How Green Was My Valley
Short description
How Green Was My Valley is a drama set in a Welsh coal-mining village, seen largely through the eyes of Huw Morgan, the youngest of six children. His father, Gwilym, leads the household with a stern hand, while his mother provides warmth. The family's life is bound to the mine, and when the miners' working conditions worsen, the sons push for change while their father resists, opening a rift within the family and the community. Directed by John Ford, the film was released in 1941, arriving after The Grapes of Wrath and before Tobacco Road in the chronological order of the thirty-one features he directed. Philip Dunne wrote the screenplay, and Darryl F. Zanuck produced for 20th Century Fox.
The cast includes Donald Crisp as Gwilym Morgan, Roddy McDowall as Huw, Maureen O'Hara as Angharad, Walter Pidgeon as Mr. Gruffydd, Anna Lee as Bronwyn and John Loder as Ianto, among twenty-seven credited performers. On IMDb the film holds a critics' rating of 7.9 from 88 reviews, while on TMDB it scores 7.3 from 472 votes, showing that professional reviewers rate it somewhat more highly than the wider audience does. It earned about 5 million dollars at the worldwide box office over a runtime of 118 minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- The last words of Kivary, “I am a coward, but I will hold your coat,” were added to the film by director John Ford, despite the objections of screenwriter Philip Dunne.
- When an accident occurs at the mine, the mother and Bronwyn rush out of the house. In the first shot, the mother does not have a scarf – neither on her head nor on her shoulders. Then, the scarf suddenly appears on her shoulders, and then she will put it on her head and utter the famous phrase about seeing her husband and son with the Lord in heaven.
- Producer Darryl F. Zanuck (1902-1979) initially intended to film a 4-hour saga.
- In 1990, the film was added to the National Film Registry as having "cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance."
- Filming lasted 2 months.
- During the scene where Hugh relearned to walk, a fly actually landed on the actor's arm. This wasn't in the script.
- The author of the novel adapted by John Ford, Richard Llewellyn (1906-1983), claimed he wrote the novel based on his own extensive knowledge of life in Wales, but this proved to be untrue, as he had rarely been to Wales. It later emerged that he had gleaned virtually all his knowledge from conversations with local miners.
- The most nominated film of 1941, it received 5 Academy Awards.
- The mining village in Wales was built near the city of Malibu, California. By that time, the film's budget had been cut to $1.25 million, making location shooting impossible. Furthermore, filming abroad was practically impossible for a Hollywood studio due to World War II. In addition, Darryl F. Zanuck changed his mind about filming in color because the colors around Malibu differed from the color palette of Wales.
- The only film by John Ford (1894-1973) to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.
- The construction of the mining village cost $110,000. Blocks of coal weighing over a ton each were brought in to build the mines. To create the impression that everything around was covered in coal dust (in the opening and final scenes), John Ford ordered everything to be painted black.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
