Hollywood Goes Welsh: How Green Was My Valley and The Corn Is Green

Maureen O’Hara and Walter Pidgeon.

How Green Was My Valley (1941). One of John Ford’s most beloved movies, How Green Was My Valley won five Academy Awards including Best Picture. It ranks #75 in the 2007 edition of the American Film Institute’s 100 Years…100 Movies. In 1990, the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry, recognizing it as a «culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant work.»

The film follows Huw Morgan (Roddy McDowall) as he nostalgically recalls his childhood in a Welsh mining village, where his close‑knit family endures the hardships of dangerous coal‑pit labor, economic decline, and social upheaval. Through Huw’s eyes, the story traces the Morgans’ struggles with a miners’ strike, the fracturing of family unity, and the bittersweet passage from an idyllic green valley to an industrially scarred landscape.

Roddy McDowall.

His sister Angharad (Maureen O’Hara) falls in love with the village preacher, Mr. Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon), but social pressure pushes her into an unhappy marriage. Huw witnesses his brothers leave the valley in search of better opportunities as wages fall and the mines grow more perilous. He endures his own hardships at school, where he faces bullying before proving his resilience. The central figures in the story, though, are his hard-working father (Donald Crisp) and his steadfast mother (Sara Allgood).

There is much to admire in Ford’s family saga, from its outstanding sets and cinematography to the performances of Crisp, Allgood, McDowall, and O’Hara. However, Philip Dunne’s adaptation of Richard Llewellyn’s 1939 bestseller tries to cram too much plot into the two-hour running time. Characters, such as Huw’s charming sister-in-law Bron, are introduced and then ignored for long stretches. A subplot about a local choir performing for Queen Victoria is left hanging. After a long opening narration by the adult Huw, the closing narration feels rushed and incomplete. According to some sources, producer Daryl F. Zanuck originally intended to make a three-hour epic. I think that would have worked better in this case.

How Green Was My Valley is a very good John Ford picture, but I wouldn’t rank it with his best. Ford’s most enduring achievements—The Quiet Man and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance among them—derive their strength from a concentrated attention to a handful of characters. These films reveal how much more incisive Ford becomes when he works on a smaller emotional canvas, rather than the sweeping, ensemble-driven mode of How Green Was My Valley.

Bette Davis as Miss Moffat.

The Corn Is Green (1945). Set in the late 19th century, The Corn Is Green stars Bette Davis as L.C. Moffat, a determined English schoolteacher who moves to a struggling Welsh mining village and opens a school. The story centers on her discovery of a young miner, Morgan Evans, whose academic potential is waiting to be unlocked. As Morgan transforms from an unrefined laborer into a promising scholar, the film highlights themes of social mobility, the power of education, and the personal sacrifices required to change a life.

Adapted from Emlyn Williams’ 1938 stage play, which starred Ethel Barrymore on Broadway, The Corn Is Green is a Bette Davis vehicle in every sense of the term. She dominates her scenes with the same conviction that Miss Moffat brings to her role as local educator. It may not be Ms. Davis’s most subtle performance, but it’s a passionate one that propels the plot and themes effectively. It helps that she is surrounded by polished supporting players, three of whom reprise their roles from the Broadway production: Rhys Williams and Mildred Dunnock whose characters are recruited as teachers, and Rosalind Ivan, who plays Miss Moffat’s housekeeper.

Joan Lorring.

However, the only members of the cast nominated for Oscars were John Dall (Supporting Actor) and Joan Lorring (Supporting Actress). The latter has the film’s showiest role as the housekeeper’s dissatisfied daughter whose selfish desires alter the lives of Miss Moffat and her protege. Lorring pulls off the part with conviction, reminding me a little of Bette Davis’s similar performance in Of Human Bondage (1934). Sadly, it was her most notable role in an abbreviated screen movie career.

John Dall provides the necessary earnestness and conflict as Morgan. He shines in a scene in which he recounts to his teacher the simple joy of having an intelligent conversation with a fellow scholar. Still, Dall seems miscast at times. He was a last minute replacement for Richard Waring, who originated the part on Broadway, but entered the Army during World War II. At age 25, Dall looks too old to pass for a teenager (Waring was even older!). The stage-trained actor also sounds too articulate despite his attempts to sound blue-collar. 

Director Irving Rapper directs efficiently, making no attempt to «open up» the stage play adaptation. He worked frequently with friend Bette Davis. Their other collaborations include Shining Victory (1941), Now, Voyager (1942), Deception (1946), and Another Man’s Poison (1952).

George Cukor directed Katharine Hepburn in a 1979 made-for-TV adaptation of The Corn Is Green. Five years earlier, Bette Davis starred in a 1974 pre-Broadway musical adaptation called Miss Moffat. It was set in the Southern U.S. with Moffat teaching a young Black man. It closed out of town, never reaching Broadway.