How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 35
Fresh: 31 | Rotten: 4
Though it perhaps strays into overly maudlin territory, this working-class drama is saved by a solid cast and director John Ford's unmistakeable style.
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 7 | Rotten: 0
Though it perhaps strays into overly maudlin territory, this working-class drama is saved by a solid cast and director John Ford's unmistakeable style.
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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 7,305
My Rating
Movie Info
Spanning 50 years, director John Ford's How Green Was My Valley revolves around the life of the Morgans, a Welsh mining family, as told through the eyes of its youngest child Huw (Roddy McDowall). Over the years, the family struggles to survive through unionization, strikes, and child abuse. As they do so, their hometown and its culture begins to slowly decline. Donald Crisp portrays Gwilym, the patriarch of the Morgan household, who dreams of a better life for young Huw. Based on the novel of
Jan 1, 1941 Wide
Mar 7, 2000
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
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Cast
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Walter Pidgeon
Mr. Gruffydd -
Maureen O'Hara
Angharad Morgan -
Donald Crisp
Mr. Morgan -
Roddy McDowall
Huw Morgan -
Barry Fitzgerald
Cyfartha -
Anna Lee
Bronwyn -
John Loder
Ianto Morgan -
Sara Allgood
Mrs. Beth Morgan -
Patric Knowles
Ivor Morgan -
The Welsh Singers
Singer -
Morton Lowry
Mr. Jonas -
Arthur Shields
Mr. Parry -
Frederic Worlock
Dr. Richards -
Richard Fraser
Davy Morgan -
Evan S. Evans
Young Gwilym Morgan -
James Monks
Owen Morgan -
Rhys Williams
DaiBando -
Clifford Severn
Mervyn -
Lionel Pape
Mr. Evans -
Ethel Griffies
Mrs. Nicholas -
Dennis Hoey
Motschell -
Marten Lamont
Jestyn Evans -
Eve March
Meillyn Lewis -
Tudor Williams
Singer -
-
-
Herbert Evans
Postman -
-
Mary Gordon
Bit Woman -
-
-
Louis Jean Heydt
Miner -
Tiny Jones
Shopkeeper -
J.M. Kerrigan
Tailor -
Mae Marsh
Miners' Wife -
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Ann E. Todd
Ceinwen -
Mary Field
Eve -
Irving Pichel
Narrator
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All Critics (35) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (33) | Rotten (4) | DVD (13)
The acting is strong, and Arthur Miller's Oscar-winning photography gives the images a spooky luster, but a little bit of Ford's salt-of-the-earth piety goes an awfully long way.
Because his recollections ring true, they are certain to evoke a similar nostalgia in all but the most slab-sided of moviegoers.
Top CriticHow Green Was My Valley is one of the year's better films, a sure-fire critic's picture and, unlike most features that draw kudos from crix, this one will also do business.
Expert performances from Donald Crisp, Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, and a host of brilliant character actors enhance a magnificent movie experience.
An elegant and eloquent film, nevertheless, even if the characteristically laconic Fordian poetry seems more contrived here.
You can never expect to see a film more handsomely played.
Maybe because How Green Was My Valley doesn't delve as deeply into the heart of darkness as Ford did in his earlier The Grapes of Wrath, it remains one of his most curiously underrated films.
A screen version of such a book is a bold project, but Darryl Zanuck as producer and John Ford as director have succeeded in capturing to a remarkable degree the atmosphere of the novel.
Beat out the much superior Citizen Kane for the Oscar for Best Picture.
This John Huston film [is] typically epic with a faithful screenplay to Richard Llewellyn's famous novel.
A complex account of family life and strife that takes in traumas, hardships, romances, conflicts and the odd happy moment without ever sentimentalizing or becoming unbelievable.
[Its] moralizing is dishonest and at times offensive. No matter how effectively a story is told, it's hard to buy into one that so often deceives its audience.
Emotionally effective if also sentimental evocation of working class life in a Welsch mining community, reaffirming John Ford's populist ideology and strong belief in the family as society's most important institution
Life in the working class generally determines where your life will lead. A young boy with the chance to break out realizes where his future is supposed to be.
The tough, but highly sentimental John Ford was one of the few great cinema artists who was appreciated in his time.
Audience Reviews for How Green Was My Valley
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Angharad Morgan: Go thou and sin no more Jesus said.
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- Huw Morgan: Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still -- real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever. How green was my valley then.
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Foreign Titles
- So schön war mein grünes Tal (DE)
- How Green Was My Valley (1941) (UK)
The story here spans a few decades and concerns a working class mining family named the Millers in Wales in the early 20th Century in a small community going through significant change. The story is told from the perspective of the youngest Miller, Huw (a very young, but impressive Roddy McDowall). Maureen O'Hara plays his sister, and she's also quite good, but then again, when is she not?
A lot of what goes on in the film is still relatable- socio economic change and hardships, and they affect they have on family life and dynamics, but, to be honest, as decent as this film is, it's not really all that special or significant. Ford has never made a film I haven't gotten some sort of enjoyment out of, but this is one of his weaker ones for me. Also,, I really start to lose interest after a while and become fidgety. The film never totally failed to lose my interest, but still, boredom began to set in.
That aside, the performances are good, the cinematography is pretty nice, and the music (especially the music) is quite wonderful. This film isn't amazing, but it's still pretty decently made and an okay variation on a theme, despite its flaws.