The Proud Valley
| The Proud Valley | |
|---|---|
 The Proud Valley VHS cover |
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| Directed by | Pen Tennyson |
| Produced by | Michael Balcon |
| Written by | Alfredda Brilliant Louis Golding Herbert Marshall |
| Starring | Paul Robeson Edward Chapman Simon Lack Rachel Thomas |
| Distributed by | Supreme Distributing Company |
| Release date(s) | April 6, 1940 (UK) |
| Running time | 76 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Proud Valley is a 1940 Ealing Studios film starring the African-American actor Paul Robeson. Filmed on location in the South Wales coalfield the heart of the main coal mining region of Wales, the film tells the story of a Black American miner and singer who gets a job in a mine and joins a male voice choir. It documents the hard realities of Welsh coal miners’ lives.
Synopsis
David Goliath, a Black American, arrives in Wales and wins the respect of the very musically oriented Welsh people through his singing. He shares the hardships of their lives, and becomes a working class hero as he helps to better their working conditions and ultimately, during a mining accident, sacrifices his life to save fellow miners.
Cast
- Paul Robeson as David Goliath
- Edward Chapman as Dick Parry
- Simon Lack as Emlyn Parry
- Rachel Thomas as Mrs Parry
- Dilys Thomas as Dilys
- Edward Rigby as Bert
- Janet Johnson as Gwen Owen
- Charles Williams as Evans
- Jack Jones as Thomas
- Dilys Davies as Mrs Owen
- Clifford Evans as Seth Jones
- Allan Jeayes as Mr Trevor
- George Merritt as Mr. Lewis
- Edward Lexy as Commissionaire
- Noel Howlett as Company clerk
- Ben Williams as Will Morgan (uncredited)
Production
Robeson’s role is based on the real-life adventures of a Black miner from West Virginia who drifted to Wales by way of England, searching for work.[citation needed] After two years of refusing offers from major studios, Robeson agreed to appear in this independent production, seeing an opportunity to “depict the Negro as he really is—not the caricature he is always represented to be on the screen.”[citation needed]
The film is set in 1938 and was made in the aftermath of the 1926 general strike and the Great Depression.
Significance
In The Proud Valley, Robeson depicts a kind of Black hero never seen in Hollywood, one who fuses his political and artistic sensibilities in the image of a Black working man who achieves kinship across boundaries of race and nationality. Years later, Robeson would remark that, of all his films, this was his favorite because it showed workers in a positive light.[citation needed]
External links
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