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Bookmark this pageHow Green Was My Valley (1941)
Director: John Ford
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
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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