Fun
How Green Was My Valley
Dear Kay,
“Great with all the greatness that won six Academy Awards!” That’s what we’re told in the trailer for 1941’s How Green Was My Valley, directed by John Ford.
There’s something about a holiday weekend that makes me want to watch old movies. Maybe It’s a Wonderful Life has conditioned me to crave blurry black-and-white stories larded up with tender emotion and nostalgia.
Let’s go back 76 years to a small Welsh mining town, where our narrator looks back to his childhood at the turn of the century–the 20th century. C’mon! Starring Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O’Hara, and a very young and adorable Roddy McDowall.
The novel ends, “How green was my valley then, and the valley of them that have gone.” SOB! EXCELLENT!
Watch it on Netflix or Amazon.
I hope the knitting has been copious this weekend for everyone. Never stop!
Love,
Ann
Brilliant!
Loved visiting with you at the pop up shop and love How Green Was My Valley!
I also nominate Mrs. Miniver…
Yes, and Since You Went Away…
Well this is odd…I remember watching the movie, but I actually remember it in color! How green WAS that valley, anyway?
It was black and gray by the time the movie ended (and, truth be told, at the beginning, too). That slag heap just took over…
Having a Welsh American mother, as i did, How Green Was My Valley was mandatory viewing whenever it happened to be on TV, back in the days when we could not choose to view in our own good time.
I have ne Ed cried so much during a movie as HGWMV! It is a classic, I remember it in black and white. Have the tissues handy Wish I could have been in Nashville yesterday.
That should read never cried. Darn keyboard.
Maureen O’Hara is just the best.
He is a charmer isn’t he? I’m glad you got to meet him, as I sometimes send him a link to your site.
It was hard not seeing him for Thanksgiving. Such is the way with growing offspring but FaceTime doesn’t quite erase the ache of missing my Drew.
Yikes, pretend I edit out the my and add a )
HGWMV is one of those movies that I watch every time it pops up on TCM. I love all things Welsh!
This is one of my all time favorite movies. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched the movie. I also read the book. The movie is better. I loved Roddy McDowell, Walter Pigeon, and Maureen O’Hara, and the actor that played the Dad. I forget his name. You do need a Kleenex while watching, especially at the end.
I have read HGWMV and watched the movie about a million times, but I put my old dog down three weeks ago—I’m off to find something totally stupid and silly to watch, like “Christmas Vacation” or “Uncle Buck.” I can’t cry anymore tears just now. . .
Hello! I am a newbie to the world of knitting, and am in the process of completing my very first project (the traditional Interesting Kitchen Textile). I stumbled across your blog and love it! Last night I was knitting along to Spencer’s Mountain on TCM.
Welcome Bonnie! You picked the perfect first project!
Yes! I remember watching this one on TV with my mother.
I read and loved How Green Was My Valley when I was in junior high, and loved it. I read the sequel Green, Green My Valley Now a few years later, and…wow. What a different feeling. I enjoy gritty modern depictions of life in the U.K. now, but it was a shock then. Maybe it was a literary coming-of-age? I DID enjoy the re-airing of the Godfather movies this Thanksgiving, though. I never had any illusions about the Corleones…
Whenever conversations turn to “The Saddest Movie of All Time”, I just wait, and bide my time. Because How Green Was My Valley will win every time.
Wonderful movie. The set of the mining town is a thing of beauty. I love the English countryside as re-created by Hollywood, à la Mrs. Minniver. “Random Harvest” is another good one in that vein, a perfect melodrama (although not as great as “How Green”).
I like Miracle on 34th Street, (I avoid Wonderful Life like the plague), but the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim is the best Christmas movie, and A Muppets Christmas Carol is a close second.