Production on How Green Was My Valley started January 9, 1941.

Fox technicians turned an 80-acre plot in Brent's Crags, near Malibu, into the Welsh mining village of the story. By that time, the budget had been scaled down to $1.25 million, which didn't allow for any shooting on actual locations. With the start of World War II in Europe, shooting overseas was almost impossible for the Hollywood studios anyway. Zanuck also abandoned his plans to shoot in Technicolor, partly because the Malibu countryside would not match the colors of Wales.

The mining village set cost $110,000 to construct and was modeled on the towns of Cerrig Ceinnen and Clyddach-cum Tawe. The studio brought in blocks of coal weighing over a ton apiece for the construction of the mines. To create the impression that coal slag covered the landscape in the opening and closing scenes, Ford had the hillside painted black.

Historians have called the way the wind plays with O'Hara's veil when she leaves the church after her wedding a stroke of luck for Ford. Far from it, he had instructed the crew to set up wind machines to fan the veil into a perfect circle behind her head then blow it straight up into the air.

For the most part, the atmosphere on the set of How Green Was My Valley was totally congenial, with Ford trusting his cast to deliver strong performances with a minimum of guidance. The one problem for O'Hara occurred when she pointed out -- in front of the cast and crew -- that the basket with which she and Sara Allgood were supposed to receive Donald Crisp's weekly wages was not of the period. In response to what he considered her breach of etiquette, he removed her from the scene. An hour later, an assistant called her back to the set and handed her a new, historically accurate basket, so Ford could shoot the scene with her in it.

Allgood was the only actor who gave Ford any trouble. At one point, she complained that a scene they were about to shoot wouldn't play. Ford called writer Philip Dunne to the set and relayed her opinion to him. Having worked with Ford before, Dunne knew what to do. He ripped the scene out of the script and said, "Now it plays!" Then Ford turned to Allgood and said, "The sonofabitching writer won't do anything to help us, so we'll have to shoot it the way he wrote it."

As was Ford's practice, he cut the film in the camera. Almost every shot he took wound up in the edited film. He also rarely shot more than three takes of any scene.

Initially, Ford had Welsh actor Rhys Williams record the narration as the adult Huw Morgan. When he became concerned that audiences would recognize the voice as belonging to Williams's on-screen character, the boxer Dai Bando, he had actor-director Irving Pichel re-record the lines, which had to be read in the same rhythms as Williams's to match sequences already cut to the narration. At one point, British prints of the film featured Williams's voiceovers.

Production on How Green Was My Valley wrapped August 13, with the film slated to premiere just over two months later, on October 28.

by Frank Miller

SOURCES:
Scott Eyman, Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford