Takes itself way too seriously

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Perfectly adorable

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I portrayed Miss Moffatt in acting class. This was scene work from The Corn Is Green. I had the lead part.I had to learn to know the character of Miss Moffatt. She is a strong-willed school teacher who wishes to increase the educational opportunities of children in the historic Welsh coal mining times in which child labor is exploited. There are no child labor laws here.I, as Miss Moffatt, am interested particularly in the education of Morgan Evans. He is my Teacher's Pet. He is illiterate, plus ignorant in the ways of the outside world. He is backward but promising. Perhaps I can instill in him a yearning to read, write and learn unlimited subject matter.My scene study included sitting on top of the hill of Moel Hiraeth in Wales, thinking about Morgan's future and how I can motivate him to want to eventually go to college. I believe that he has the intelligence needed, but that he has to work toward developing that ability.This time period is toward the end of the nineteenth century. Children do not necessarily have compulsory education, and they work all day in dangerous, filthy and unprotected environments earning small pay for their parents. Child labor laws were to come later in history, at least in the early twentieth century for the United States. Children, later, were raised to value education as a preliminary for the work world.I was told that Ethel Barrymore had played Miss Moffatt on Broadway. Later, I saw this film of The Corn Is Green starring Bette Davis.Morgan Evans in this movie is snarly and obnoxious. In my scene study, my play partner portrayed Morgan as more sympathetic. We never got to the part about Bessie Watty, she of the conniving ways and big mouth. Bessie Watty would have been a rival for Miss Moffatt's affections, since my director told me to portray Miss Moffatt as also romantically interested in Morgan Evans.In the Bette Davis movie, Morgan Evans is tall and rather cute -- after all of that coal soot is cleaned from his face. He is way younger than Miss Moffatt, but what the hey. He becomes a hunk, and for a stereotypical old maid school teacher perhaps he would be her only chance.The Corn Is Green: when you are down in a coal mine, you can look up and perhaps see a hole through which the sun shines. You can see yellow corn growing there, growing down into the coal mine. The long stalks are green. The corn husks are green. The green young man grows into the mature man, a citizen of the world. Or at least, so Miss Moffatt thinks.Ten out of ten.Smashing.Powerful.

It's 1895 in the small remote Welsh village of Glansarno. Schoolteacher Lilly Moffat (Bette Davis) is left a building by her uncle. Everybody expected a man and is surprised especially her degree in Master of Arts. She is dismayed by the illiterate children working in the coal mines and she sets up a school for them. Safe Mr. Jones and spinster Miss Ronberry are enlisted to help. Her housekeeper Mrs. Watty tries to be helpful but her daughter Bessie (Joan Lorring) is quite a gossiping schemer. The Squire who owns most of the town including a half-share of the mine opposes Moffat's school. She takes an interest in promising student Morgan Evans (John Dall) who she hopes to go to Oxford University.This is a simple traditional proper principled woman coming to rescue poor disadvantaged kids. The 'kids' could look a bit younger. John Dall is pass his mid-20s. Although both him and Joan Lorring did get Oscar nominations for their performance. This is workable formulaic film.

Thirty-seven yr old Bette Davis dons figure concealing padding to play a much older Lily Moffatt, who tries to bring education to a small Welsh coal mining town right before 1900. She inherits property and the community is a bit standoffish from the new interloper. She notices young men march to and from work in the coal mine and feels there has to be something better for the younger men. The thoughts of building a school gets the thumbs down from the town Squire(Nigel Bruce)and of course the villagers follow his lead. Miss Moffitt turns her own home into a school to teach just fundamentals to anyone who wishes. A young coal miner, Morgan Evans(John Dall)catches her eye showing promise. Her steadfast tutoring prepares him for the chance to take an entrance exam for Oxford University. She charms the Squire into sponsoring the young man. On Morgan's return to wait for his test marks, a young woman named Bessie(Joan Lorring)arrives to spoil any good news...for she has had the young scholar's child. Her mind is set on blackmail for some of Morgan's scholarship funds. It will take some great human sacrifice to allow the former coal miner to continue his higher education. There are some scenes to provoke human conscience. The workers singing on the way to and from work is definitely unrealistic. Nevertheless THE CORN IS GREEN is a heartfelt human drama. Other players include: Mildred Dunnock, Rhys Williams, Rosalind Ivan and Thomas Louden.

In comparison to past and her performances after 1945, Bette Davis gave a restrained but compelling performance as the schoolteacher in a Welsh town who wants to improve the education of the town's children (already mostly miners in "The How Green Was My Valley" vein) through education.In this wonderful performance, I see elements of Davis's "The Little Foxes" as well as her 1944 film "Mr.Skeffington."Leave it to Davis to find a brilliant student, a terrific John Dall, in her midst. The problem is that Dall is a drinker who feels he is betraying his fellow miners in pursuing an education. The maid's daughter, Bessie, played with evil intent by a fabulous Joan Loring, gets into trouble thanks to Dall, and she threatens to ruin all concerned. The end, where Davis agrees to take the unborn child and raise it herself, while vowing never to see Dall again, may be regarded today as corny but is well done.This film is memorable because of its depiction of class structure and the opportunity for upward mobility. Both Dall and Loring received Oscar nominations in the supporting categories but Davis was denied a best actress nomination here which is somewhat surprising.Mildred Dunnock and Rhys Williams costar as teachers in Ms. Moffat's school. Dunnock, so young here, but displays the same vulnerability as Elsie Thornton in 1957's "Peyton Place."