All her lines just drop dead on the stage floor with a thud.

Thirty-five minutes in, I gave it the gong and the red envelope back home.

RECOMMENDATION: Check out the 1945 version with Bette Davis. I haven't seen it yet, but it couldn't possibly be worse.

Hepburn is sensational as usual. Playing a spinster school teacher in a Scottish mining town. This was a TV movie. Directed by George Cukor. This would be his 10th and last time directing Hepburn.