THE PROUD VALLEY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 50, 7 June 1940, Page 24

THE PROUD VALLEY

(Capad) In Director Pen Tennyson, Capad Films have a man whose name is beginning to look interesting in that often wearying rigmarole that precedes the Screening of a film. Capad Films are not by some standards a large com-pany-if they were, the story has it that Robeson would not work with thembut they have a few large ideas. In this film Tennyson, with Robeson’s help, has put one of them across with great success.

Tennyson handles common people uncommonly well. In the Welsh types he assembled for "The Proud Valley" he found material ready for an expert hand. And his people remain common people on the screen. He treats his story and his cast with a directness and simplicity which is completely refreshing. The story is the story of a Welsh mining village. There is an accident in the mine. It is closed. Poverty strikes the miners and their families. War comes to Britain and the directors agree to the plea of the men that they shall be

allowed to undertake the possibly dangerous task of opening the sealed shafts. They do the job, but not until lives have been lost in a cave-in of the shaft and during the dramatic escape of the workers. The singing of the Welsh is all through the picture, and over it all comes the splendid bass of Robeson. But Robeson is not everything. Tennyson has given him as much of the picture as was due to him, but he is no giant out of place among lesser players. Edward Chapman is the father of the boy (Simon Lack) who is in love with the girl (Janet Johnson). These and all the others of the cast have a ring of truth and sincerity about them. With Tennyson’s vigorous direction they fit into a picture that has just about everything but chorus girls’ legs; and somehow they don’t seem to be missed. There is nothing more to be said about "The Proud Valley" than that it is a picture which no one should miss who can crawl or be carried to the nearest theatre showing it.