How Green Was My Valley

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

Timing: 1:58 (118 min)

7.259/10
377

All about film

Video 3

Photo 16

Actors and characters

Release date

1941-10-28

Country

United States

Production

20th Century Fox

Genre

Drama

Budget

$1 250 000

Revenue

$6 000 000

Website

Director

John Ford

Actors

Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, Roddy McDowall, John Loder, Sara Allgood, Barry Fitzgerald, Patric Knowles, Morton Lowry
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Darryl F. Zanuck

Operator

Arthur C. Miller

Composer

Alfred Newman

Artist

Audition

Editing

James B. Clark
All team (28)

• During the scene where Hugh relearned to walk, a fly actually landed on the actor's arm. This wasn't in the script.
• The only film by John Ford (1894-1973) to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.
• The most nominated film of 1941, it received 5 Academy Awards.
• Filming lasted 2 months.
• The author of the novel adapted by John Ford, Richard Llewellyn (1906-1983), claimed he wrote the novel based on his own extensive knowledge of life in Wales, but this proved to be untrue, as he had rarely been to Wales. It later emerged that he had gleaned virtually all his knowledge from conversations with local miners.
• Producer Darryl F. Zanuck (1902-1979) initially intended to film a 4-hour saga.
• The construction of the mining village cost $110,000. Blocks of coal weighing over a ton each were brought in to build the mines. To create the impression that everything around was covered in coal dust (in the opening and final scenes), John Ford ordered everything to be painted black.
• The mining village in Wales was built near the city of Malibu, California. By that time, the film's budget had been cut to $1.25 million, making location shooting impossible. Furthermore, filming abroad was practically impossible for a Hollywood studio due to World War II. In addition, Darryl F. Zanuck changed his mind about filming in color because the colors around Malibu differed from the color palette of Wales.
• In 1990, the film was added to the National Film Registry as having "cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance."
• The last words of Kivary, “I am a coward, but I will hold your coat,” were added to the film by director John Ford, despite the objections of screenwriter Philip Dunne.
• When an accident occurs at the mine, the mother and Bronwyn rush out of the house. In the first shot, the mother does not have a scarf – neither on her head nor on her shoulders. Then, the scarf suddenly appears on her shoulders, and then she will put it on her head and utter the famous phrase about seeing her husband and son with the Lord in heaven.