How Green Was My Valley (film)

How Green Was My Valley is a 1941 drama film directed by John Ford. The film, based on the 1939 Richard Llewellyn novel, was produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and scripted by Philip Dunne. The film features Walter Pidgeon, Maureen OHara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp, and Roddy McDowall. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning five, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actor.

The film opens with a monologue by an older Huw Morgan voice by Irving Pichel I am packing my belongings in the shawl my mother used to wear when she went to the market. And Im going from my valley. And this time, I shall never return. The valley and its villages are now blackened by the coal mines that fill the area.A young Huw Roddy McDowall, the youngest child of Gwilym Morgan Donald Crisp, walks home with his father to meet his mother, Beth Sara Allgood. His older brothers, Ianto John Loder, Ivor Patric Knowles, Davy Richard Fraser, Gwilym Jr., and Owen all work in the coal mines with their father, while sister Angharad Maureen OHara keeps house with their mother. Huws childhood is idyllic, the town, not yet overrun with mining spoil, is beautiful, and the household is warm and loving. Huw is smitten on meeting Bronwyn Anna Lee, a girl engaged to be married to his oldest brother, Ivor Patric Knowles. At the boisterous wedding party Angharad meets the new preacher, Mr. Gruffydd Walter Pidgeon, and there is an obvious mutual attraction. ........

Source: Wikipedia