The Corn Is Green

As an Englishman who lived and worked in Wales for a decade, I was attracted to this period TV movie, showing on cable TV 33 years after it was made. I haven't seen, or heard of the Bette Davis original, from 1947 and now wish I could see it at some point.

Undoubtedly, it is Katherine Hepburn's spirited and strong-willed performance that makes it so watchable and entertaining. Along with the genuine Welsh locations, nicely filmed and assuredly directed by veteran George Cukor (he was 80). The production values are far above of the typical TV movie of its period, with good colour and brightness.

Hepburn herself was 72 and can hardly conceal her impending Parkinsons disease but despite that, we are reminded of her classic performance in The African Queen as a noble stoic and stubborn woman in the face of ignorance and pettiness. As a head teacher, here she's up against the local gentry and squire as well as the villager's in-bred feelings that the local colliery is the only future for its youngsters.

She takes great pride in nurturing one young man and as such pushes him far beyond what both he and the village ever thought he could attain - but one that his teacher knew he would achieve.

A enlightened story that began with Bette Davis's 1945 first version in a near masterpiece in my point of view, this remake with the classy Katherine Hepburn as TV movie stays few steps behind, but it isn't necessarily far away from of his predecessor at all, Kathy overcame fulsomely a putative weak points, with a masterful performance, she plays an unmarried wise old woman who moved to north Wales and decided open a small school for miners boys who were send to coal mines at tender age without any kind of study or future at sight on those hard times, Mrs. Moffat (Hepburn) realizes that a rough teenage Morgan Evans (Ian Saynor) has a special gift to write prodigal poems, she foresees on the boy a glittering future if her coax him an extensive study, Morgan under a extreme pressure stays drained and willing to quit, Mrs. Moffat doesn't give up and she gets to him run for a scholarship at Oxford University, somehow Mrs. Moffat being a spinster, wager all her hopes in this orphan gift boy as was your own son, moreover although she treats Morgan harshly ,actually she intents that him has a opportunity to be someone, that it's her main target, if he got, she made something for yourself, a movie that letting us to think that nothing was lost for mankind in this vale of tears!!

Resume:

First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.25

I remember watching this many years ago and to this day I am quite taken by the performances given. While it was a "Made for TV" movie, to this day it still leaves an impression. The musical score by John Barry was quite good and added to the film in a superb way as well.

Kate Hepburn is surely missed as she was a great actress. She led up an overall fine cast of actors that provided a lasting impression. The young man who she tutored out of an otherwise menial existence was a great actor too.

I only wish that more such productions were still made today.

I guess that the only thing that gets the green light are reality shows that are soon forgotten.

If you've seen the 1945 version of The Corn is Green, you haven't really seen it in its full potential. Bette Davis can play a spinster extremely well, but she can't get enthused like Katharine Hepburn can. In Emlyn Williams's story, a strong woman sets up a school in a Welsh mining town. She finds potential in one particular young boy and hopes an education will give him a chance at a different life. When Katharine Hepburn encourages her student, she raises her fists in the air and grins triumphantly. It's a much more understandable interpretation of her character; the woman obviously has passion enough to educate lost-cause mining children, so she should show her passion in her delivery and mannerisms. Kate was nominated for an Emmy that year, but was ironically beat out by Bette Davis for Strangers: The Story of a Mother and a Daughter.

In his first film, Ian Saynor gives a wonderfully emotive performance as the conflicted student. From start to finish, the audience sees his growth and maturity, and we learn to put as much faith and hope in his character as Kate does.

While David Walker's costumes are beautiful, John Barry's music cheapens the quality of the film, making it obvious that it was made for television. If you can get past the soundtrack, though, you're in for a very well-acted and interesting story.

The Corn Is Green seems to be a play for acting legends only. In America it debuted on Broadway in 1940 with Ethel Barrymore starring as Miss Moffat. Then Warner Brothers bought this property for Bette Davis who delivered a powerful performance and yet free from all the shtick that we've come to know from Bette Davis. Strangely enough she did not get one of her 10 Oscar nominations for it. Finally we have this version that stars Katharine Hepburn done in 1979 when she was close to the age of Ethel Barrymore.

I was not around when Barrymore did The Corn Is Green on Broadway and I would love to have seen what she did with it. I do love what Bette Davis invested in Miss Moffat and I would be hard pressed to say whether Davis or Hepburn, which was the better.

I think those two buddies from Boston, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, might have seen The Corn Is Green and might have come up with Good Will Hunting. Hepburn has been left a nice large house in the Welsh coal mining district and being a person of social conscience she opens a school for the kids who usually go into the mines at the same time they hit puberty. She spots her Good Will Hunting in the person of Ian Saynor and she resolves to make him realize his potential.

It's an uphill battle against cultural conditioning and Saynor's own doubts and fears. And some very human emotions throw up a big roadblock just as he's realizing a scholarship to Oxford.

The Corn Is Green marked the end of a collaboration between actress Hepburn and director George Cukor which began with her big screen debut in A Bill Of Divorcement. For a film director Cukor was far less successful in eliminating the stage origins of the play than Warner Brothers was with Bette Davis. But he and Hepburn after almost 40 years of collaboration were perfectly in tune in her performance.

The Corn Is Green is an autobiographical work from author Emlyn Williams who did lift himself from the Welsh coal mines and gave the world some wonderful writing and acting. It's a timeless story that begs for another remake. I hope Meryl Streep reads this and considers doing yet another revival.