Synopsis
A man in his fifties reminisces about his childhood growing up in a Welsh mining village at the turn of the 20th century.
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Cast
- Walter PidgeonMr. Gruffydd
- Maureen O'HaraAngharad Morgan
- Anna LeeBronwyn
- Donald CrispGwilym Morgan
- Roddy McDowallHuw Morgan
- John LoderIanto Morgan
- Sara AllgoodBeth Morgan
- Barry FitzgeraldCyfartha
- Patric KnowlesIvor Morgan
- Morton LowryMr. Jonas
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Reader
As in all the best Fordian cinema, though everything changes and most things die or disappear, what remains in memory and in spirit triumphs—and what on the surface is a tender and sad film becomes instead joyous and robust. - 100
The New York Times
Darryl Zanuck, John Ford and their associates at Twentieth Century-Fox have fashioned a motion picture of great poetic charm and dignity, a picture rich in visual fabrication and in the vigor of its imagery, and one which may truly be regarded as an outstanding film of the year. - 100
LarsenOnFilm
How Green Was My Valley thrums with an indomitable confidence in a better day, one that’s rooted in the memory that life in this valley – before the mine hollowed things out – was once very good. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
Everything about this film is touching; master director John Ford builds one simple scene upon another with very little plot, using incidents in the life of one family to tell the general tale, demonstrating changes and recording milestones. - 90
New York Daily News
The dialogue follows the quaint Welsh dialect of the book and the picture is as faithful a transcription of novel to screen as it is possible for a scenarist and director to achieve. The screen play, by Philip Dunne, retains all the honest vigor and tender charm of the book. - 90
Variety
Based on a best-selling novel, this saga of Welsh coal-mining life is replete with much human interest, romance, conflict and almost every other human emotion to match up to cinematic standards for all audiences. - 80
Empire
Winning Best Film at that year's Oscars, this John Huston film typically epic with a faithful screenplay to Richard Llewellyn's famous novel. Strong performances from Crisp and O'Hara although McDowall as the young lead, gives a particularly memorable performance while the setting shows Wales at its most beautiful. - 80
The New Yorker
Ford depicts a working-class solidarity based on morality, tradition, and community; he conveys his nuanced and tender sociology with surprising sound effects and expressionistic tableaux that feature the sort of angles that made Welles famous (and which the younger man borrowed, in turn, from Ford’s Stagecoach).
