How Green Was My Valley (1941)

Written by Philip Dunne

Directed by John Ford

I want to admit, right off the bat: I was fully prepared, based on the title alone, to hate this film.

If it hasn’t become apparent during these reviews, or if you’ve ever discussed bad musicals with me, I don’t like much country-western-themed stuff. Oklahoma is painful to watch: it’s hokey, it’s contrived, and so chock-full of down-home traditionalism that it makes me want to pull my hair out. So, I see a title like How Green Was My Valley, and I was ready to despise this thing.

I was pleasantly surprised, then, that this film is nothing at all like I had imagined.

Taking place in Wales, the film focuses on a family in the midst of an industrial revolution in their sleepy little valley. The family shatters and unifies, beats odds and succumbs to tragedy. And it’s all done honestly, without any contrivance, and without much sentimentality.

Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowell, and Sara Allgood

The performances here are pretty great, although also exceptionally subdued. Roddy McDowell, who I know best from Planet of the Apes and The Poseidon Adventure, is just a kid here, giving a quiet performance, that admittedly isn’t perfect, but most child actors aren’t, anyway. His mother and father, played by Sara Allgood and Donald Crisp, are played to near perfection (Allgood’s scene when she learns some of her sons are leaving for America, perhaps never to be seen again, is emotionally powerful, and she doesn’t say much).

Industrialism takes over the quaint valley

Visually, Ford does an excellent job of framing the shots of the valley, with ever-increasing industrial machinery looming over the little village. The shots evolve into featuring massive machines towering over the once-idyllic village, sticking up in exaggerated angles, all straight lines, as opposed to the gentle curves of the valley.

As I write this, I suddenly realize that that’s...all. It’s not that it’s a bad film, it’s just also not particularly memorable. So why is it here? What makes this film so special, and good enough to beat its leading contender, the film that is now widely considered to be the best film ever made, Citizen Kane?

A young Roddy McDowell

The answer, of course, is that it ISN’T Kane. Kane shook Hollywood, due to its use of the life of powerful newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst as its basis. Hearst was furious with the film, and banned any mention of it from his papers. It’s not surprising, then, that Hollywood would bow to Hearst and his undeniable influence and present the award to Valley. None of this has been proven, of course, but it’s an interesting (and likely) theory.

Valley is good, better than some of the other films on this list. However, it remains one of the more-forgettable entries, which is a shame, as there’s some great performances and visuals buried within it.

FINAL GRADE: C+