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How Green Was My Valley (1941)

Director: John Ford

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Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

The backlot mining village (impressive as it is) and the babel of accents hardly aid suspension of disbelief in this nostalgic recollection of a Welsh childhood, based on Richard Llewellyn's novel. An elegant and eloquent film, nevertheless, even if the characteristically laconic Fordian poetry seems more contrived here (not least in the uncharacteristic use of an offscreen narration). Its tale of the calamitous break-up of a traditional way of life - with immigration to America offering a despairing hope of salvation - looms larger in the mind if you think of it (as Ford obviously did) as dealing with Ireland rather than Wales.

Author: TM 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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User reviews of this film

  • JR said...
    Posted on Sep 30 2009 00:26 I enjoyed this film. Technically, I believe Ford's crew did an unbelievable job of re-creating a foreign country as well as culture. Believable or not - a movie is a story being told just as an actor or actress is a storyteller - nothing more or less. This movie tells the story it was intended to tell very well indeed. Maureen O'Hara at her most beautiful, a young Walter Pigeon, the Ford stock company, and introducing Roddy McDowell. Well Done.
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Cast & crew

Director: John Ford

Producer: Darryl F Zanuck

Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Roddy McDowall, Donald Crisp, John Loder, Anna Lee, Barry Fitzgerald, Patric Knowles, Arthur Shields full cast

Duration: 118 mins


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