How Green Was My ValleyFord abandons western territory for Wales, to direct this brilliant adaptation of Richard Llewellyn's novel and become the first director ever to win consecutive Oscars (he nabbed the big one the previous year for The Grapes of Wrath). Crisp stars as the head of mining family the Morgans, trying to raise their two sons to continue the family tradition of working down the pits but secretly hoping for a better life for their youngest. (a pre-teen McDowall). A complex account of family life and strife that takes in traumas, hardships, romances, conflicts and the odd happy moment without ever sentimentalizing or becoming unbelievable. Superb.
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