How Green Was My Valley (film)

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How Green Was My Valley
Theatrical poster
Directed by	John Ford
Produced by	Darryl F. Zanuck
Written by	Story: Richard Llewellyn Screenplay: Philip Dunne
Starring	Walter Pidgeon Maureen O'Hara Anna Lee Donald Crisp Roddy McDowall
Music by	Alfred Newman
Cinematography	Arthur C. Miller
Editing by	James B. Clark
Distributed by	Twentieth Century Fox
Release date(s)	October 28, 1941 (USA)
Running time	118 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English Welsh
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

How Green Was My Valley is a 1941 American drama film directed by John Ford. The film was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, written by Philip Dunne, and based on the Richard Llewellyn novel of the same name. The film stars Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning five and beating out such classics as The Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane for Best Picture.

The film tells the story of the Morgans, a close, hard-working Welsh family at the turn of the twentieth century. It chronicles a socio-economic way of life passing and the family unit disintegrating.

In 1990, How Green Was My Valley was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Contents 1 Plot 2 Background 3 Cast 4 Awards 4.1 Academy Award wins 4.1.1 Academy Award nominations 4.2 Other 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Plot

The story is told through the eyes of Huw Morgan (Roddy McDowall), now a middle-aged man leaving the mining town of Cwm Rhondda, recalling the events that most impressed his younger self.

His first memories are of the marriage of his brother, Ivor (Patric Knowles), the burgeoning romance of his sister, Angharad (Maureen O'Hara), and the new preacher, Mr. Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon). Still too young to work in the local coal mine like his father, Gwilym (Donald Crisp), and his five older brothers, he senses the seriousness of an imminent strike by the rift it creates between his father and the other boys when three of them move out of the family abode.

During the tensions of the strike, Huw saves his mother (Sara Allgood) from drowning and in so doing temporarily loses the use of his legs. As Gruffydd aids in Huw's recovery, insisting on a positive attitude, he suggests that it is only the first of many trials the boy will have to face. The film concludes with the death of the father in a mining accident.

[edit] Background

Director John Ford wanted to shoot the movie in Wales, but events in Europe during World War II made this impossible. Instead, he built a replica of the mining town at the nearly 3,000-acre Fox Ranch in Malibu Canyon.^[1]

[edit] Cast

• Walter Pidgeon as Mr. Gruffydd
• Maureen O'Hara as Angharad Morgan
• Anna Lee as Bronwyn, Ivor's wife
• Donald Crisp as Gwilym Morgan
• Roddy McDowall as Huw Morgan
• John Loder as Ianto Morgan
• Sara Allgood as Beth Morgan
• Barry Fitzgerald as Cyfartha
• Patric Knowles as Ivor Morgan
• Morton Lowry as Mr. Jonas
• Arthur Shields as Mr. Parry
• Ann E. Todd as Ceinwen
• Frederick Worlock as Dr. Richards
• Richard Fraser as Davy Morgan

[edit] Awards

[edit] Academy Award wins

• Best Picture - Darryl F. Zanuck.
• Best Director - John Ford
• Best Supporting Actor - Donald Crisp
• Best Black-and-White Cinematography - Arthur C. Miller
• Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Interior Decoration - Richard Day, Nathan H. Juran and Thomas Little

[edit] Academy Award nominations

• Best Adapted Screenplay - Philip Dunne
• Best Supporting Actress - Sara Allgood
• Best Film Editing - James B. Clark
• Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture - Alfred Newman
• Best Recording Sound - Edmund H. Hansen

[edit] Other

• New York Film Critics Circle Awards: NYFCC Award; Best Director, John Ford; 1941.
• Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor; Best Foreign Film, John Ford, USA; 1943.
• 1990—National Film Registry.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• How Green Was My Valley at the Internet Movie Database.
• How Green Was My Valley at Allmovie.
• How Green Was My Valley at Rotten Tomatoes.
• How Green Was My Valley at Reel Classics.
• How Green Was My Valley at Film Site web site; contains plot detail.

Awards
Preceded by Rebecca	Academy Award for Best Picture 1941	Succeeded by Mrs. Miniver

v • d • e Academy Award for Best Picture How Green Was My Valley (1941) · Mrs. Miniver (1942) · Casablanca (1943) · Going My Way (1944) · The Lost Weekend (1945) · The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) · Gentleman's Agreement (1947) · Hamlet (1948) · All the King's Men (1949) · All About Eve (1950) · An American in Paris (1951) · The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) · From Here to Eternity (1953) · On the Waterfront (1954) · Marty (1955) · Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) · The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) · Gigi (1958) · Ben-Hur (1959) · The Apartment (1960) Complete List · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)

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