NR | 1 h 55 min | Drama | 1945

Welsh dramatist George Emlyn Williams’s semi-autobiographical play “The Corn Is Green” pays tribute to his schoolteacher Sarah Grace Cooke.

Without her guidance for nearly a decade, he would have entered the coal mines at the age of 12. Without her patronage, he would never have gone on to study languages and dramatics at Oxford and eventually gain repute in the creative arts. His play inspired director Irving Rapper’s eponymous 1945 film.

It’s 1895 in a Welsh coal-mining village. Miss Moffat (Bette Davis) arrives armed with a postgraduate arts degree when most women didn’t even go to college. She’s determined to leverage her education and decides to make something of the village boys by educating them. They may sing joyously as they pass her house, but they are, almost without exception, condemned to drudgery in the mines once they reach the age of 12.

Work Versus School

Villagers who prefer the status quo bristle at Moffat’s idea of a school for these boys, in effect steering them away from the mine and wanton rusticity. The village squire (Nigel Bruce) fears that, once educated, farmers and miners may shrug off the feudalistic structure that’s sustained him and his family for generations.

The squire owns half the mine and won’t tolerate workers playing truant, slinking off to school. Thankfully for Moffat, helpful locals Mr. Jones (Rhys Williams) and Miss Ronberry (Mildred Dunnock) back her every step of the way.

Impressed by the curiosity and openness of one young miner, Morgan Evans (John Dall), Moffat begins schooling him then converts her home into a school for villagers of all ages. The promise that Morgan shows softens the squire’s obstinacy. He warms to the idea that education can mean more than literacy; it can mean enlightenment.

If Morgan secures a scholarship to Oxford, it might uplift the whole village. Moffat’s housekeeper, Mrs. Watty (Rosalind Ivan), has a wayward daughter, Bessie (Joan Lorring), who’s up to no good, especially with hot-headed Morgan. It’ll take all of Moffat’s resourcefulness to inspire Morgan not to exchange his shot at prosperity and happiness for the seeming inescapability of languishing in the mines.

The Mine, a Metaphor

Rapper and his camera don’t go anywhere near the mine. They dwell on the shadow it leaves on miners. If its blackness covers their faces and their bodies, its darkness clouds their minds and their hearts.

The mine, it turns out, is a metaphor. At one level, it represents ignorance and the poverty and sorrow that ignorance extracts from those who thrive in it. At another level, however, it mirrors Moffat’s mission of extracting talent from a reluctant village, as painstakingly as miners extract coal from an otherwise unyielding earth.

Not all students are the same, though. In mining parlance, some are like lignite, others like anthracite, and still others like bituminous coal.

For some students, a quick, surface mining of their talent will suffice. Morgan exemplifies that. With two years of coaching from Moffat, he’s aiming for Oxford.

With other students, however, Moffat is forced to deploy what’s akin to slower, underground mining to find and foster talent. She insists on serving everyone, “the old and the young, the slow and the fast.”

What sets one student, like Morgan, above the others isn’t just intellect, memory, or analytical power. It’s imagination. Recognizing that special talent is what marks Moffat as an inspirational teacher.

An Essay

Some of the villagers only speak Welsh, which Moffat barely understands, but they’re intelligent enough. They see what is, what was, and what has always been in their village. They see that she’s different. She sees what can be. It’s why Morgan’s ostensibly disposable essay, “The mine is dark,” strikes her immediately.

Morgan’s essay brims with possibilities. It begins, “If the light come into the mine.” Then, it continues, “When I walk in the dark, I can touch with my hands where the corn is green.” They’re awkward, halting words. But like hopeful ears of corn hungering for light and warmth, they reach up as if from within a cold, dark mine, out toward the sun and what it illuminates.

Moffat is that beacon, lighting up paths to learning, prosperity, and happiness. Davis shines in this character as a model of fine principles, compassion, and hope.

But imagination isn’t enough. Without humility, even the most ardent ambition can run aground.

Mocked over Moffat’s apparent favoritism toward him, Morgan turns excessively sensitive. With all the rustic wisdom he can muster, Mr. Jones warns, “A full ear of corn will bend its head, but an empty one stands upright.”

Only the humble learn; they admit to what they don’t know.

You can watch “The Corn Is Green” on Hoopla, Prime Video, and Apple TV.

‘The Corn Is Green’
Director: Irving Rapper
Starring: Bette Davis, John Dall, Nigel Bruce
Not Rated
Running Time: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Release Date: July 14, 1945
Rated: 4 stars out of 5

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