My review was written in September 1988 after a screening of an archival print at MoMA in Manhattan.
Virtually unknown in the U. S., "Blue Scar" is an unusual 1949 British picture telling the familiar story of the hardships of Welsh coal miners in a combination of militant realism and a contrasting romanticism.
Central story concerns the attempt of beautiful OIwen (Gwyneth Vaughan) to escape from the stultifying environment of her small mining village of Abergwyfni by becoming an opera singer in London. Her boyfriend Tom (Emrys Jones), like her family, is a miner, but she wants him to quit and get a "collar and the job".
Set in 1946-47, most of the first portion of the picture deals with the miners' grievances and problems under postwar nationalization of the industry, which does not live up to its promise of improving their lot. With unsafe conditions in the mine depicted as well as the tragic fate of Olwen's dad, film builds to a confrontation where the miners are ready to walk out in support of their mate who has had a run-in with a nasty new supervisor (Jack James).
Abruptly, a compromise is struck and the story backs off from its militant stand to a more typical "making do" payoff.
Olwen's rosy views of the rich life in London are humorously debunked in a blistering scene of the shallow, snooty cafe society there. Film's heart is with the rugged Welsh landscape, beautifully photographed by Jo Jago, who later worked on second unit for such major films as "The Cruel Sea".
Unusual credit card at opening states: "This film is written and directed by Jill Criagie", a documentary filmmaker who was one of the few women postwar feature directors in England, followed soon after by Muriel Box and Wendy Toye. Her work here is uneven but shows promise, apparently never realized with another fiction feature.
Welsh cast is adequate, notably including as Olwen's layabout brother Kenneth Griffith, later seen in many screen comedies.
