Mrs. Miniver

"This is the People's War. It is our war. We are the fighters. Fight it then. Fight it with all that is in us and may God defend the Right." -- The Vicar (Mrs. Miniver, 1942)

I'm back!  I know I've been gone a long time, and I apologize.  It's been a wild whirlwind couple of months.  Since I last wrote, I now have a new job, a new apartment, and a new lease on life! Obviously I won't make my goal of being through all my movies by March, but I don't mind so much.  This project has always been just for myself, and if I have made an impact on others, I count that as more of a bonus than anything else.  Not that I don't appreciate my readers, in fact having my friends support me on this project has been one of the best things about it.  But the best part about writing for yourself is that you never have to feel the guilt or stress of missing a deadline.  And I knew when I watched it that this movie didn't deserve a hurried, stressed entry.  This movie was one of my favorites, and an absolute must-see by anyone who happens to have an interest in film or history.  It is emotionally stirring, entertaining, and historically fascinating.  Enjoy.

Teresa Wright and Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver

The Plot
Mrs. Kay Miniver, played by Greer Garson, is the happy British housewife of an architect in an upper-middle class family.  The film opens as she returns home on the train, feeling guilty because she spent a little too much on a hat.  She greets Mr. Ballard, the station master, played by Henry Travers, on her way home, and discovers he has named his newly grown batch of roses after her, as she is the nicest woman in town.  Her husband Clem, played by Walter Pigeon, feels similarly guilty about the car he has bought, and when they finally both confess, they could be a normal sitcom couple along the lines of I Love Lucy or Leave it to Beaver.  Except they're British, and it's 1939, right as World War II is beginning to take effect.

The Minivers greet Vin at the station

Vin, their son, played by Richard Ney, returns from Oxford for the holidays filled the obnoxious pompousness affected by naive first-term students.  He delivers scathing speeches about the privileged nobility that are idealistic, though without much sense.  Much to their chagrin, he insults Carol Beldon, played by Teresa Wright, granddaughter of local village aristocrat Lady Beldon, played by Dame May Whitty, when she comes to ask if Kay might ask Mr. Ballard to withdraw from the annual flower show, as a loss would distress her elderly grandmother.  But at the local dance that night, Vin confesses his feelings for Carol and the two agree to write one another while they are apart.

Ballard shows his "Mrs. Miniver" rose to its namesake

A few weeks later at the village church, the vicar, played by Henry Wilcoxon, interrupts his sermon with the breaking news that England is now at war with Germany.  While the Minivers take their two youngest children, Toby and Judy, home to prepare for the coming air-raid, Vin accompanies Carol and her grandmother home and overides Lady Beldon's protests and insists they adequately prepare themselves.  Carol and Vin come to an "agreement" and kiss for the first time.  Some time later Vin leaves school to join the RAF and while the village is prepared, no one has really started to feel the effects of the war.  The men in the local pub trade jokes about a German pilot who may have been shot down in the area.  On leave that night, Vin proposes to Carol at dinner with his family, but must immediately return to the airbase and cut his leave short.  Clem, on the other hand, is called to the pub in the middle of the night as he is part of the Thames River patrol.  While everyone is annoyed at the early hour, they soon discover that as local boat owners, they have been asked to become part of an evacuation mission to retrieve British soliders from Dunkerque, France.

The Minivers congratulate Carol.

Five days have passed, and Kay still has no news from Clem or Vin.  Distressed, she strolls in her garden, only to find the boots and then the rest of the missing German pilot.  She tries to steal his gun as he sleeps, but he awakes and chases her back into her house.  He holds her at gunpoint while she brings him food, but finally collapses, weakened from his wounds.  Kay steals his gun and calls the police, and as he is carried away the German glares and tells her that England will fall, just as all the other countries have. Kay slaps him.  But after he leaves Clem finally arrives and then news of Vin's safe return reaches them as well.  Vin and Carol marry a short time later, after Kay convinces Lady Beldon, who has been hiding a secret marriage she also made when in her youth to a soldier going to war.  Though Lady Beldon wishes to spare Carol the same heartache, she realizes she must let her go, and the couple leave to honeymoon in Scotland.

Mrs. Miniver and the German soldier

While they are gone, the rest of the Minivers hide in their bomb shelter as the battle continues in the air.  While before they had managed to pass uneventful nights in their shelter reading and knitting, this time the bombing is so intense that the children wake crying and the entire family must huddle together fearfully.  When Carol and Vin return, they are shocked by the near complete destruction of their home, but Kay and Clem shrug off the rubble and talk of the upcoming flower show.

The Minivers see the wreckage of the house.

At the show, Lady Beldon is informed secretly that she has won the competition yet again, but realizes (with Kay's help) that the lowly Ballard really deserves it and announces instead that he has won the prize.  While everyone cheers at this heartwarming scene, the air raid sirens suddenly go off and everyone must scatter for home.  As Kay and Carol drive home they attempt to dodge the destruction around them, but Carol is suddenly hit by a stray bullet.  Though Kay is able to get her home, Carol dies before a doctor can arrive.  When Vin arrives home and discovers her dead, he finally loses his youthful optimism and innocence.  

Lady Beldon at the flower show.

They all attend church on Sunday, though the church has been badly bombed.  The vicar announces those who have died, including a young choir boy, Carol, and Ballard.  He delivers a stirring speech, and as he reads from the Ninety-First Psalm, Vin moves to Lady Beldon's pew to comfort her.  As everyone leaves, singing hymns, more planes take to the air.

The family together at church.

The History
William Wyler created this film for propaganda reasons.  Wyler choose a series of popular essays written by Jan Struther in 1939 and gave them a story line that he stretched into 1942.  He felt that America had too long followed a policy of isolationism, and desirous of influencing Americans against the Nazis, showed how middle class Brits were faring overseas.  Wyler himself had been born in Germany, and he took the German threat very seriously.  He wrote and re-wrote the vicar's speech at the end of the film, insisting on a perfect ending.  Although he later believed he was not harsh enough in his depiction of war, Mrs. Miniver would become a major factor in influencing American opinions.

Teresa Wright and Greer Garson on set.

Mrs. Miniver was the highest grossing MGM film of all time.  It was also the top film of the year in England.  Out of the 592 film critics polled by American magazine Film Daily, 555 named it the best film of 1942.  The final, rousing speech that Wyler had agonized over would be reprinted in popular magazines and dropped in pamphlet form as literal propaganda in Europe by President Roosevelt.  The speech would become known as the Wilcoxon Speech, after the actor who had so stirringly delivered it.  William Wyler left immediately after he finished filming Mrs. Miniver in order to join the US Army Signal Corps, where he continued to make documentaries about the war effort.

The Wilcoxon Speech

Mrs. Miniver was the first film to be nominated in all four acting categories.  It was nominated for twelve categories, of which it won six, including Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, and Cinematography.  In 2009, it was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.  It is #40 on AFI's list of "Most Inspirational Movies."  And while its most famous legacy today seems to be the fact that Greer Garson married Richard Ney (the actor who played her son) shortly after filming, Winston Churchill famously said that "Mrs. Miniver is propaganda worth a hundred battleships."

Four Oscar-winning actors on Awards night.

Bette Davis, nominated again, opened a free club for servicemen only run by celebrities.  Greer Garson, along with many other actresses, dedicated herself to selling war bonds.  And nearly all the movies lauded that year would be either patriotic or war-related (or both.)  Patriotism was continuing in full force.  The awards that year honored servicemen with a flag listing the over 27,000 members of Hollywood who had enlisted to fight the war and unrolled it during the singing of the national anthem. Both popular starlet Teresa Wright and the scandalous Greer Garson walked off their first Oscars.  James Cagney won for Best Actor in the stars and stripes studded film Yankee Doodle Dandy.  But the statuettes themselves were made of plaster, not gold, in a nod to the war effort.  Women were again asked to dress down (with some success) and most of the male winners of the evening had to have their statuettes accepted by their wives, as they were overseas.

Long-winded Oscar winner Greer Garson

After the ceremony was over, journelists complained the most about the lack of space.  W. R. Wilkerson, editor of the Hollywood Reporter, was so incensed he wrote three separate editorials about the event, deriding it as having "tiresome speakers voicing greater dullness" and "professional jerks of ever caliber."  Mary Pickford was miffed that she had had to sit in the back, and the New York Wold-Telegram voiced the continuing belief that had the 4,500 extras not been allowed to vote, results would have been different.  The Academy dropped hints that change was in the wind for the event next year.  But the most memorable moment of the awards came when Greer Garson delivered her 5 1/2 minute speech, the longest acceptance speech ever in Academy Awards history.  As it was the last delivered, and it was after 1am, the speech has become exaggerated in Academy urban legend, much to Garson's chagrin.  She would never win another.

Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon in Mrs. Miniver

The Verdict?
This movie is incredible for so many reasons. And it’s not because it is a cinematic masterpiece. If this movie was made either 10 years earlier or later it would not have made such an impact on me. It is such an important movie because it is not a war movie; it is a movie about living during a war.

Mr. and Mrs. Miniver in the bomb shelter.

The scariest thing about Mrs. Miniver is how normal it is. The Minivers are loving, friendly, good-natured, flawed and modern (for 1942). They could be your next door neighbors. And by the end of the movie, we’re not entirely sure they will survive. This movie violates the American middle class’s deeply ingrained belief that nothing can ever happen to them. It is those others who are bombed, those Europeans across the water. But Mrs. Miniver claims that a psychopathic German solider can crop up in your backyard, and that a stray bullet can claim your daughter-in-law. You could be buying a too-expensive hat one day and then a few weeks later be hiding in a bomb shelter with your young children. And in 1942, less than a year after Pearl Harbor, too many Americans were sticking their heads in the sand with regards to the ongoing war.

The Minivers must tell Vin his wife has died.

The atmosphere of the film feels as if someone started bombing June Cleaver’s backyard. Imagine the impact of seeing people like yourself suffering from an invasion that is actually happening in real time. I think that today we are too likely to classify wars as "other." People in head scarves roaming deserts seem so foreign to modern-day Americans that we forget wars happening in Afghanistan or Iraq involve real people and families. And of course it is much easier to sympathize with the British rather than people with a culture so different from ours. But the message to take away from this film is that war (and the devastation that follows it) can happen to anyone, at any time.

The Minivers in the bomb shelter.

The truly chilling moment comes at the end, when the Vicar gives his famous speech and the camera pans up to the sky. The planes are flying overhead, the church is crumbling around them and no one, not even the audience, knows when the violence will end or even if it will. The looked-for ending is missing—the resolution of the war. We know the ending, but how terrifying to watch this film in a theater and not be assured of a happy ending. All this film has is hope for peace; for the Minivers, and for the world.

The family looks at their ruined home.

Welsh Rarebit (Actually doesn't involve any rabbits...)

Welsh Rarebit is the only Welsh recipe I'd ever heard of.  Unfortunately, I had no idea what it was.  After extensive Googling, I was able to determine that Welsh Rarebit is a dish made with a sauce of melted cheese and served hot over toasted bread.  So for dinner one night I prepared the best version I found, from Simple Bites.  Here it is!




Welsh Rarebit
You'll need:
1/2 stick (4 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg yolk
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup pilsner beer, or other light beer
1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 ounces extra-sharp cheddar, coarsely grated (about 1-1/2 cups)

1. Lightly beat yolk in a medium heatproof bowl.

2. Melt remaining 2 Tablespoons butter in a small heavy saucepan over moderately low heat.
3. Add flour and cook, whisking, for 1 minute.

4. Add beer and milk, whisking constantly, then whisk in mustard and pepper. Bring to a simmer, whisking, and cook, whisking frequently, until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes.
5. Gradually add cheese and cook, whisking, until smooth, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk into beaten yolk until combined.

6. Serve hot, with bread and/or vegetables.

Now, the traditional way to eat Welsh Rarebit is with bread.  The recipe I found says to pour it over vegetables instead (asparagus and mushrooms).  Rarebit is actually very similar to fondue in this way; you can eat it with pretty much anything.  Melted cheese is always good.  I made a pot of it and decided to put it by the dinner table.  We ate it with bread, vegetables, even chicken!  Delicious.
Keep in mind the one thing that gives this recipe its flavor: the beer.  Because I didn't have a wide variety of beers available, I used Magic Hat.  That beer has a distinct, smoky flavor, and therefore so did the rarebit.  Be very conscious of which beer you select because that will ultimately determine the flavor.  Other than that, this cheesy goodness is easy to make with ingredients that I already had in my kitchen.

Try it on a cool evening with just about anything!

How Green Was My Valley

"Men like my father cannot die. They are with me still, real in memory as they were in flesh, loving and beloved forever. How green was my valley then."-Huw Morgan narrating in How Green Was My Valley

Writing the post for this film seems to me like an uphill journey.  Which is ironic as this film is as about a valley in Wales.  But the biggest problem I had with this film was not that it beat out Citizen Kane for Best Picture", but rather its lack of plot.   The plot is actually a series of vignettes, each intertwined with the next but without forming a completely whole plot.  This scattered feeling undercut my enjoyment of the film.  And the singing.  Oh, the singing.

The Plot
In the beginning of the film, a man of indeterminate age, Huw Morgan, prepares to leave his small village in a valley in Wales.  Before he does, he relates the story of his family's trials when he was a young boy.  As a boy, played by Roddy McDowell, Huw lives with his father Gwilym played by Donald Crisp, and mother Beth, played by Sara Allgood.  Also in the small cottage are his older siblings, his sister Angharad, played by Maureen O'Hara, and his five older brothers, Ivor, Ianto, Davy, Owen, and Gwilym Jr.

The men in the village go to work in the mine.

Huw's memories start happily as he watches his brothers and father go off to work at the local coal mines.  Huw meets and instantly falls in love with Bronwyn, played by Anna Lee, his eldest brother Ivor's fiancee.  The entire village celebrates their marriage, and Angharad is immediately attracted to the village's earnest new preacher, Mr. Gruffydd, played by Walter Pidgeon.  But bad times come to the village when C. Evans, the local coal mine owner, lowers wages.  Coal mine closures in neighboring areas lead to a surplus of workers willing to work for any wage, and Huw's brothers are soon grumbling about forming a union.  Though Ivor is now living with Bronwyn, the rest of the brothers quarrel so much with their father that they eventually leave the home and go live together elsewhere.

The family meets Bronwyn.

The conditions lead most of the men in the village to strike.  The backlash again Huw's father, who does not believe in unions, causes him so much despair that Beth secretly goes to the union meeting place with Huw to castigate all the men for hurting such a good man.  She threatens them with retaliation if anything happens to her husband and then leaves with Huw in a snow storm.  But she trips and falls through the ice on the way home and Huw dives into the river to cling to her and save her life.  Both are very ill as a result and put to bed in Ivor's home.  The doctor mentions in Huw's hearing that Huw may never regain the use of his legs.

Beth and Angharad

Mr. Gruffydd visits and gives Huw books to occupy his time while convincing him that someday, Huw will walk again.  Mr. Gruffyd promises that when the daffodils bloom he will be able to pick them for his mother. 
When Beth is finally well enough to go home, all the men in the village come and serenade her, while her sons move back home.  More drinking and singing ensues, while Mr. Gruffydd speaks in favor of the unions.  Gwilym decides to join up with the union as well, and between the two of them they work out an agreement with C. Evans.  But even with the changes, the mine can't afford to keep on its best (and highest paid) workers, so Owen and Gwilym Jr. find themselves without jobs and decide to leave for America.

Angharad gets married.

Later, Mr. Gruffydd takes Huw to pick daffodils for Beth, as promised.   Mr. Gruffydd encourages him, and soon Huw takes his first steps.  Despite this, Angharad's relationship with Mr. Gruffydd is not going well.  Though they both confess their love, Mr. Gruffydd refuses to allow Angharad to suffer as a poor preacher's wife.  So he facilitates a match between her and the local mine owner's son, Iestyn, instead.  Hurt and broken-hearted, Angharad marries Iestyn and moves with him South Africa.

Angharad and Mr. Gruffydd

Meanwhile, all Huw's reading while in bed has paid off.  He passes examinations and is allowed to attend the national school in the next valley.  But he is unprepared to deal with the local bully, Mervyn, and the cruel British teacher, Mr. Jonas.  After Mervyn beats him in a fight, Huw is taught how to fight by his father, brothers, and the local boxing champion.  Soon, Huw is able to best Mervyn and win his respect.  But Mr. Jonas decides to punish him for fighting.  He tries to force Mervyn to beat him with a stick, and when Mervyn refuses, Mr. Jonas beats him himself.  Apalled at this treatment from his teacher, Huw's family want to retaliate but hold back at Huw's request.  But the local boxer, Dai Bando, and his agent, Cyfartha, head down to the school anyway and knock Mr. Jonas unconscious.  (And if your brain isn't twisted with these Welsh names by now you're smarter than I am.)

Ivor suddenly dies in a tragic mining accident, just before Bronwyn gives birth to their son.  Huw decides to work in the mines and live with Bronwyn, to keep her company, rather than go to University, despite his father's disappointment.  Conditions in the mine become steadily worse, and both Ianto and Davy are fired so Evans can hire cheaper workers.  Ianto goes to Canada, and Davy to New Zealand.  Angharad finally comes home, without her husband.  She goes to see no one, but stays in her mansion.  Finally, Huw goes to visit her and sees that though she is rich, she is alone, poorly treated by the gossipy housekeeper, and miserable.  The housekeeper gossips out of spite with the local matrons that she believes Angharad has been seeing Mr. Gruffydd, though it is untrue.

Hugh suffers at school.

Rumors spread about Angharad and Mr. Gruffydd, including ones about her impending divorce, which is never confirmed.  The Morgans, angered by the talk, refuse to go to church while the hypocritical deacons speak out against her.  Mr. Gruffydd resigns in a rage, delivering a blistering sermon before he leaves.  He is a broken man, and tells Huw that though he once had dreams of saving the world "with truth," now he believes only a few have heard him.  As he goes to leave, they both hear a warning whistle from the mine.  A collapse has occurred, and Huw's father is trapped inside.  The entire town, including Angharad, gather around the mine shaft.

Mr. Morgan at the mine.

Mr. Gruffydd organizes men to follow him down into the mine to save Mr. Morgan.  Mr. Gruffydd and Angharad see each other at last.  Huw and Mr. Gruffydd, along with the boxer (who is now blind) and a few others go down to rescue the remaining men.  Huw finds his father, who is trapped under some boulders.  He holds his son and says goodbye, before dying.  They all take his body up to the women who are waiting.  Beth says she can feel his spirit leave.    The end is a series of montages of the past, ending in the entire family waving from a field, together again.  

Huw comes up with his father in the mine shaft.

The History
How Green Was My Valley is based on a novel of the same name by Richard Llewellyn in 1939.  Darryl F. Zanuck bought the rights to the novel for $300,000 and proceeded to film the movie in just two months.  Zanuck had come to Hollywood from Nebraska and proceeded to work his way up the ranks until he became head of production at Warner Bros. in 1931.  In 1933, he opened his own studio, 20th Century Films.  In 1935, he and his other two founders bought Fox Studios, thereby creating 20th Century Fox.  Though his films had been nominated for "Best Picture" nearly every year since the beginning of the Academy Awards, his first win would be for How Green Was My Valley in 1941.  Upon finally winning, Zanuck was overjoyed, if a bit surprised:  "When I think of what I got away with...and won the Academy Award with the picture, it is really astonishing.  Not only did we drop five or six characters, we eliminated the most controversial element in the book, which was the labor-and-capital battle in connection with the strike."

Darryl F. Zanuck

When Zanuck and the film's original director, William Wyler, were first planning the film, it was to be filmed in Wales.  Zanuck also wished to create a four hour long epic, along the lines of Gone with the Wind.  But with the still contentious pro-union stance of the film, and the advent of World War II, shooting in Wales became impossible.  Wyler dropped out and was replaced by John Ford.  He built an 80-acre set in the Santa Monica Mountains at Brent's Crags, near Malibu. The design of the village was based on the real Cerrig Ceinnen and nearby Clyddach-cum Tawe in Wales. But the film had to be done in black and white, as the California flowers were different colors than Welsh flowers.  While all the songs sung in the movie are original Welsh songs, the only Welsh actor is Rhys Williams, who plays the boxer Dai Bando.

John Ford (in sunglasses) filming the mine scene.

While generally considered a good film, How Green Was My Valley has suffered over the years because of comparisons with its Oscar competitor,  Citizen Kane.  Strangely enough, however, this was not the biggest Oscar controversy at the time of the Awards in February, 1942.  There was much more controversy over the race for "Best Actress" between sisters Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland (Fontaine eventually won for Suspicion).  Walt Disney won the Cartoon Award for the 10th time for Dumbo, along with a few other "Special Oscars" for technical achievements in the first Disney flop, Fantasia.  More importantly, nearly a week after the bombing of Pearl Harbor the Academy board announced that a banquet would not be held this year, and that the ceremony would be given in a different, more appropriate, format.  Newly elected president Bette Davis proposed that the ceremony take place in a theater and be open to the public, with the ticket money going to the British War Relief.  Her idea horrified the remaining board members, and she stepped down as President.  It was finally decided that while there would be a banquet, it would be referred to as a dinner, and while there would be music, there would be no dancing.  Women were also asked not to wear formal attire, but instead to donate the money they would have spent on a gown to the Red Cross.  The decor was almost entirely American flags and gold eagle statues.

Citizen Kane

How Green Was My Valley would go on to garner 10 nominations, 5 of them wins for "Best Picture," "Best Director," "Best Supporting Actor," "Best Black and White Cinematography," and "Best Black-and-White Art Direction-Interior Decoration."  Citizen Kane was nominated for 9 awards, but only received "Best Original Screenplay."  Today Citizen Kane is considered the best American film of all time.  How Green Was My Valley is considered "that film with the singing coal miners that incredibly beat Citizen Kane."

Mr. Gruffydd and Huw

The Verdict?
I still have some more history to tell, despite this being the part where I state my opinion.  But I think this film is so irrevocably linked with Citizen Kane that it has become impossible to talk about one film without discussing the other.  See below for just one example.

In some ways, it's actually pretty sad.  But I will defend the film with the historical gossip that I've managed to glean from that period.  So here is my section on....

WHY CITIZEN KANE LOST 

(I have no idea why the Maltese Falcon lost.  Sorry Rotten Tomatoes.)

In 1940, RKO Studios was seriously hurting for money.  So they hired new wiz-kid director Orson Welles, fresh off his infamous 1938 Halloween radio broadcast of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds.  They gave him free reign over the studio and a script by Herman J. Mankiewicz for his first project.  Welles hired actors from his own theater and began to make Citizen Kane, a film about an eccentric publishing tycoon.  RKO left him alone.  How much trouble could he get into on a shoestring budget?

Louella Parsons, a famous gossip columnist from the same area of Illinois as Welles, was one of his earliest supporters.  But when she asked if his new film was about her boss, Mr. William Randolph Hearst, Welles denied it, claiming that the film was about a fictional publisher.  He then organized for Parsons' competition, Hedda Hopper, to see the an early cut of the film.  Hopper called Parsons with the bad news; Citizen Kane was definitely about Mr. Hearst.

Hearst threatened to sue RKO for libel, causing the studio to hold up Citizen Kane's release for two months until the case was proven to be groundless.  Hearst then ordered all of his newspapers to pull any and all positive reviews for RKO films.  He also made sure that major movie theater chains knew that any theater playing the film would immediately lose his newspaper advertisements.  Several of his friends, including the presidents of Fox, RCA, and MGM also attempted to sway the studio to accept Hearst's offer to pay for all production costs if they agreed to burn the negatives.  But even with all that, and a bonus of a few thousand, RKO said no.

Meanwhile Orson Welles was busy alienating everyone he possibly could.  He tried to get sole screen credit, claiming he had to rewrite veteran screenwriter Mankiewicz's entire script.  Mankiewicz had to appeal to the Screen Writers Guild to keep his co-credit.  He referred to film producers as "stupid" during a lecture at New York's New School, and then proceeded to deride both David Selznick and Gone with the Wind.  RKO finally released the film at an independent theater, and directors and critics alike were stunned by its mastery.  But with everything riding against it, the film didn't make a profit.

Welles did not attend the awards and didn't seem to care one way or another about whether he won.  After alienating most of Hollywood, his chances weren't very good.  Today, Citizen Kane's loss is attributed to Hearst's influence,  Welles' attitude, and the antagonistic extras who could vote for the Award.  However if you consider what I've mentioned before, that the "Best Picture Award" is more about the best production of the year, How Green Was My Valley makes more sense.  Besides, John Ford was far and away Welles' favorite director.  He often claimed that Ford's Stagecoach was what taught him to be a director.

Moral of the story?  Lay off, Citizen Kane lovers!  You've won the AFI list, let's just leave this film alone.  It's how Welles would have wanted it.

Maureen O'Hara as Angharad

What did I think?   Well....it's long and confusing and interspersed with men singing for no apparent reason.  As a friend said, "It's about everything, and nothing."  There's no cohesive plot, and I often felt as though I were missing large chunks of information.  If I had read the book, I probably would have enjoyed this film more.  I would have understood where it was headed and what exactly what happening.  But as it was, I agree with Zanuck.  I don't think they managed to pull off omitting so much key information.  But the performances were solid, and I never get tired of watching Maureen O'Hara.  Even Walter Pidgeon was fun, pontificating on man's great weaknesses.  He has a booming voice that immediately makes it clear he's the moral center of the film.  But Ford's sweeping vistas and O'Hara's plaintive brogue can't save this film for me.

Angharad with her parents.

Bottom line:  if you've read the book, love John Ford, or are incredibly devoted to mining concerns in 19th century Welsh towns, watch this film.  Otherwise-skip it.  Watch The Quiet Man instead.