Where to watch How Green Was My Valley (1941)
It can also be rented or bought from Amazon.
A young boy grows up in a proud Welsh mining family as strikes, falling wages, social change, and community pressures reshape their close-knit world. Through family conflicts, hopes for education, and the influence of a new minister, he witnesses loyalty, love, hardship, and the fading of a familiar way of life.
Cast: Maureen O'Hara, Walter Pidgeon, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowall, John Loder, Sara Allgood, Barry Fitzgerald, Patric Knowles, Morton Lowry, Arthur Shields, Ann E. Todd
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Trivia & production notes
- Philip Dunne, who wrote the screenplay, described the source novel as "turgid stuff" full of long speeches about Welsh coal miners on strike.
- William Wyler was originally set to direct and selected Roddy McDowall after seeing his screen test, but John Ford replaced him as director.
- Fox planned to film in Wales using Technicolor, but World War II made this impossible, so John Ford had the studio construct an 80-acre Welsh mining town set in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu instead.
- John Ford initially had Welsh dialect coach Rhys Williams record the film's narration, but replaced his voice with Irving Pichel's before release because he feared audiences would recognize Williams from his onscreen role and become confused.
- Despite some British prints retaining Rhys Williams' narration, the re-dubbed version by Irving Pichel became the standard used in most releases.
- The film won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 1942, a decision later disputed by critics who felt Citizen Kane deserved the award instead.
- Clint Eastwood has named How Green Was My Valley as one of his favorite movies.
- The film was added to the American National Film Registry in 1990.
- Critics in the UK have faulted the film for its actors' unconvincing Welsh accents.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article How Green Was My Valley (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.
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