Green in Black and White - "How Green Was My Valley" (1941)

Mat here.

The next film we reviewed was 1941’s ‘How Green Was My Valley’, based on Robert Llewellyn’s book of the same name. It tells the story of Huw Morgan (Roddy McDowall) as he recalls his formative years growing up with his family in a small Welsh coal-mining village.

The once-happy family is soon embroiled in a mining strike, Huw’s sister (the very pretty Maureen O’Hara) has an ill-fated romance with the local pastor and Huw is sent off to a very nasty school, even though he wants to be in the mines with his father and brothers.

The acting from the entire cast is excellent, with Roddy McDowall putting in a very touching performance, and his parents (played by Donald Crisp and Sara Allgood) make a believable pair.

Whilst not a tear-jerker like ‘Terms of Endearment’ (or ‘Toy Story 3’), there are a lot of hard times for the Morgan family, and the emotion of the film is heightened by the Welsh folk songs sung by the townsfolk.

This film was shot in black-and-white because they couldn’t shoot in the United Kingdom due to WWII, and the area of California they filmed in did not match the colours of Wales at all.

‘How Green’ is also notable as it took the Best Picture award away from a film that is widely considered to be the greatest of all time: ‘Citizen Kane’. Apparently William Hearst’s vicious media campaign against Orson Welles and ‘Citizen Kane’ (his little ego was bruised from the lashing it received as the thinly veiled subject of the esteemed film) ensured it did not receive the votes from the Academy, only scoring one award (script) to ‘How Green’s five.

The five awards were Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Black-and-White Cinematography and Best Black-and-White Art Direction, and it was nominated for an additional five awards.

We both loved this movie, with all of its heart and tragedy. Danielle gave it 79 and I gave it 82.