Le blé est vert

Bette Davis offers an interesting, more restrained performance than usual as Miss Moffat, the schoolteacher determined to help a brilliant student (John Dall) reach his full potential. Although handsomely photographed, the film has the look of a photographed stage play with its studio-bound outdoor sets--but the performances are all so vibrant that they become more important than any other ingredient.

John Dall is excellent in what was his first major role, as is Joan Lorring as Bessie (the girl who takes his mind off his studies). Nigel Bruce, Mildred Dunnock and Rosalind Ivan create fully rounded performances under Irving Rapper's sensitive direction. But it is Davis, of course, who holds the spotlight with one of her most tasteful performances--intelligent and yet full of feeling and emotion.

As I said earlier, all of it shows its stage origins and the singing of the Welsh miners is a bit too perfect for reality--but the film is both entertaining and thought-provoking, dealing as it does with some serious issues. Ahead of its time, in its out-of-wedlock theme.

I profess that I have a love for good films about teaching. This one stars Bette Davis as Lilly Moffatt, a spinster schoolteacher, whose desires for elevating the minds of young people who are destined to a life of coal mining in a Welsh community, becomes focused on the promising talents of Morgan Evans, a young man who shows a spark of superior intellect.

Miss Davis is well suited to her role, a woman of restrained passions. While watching her, there are moments when I sense similarities with the acting style of Meryl Streep.

The rest of the cast is quite good. John Dall, in his film debut, plays Mr. Evans. It is an inspired performance that earned an Academy Award nomination.

Based upon a true story, TCIG invites comparisons to "My Fair Lady" and, especially, "Spencer's Mountain" in regard to the central story about molding a young mind.

I have one criticism. The singing vocals are so strong that they are distracting. A small group of young, work-weary miners should not sound like the men's chorus at the Met, for example.

Miss Moffatt might be seen by some as selfless in her dedication to higher principles. She denies herself of so much in her pursuit of education. But hers is a selfish campaign for transformation-of a man, a town, perhaps a country. She trades something of lesser value for something of greater value, so she does not sacrifice, even in her final dramatic decision. And it is her pursuit of a greater purpose that gives her story nobility. And the pleasure she finds in her achievements can only be seen as justifiable and virtuous.

Definately a must see! Davis's performance was remarkable, subdued but full of emotion and depth without over acting. The actor playing Morgan Evan's is very remarkable being his first film. He and Davis exchange witty banter that makes you appreciate both actors without taking any of the lime light away from the other. The characters were complex and showed facets of ourselves. This movie really makes you think. It's my favorite Davis picture. The themes were very mature and ahead of their time. It's sort of like a early Peyton Place!

This is a good drama and character study, and though the story moves a bit slowly at times, it incorporates some interesting angles. In the role of an erudite teacher trying to bring education to a Welsh mining community, Bette Davis is good even though the role is not ideal for her. The supporting cast complements her well, with John Dall particularly believable as her star student. Nigel Bruce has an entertaining, if somewhat exaggerated, role as the town Squire.

The story takes a pretty good look at the ups and downs of what Davis's character is trying to do, and the perspectives of the main characters are usually presented effectively. There isn't a lot of action, but it has a few good dramatic moments, and the characters are worth caring about.

It's worth seeing to watch Davis and the rest of the cast perform, and also for its thoughtful look at its characters.

This fully vibrant adaptation of Emlyn Williams' successful stage play is at its best in its first half-watching Bette Davis sweep into a tiny town in the Welsh countryside and take over with her new world ideas makes you so grateful to see such a strong female character in such an old film (truth be told, seeing a strong woman was highly more likely in a wartime film in the forties, as opposed to the post-war-prosperity fifties when women were either Sandra Dee or Donna Reed). John Dall stars as the miner who turns out to be quite gifted in scholastic abilities, whom Davis pushes to reach for the stars academically. The second half of the film, which concerns itself with Dall's trying for Oxford and dealing with a few ‘domestic' problems, isn't as invigorating as the first, but on the whole it's a beautiful experience of a film, and one of the few Hollywood films of its time to accurately (if broadly) show a foreign culture and its common people. Remade with less success as a telefilm in 1979 with Katharine Hepburn and directed by George Cukor.