HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY

This 1941 film directed by John Ford was very much what I expected (or feared): a sentimental tale about a Welsh mining community where people break into song at regular intervals.  It is an adaptation of a best selling novel with the same title, from 1939.

The focus of the story is the Morgan household, comprising Mr and Mrs Morgan who are in late middle-age, and seven children.  There are five grownup sons, Ivor, Ianto, Davy, Owen and Gwilym.  None of them have much of a personality, so that as far as I was concerned they were anonymous and interchangeable characters.  Ivor gets married and moves out, but the other four live with their parents and don't seem to have any interest in the opposite sex.  

There is a sixth son, Huw, played by a 12-year-old Roddy McDowall.  The events of the film are narrated by adult Huw, looking back nostalgically on his childhood.

It was unclear to me how long a period is covered by the film, but it can't be many years since young Huw shows no sign of aging over its course.  I was also unclear as to in what era it takes place, or how old adult Huw is, or indeed what the film is about.  The title and the voiceover narration suggest that life in the village has got worse since the time of Huw's childhood but in what way?  

There is a suggestion in the voiceover that the valley has been despoiled by slag heaps but that isn't something that occurs in the film.  The only change in the life of the village we see is that the miners' wages get cut due to high unemployment but this seems more like a short-term change due to economic conditions rather than a long-term trend.  

It's all rather muddled and suggests the story isn't well grounded in reality, an impression reinforced by the film being shot on a large film lot in California where a fake village was constructed.  None of the cast were Welsh, but most of them attempt a Welsh accent, for good or ill.

None of this would matter much if the story being told is a strong one, but it isn't.

In fact there are several story arcs, none of them compelling.

The first concerns the fate of the five adult Morgan boys.  First, a couple of them decide to leave for America.  Then the one who is married dies in a mining accident.  Then the remaining two sons also leave for America.  Ho hum.

Then there are the trials and tribulations of young Huw.  First he is the victim of a contrived accident which might mean he can never walk again, but it turns out he can.  Then he gets bullied at school.  Finally, despite being a bright boy, he decides to work in the mine.

Finally, there is a tepid romance between the Morgans' daughter Angharad (played by Maureen O'Hara) and the local pastor, Mr Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon with a transatlantic accent).  He doesn't feel he can marry her because of his inadequate income.  Then for no obvious reason the son of the owner of the coal mine appears on the scene to marry Angharad.  She disappears from the film for a while before we learn that she and her husband are estranged, leading to gossip about her relationship with the pastor, leading him to decide to leave the village.

But he can't do that before the inevitable mining disaster to end the film, in which Mr Morgan senior dies.

The acting performances are all decent, and Ford knows how to direct, but even so it is quite absurd that this film won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director above the likes of (checks notes) 'Citizen Kane' and 'The Maltese Falcon'.

The previous evening I had watched a British film about a mining community, 'The Stars Look Down', released the previous year, which is superior to this tosh in every respect.