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HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY (1941)
20th
Century Fox
Produced
by Darryl F. Zanuck. Directed by John Ford. Based on the
novel by Richard Llewellyn. Screenplay by Philip Dunne.
Photography by Arthur Miller. Edited by James B. Clark.
Music by Alfred Newman. Art Direction by Richard Day and
Nathan Juran. Set Decorations by Thomas Little. Costumes
by Gwen Wakeling. Choral Effects by the Eisteddfod
Singers of Wales. 118 min. |
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| James Monks (Owen), Rhys Williams (Dai Bando), Clifford Severn (Mervyn), Lionel Pape (Mr. Evans), Ethel Griffies (Mrs. Nicholas), Eve March (Meillyn Lewis), Marten Lamont (Iesten Evans), Irving Pichel (Narrator), Welsh Singers (Themselves), Tudor Williams (Ensemble Singer), Herbert Evans (Postman), Mary Field (Eve), Mae Marsh (Woman), Louis Jean Heydt (Miner), Denis Hoey (Motschell). |
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In what was probably the richest year of the decade cinematically, HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY remains one of the definitive classics in the history of cinema. Intended as a “prestige picture” for 20th Century Fox, this six-time Academy Award winner (with ten nominations) was up against some pretty stiff competition. The top grossers of 1941 included such money-makers as Ball of Fire, Citizen Kane, The Devil and Daniel Webster, Dumbo, High Sierra, The Lady Eve, The Little Foxes, The Maltese Falcon, Man Hunt, Meet John Doe, Penny Serenade, The Sea Wolf, Sergeant York, The Strawberry Blonde, Sullivan’s Travels, and Suspicion. Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck purchased the movie rights for the 1939 best-selling novel by Richard Llewellyn, intending to film the entire photoplay in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales. However, this proved impossible since the World War had already been raging throughout Europe. Instead, Zanuck ordered ace art director Richard Day to construct a Welsh village in Fox’s vast eighty-acre San Fernando Valley Ranch, which took an amazing six weeks to build. This breathtakingly authentic village was so true to life many viewers have mistakenly thought that the film was actually shot on location! | |
| Originally hired to write the screenplay was Ernest Pascal, whose initial draft proved unsatisfactory because his version relied more on the labor problems of the workers rather than following the lives of the Morgan family. After two months of revisions, Pascal was fired and Phillip Dunne was set to assume the task of scriptwriter. Together, Dunne and Zanuck toiled over a script until one was deemed suitable. Happily, Dunne’s revised edition follows the book very closely, but the script still needed some tightening, since it ran a whopping 246 pages. | ||
| The directorial chores were assigned to William Wyler, whose proven track record was to become legend throughout Hollywood. One of the things that kept studio heads concerned was that Wyler was known to make it a habit of going way over budget, due to his constant retakes, which would drive many an actor to distraction. As production was nearing, Wyler concentrated on building his cast. Originally, he had considered Greer Garson for the role of Angharad, whose performances in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) and Pride and Prejudice (1940) had elevated her to star status, but her home studio, MGM informed Fox that she would not be available. Instead, an Irish newcomer, Maureen O’Hara was tested for the part after she had made quite an impression with her performance as Esmeralda in RKO’s version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1939. Previously, she won her first break in Alfred Hitchcock’s final British film, Jamaica Inn, which starred Charles Laughton. |  |
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| For
the part of Mr. Gruffydd, MGM contract player Walter
Pidgeon was hired as a gamble, since he had never starred
in anything more than programmers at his home studio.
Geraldine Fitzgerald, who was also gaining public
attention for her roles in Warners’ Dark Victory
opposite Bette Davis and Goldwyn’s Wuthering Heights
was selected for the role of Bronwyn, since William Wyler
had already used her to good advantage in the latter film. Prior to finding the right actor to portray the main character of the film, Huw Morgan, William Wyler screen tested several youngsters before he settled on Roddy McDowall, who had already received his apprenticeship in England where he had appeared in a few films. According to McDowell, “…I made a test in New York. It was sent out here (Hollywood) at the end of 1940. Wyler was in the projection room running four different tests of children and the last one was mine. The casting director stood up and put his hand in front of the projector light and said, ‘You don’t want to see this kid. He’s bandy-legged, he’s not attractive, and he has a turned eye.’ But Willie said. ‘As long as we’re here, let’s see it.’ Well, Willie wanted me shipped out to California, and I did another test with Alexander Knox in the part of Mr. Gruffydd. It was a scene where they’re working on some wood project. It didn’t make it into the actual film.” After the test was screened, both Wyler and Zanuck were in mutual agreement and McDowall was the boy for the part! The parts of Mr. and Mrs. Morgan went to veteran character actors Donald Crisp and Sara Allgood. |
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| Once filming commenced, everything seemed to fall into place perfectly, even though the sadistic methods that John Ford was known to use on his actors could be quite cruel. His relationship with Maureen O’Hara was obviously a rocky, albeit an agreeable one at the time because he used her in four more pictures after this despite what Miss O’Hara later described as “a turbulent relationship”. | ||
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The only
person who Ford had a tough time with was Sara Allgood
who played the part of Mrs. Morgan. According to Roddy
McDowall, she was most unpleasant most of the time,
disagreeing vehemently with Ford constantly. One source
claimed that when she was called to the set to rehearse a
scene, she argued with the director so much that he took
her script and ripped out the pages to the scene and told
her that they would do without it! Roddy McDowall also
remembered a time when she was constantly berating Donald
Crisp for not remembering his lines, so Ford had a
property man change the name on the back of her folding
chair, labeling it ‘Sara Nogood’. Shooting ended in August of 1941 after eight weeks. Roddy McDowall later said that the experience “was one of the most succinct I have ever encountered.”When the film was released that December, it received the plaudits of the entire movie industry as well as its patrons. Nominated for a staggering ten Academy Award nominations, |
| it
received six Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (3rd
of four for Mr. Ford), Best Supporting Actor (Donald
Crisp), Best Black and White Cinematography (Arthur
Miller) and Best Black and White Art Direction (Richard
Day). On the night of the awards ceremony, John Ford was
curiously absent. When asked why he only attended the
1935 Academy Awards ceremony, in which he won his first
Oscar for The Informer, his rather curt reply was “I
didn’t show up at the ceremony to collect my Oscars.
Once I went fishing, another time there was a war on, and
on another occasion, I remember, I was suddenly taken
drunk.” Critics generally applauded this, John
Ford’s last film before America’s entry into
World War II, although some complained that the movie was
over sentimental, which was a common criticism of his
films. Typical assessments of HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY
went as follows: “Perfection of cinematic
narrative…pure visual action, pictures powerfully
composed, dramatically photographed, smoothly and
eloquently put together." By early 1942, John Ford was to become chief of the field photographic branch of the Office of Strategic Services. There, he rose to become a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy, directing his first military film The Battle of Midway, which won an Oscar for “excellence in documentary work.” It wasn’t until after the war that he resumed his Hollywood career, returning to his favorite movie genre, the western. His first release upon his return was the timeless classic My Darling Clementine (1946) |
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