The Proud Valley

Paul Robeson - David Goliath
Edward Rigby - Bert
Rachel Thomes - Mrs Parry
Edward Chapman - Dick Parry
Simon Lack - Emlyn Parry
Clifford Evans - Seth Jones
Jack Jones - Thomas
George Merritt - Mr Lewis

Russian Sergei Nolbandov, who had formerly been a lawyer before reaching England and marrying a Scottish wife, was the associate producer for this Penrose Tennyson film. Like many in the new Ealing team, he had worked at Gaumont-British, where he had been an editor. He gave Tennyson strong support and encouraged him to involve his social conscience more firmly in his second film, The Proud Valley, a story set in a Welsh mining village. In casting the villagers Tennyson began an Ealing tradition of using people who had not appeared before a camera before; among his happy discoveries was Rachel Thomas, who played a miner's wife. The film starred the black American singer, Paul Robeson, as a ship's stoker who, not least on account of his singing voice, gets a job in the local pit. Parry (Simon Lack) is in charge of the local miner's choir, and he hopes to win the national singing meet on the strength of David's vocal chordswhich, after an unexpected accident the pit is closed, throwing the whole village on to the dole. The miners march on London to urge the owners to reopen the colliery, but war is declared as they get there, and they agree to resume work in the national interest. There is a further underground disaster, and the newcomer to the community dies saving the lives of others. The prosperity that returns to the valley comes about as a consequence of war.

The film's ending was changed during shooting. Originally the miners were to have taken charge of the pit themselves with the intention of running it as a co-operative; but filming was overtaken by the declaration of war and Balcon shied away from the leftish notion of the workers succeeding where the owners had failed, feeling that it would seem like unhelpful propaganda. As it was, there had been great difficulty finding a pit that would allow location filming, and it was only after studio shooting had begun that a colliery company at Stoke gave permission for their pit-head to be used. Then within a week of commencement of principal photography several members of the crew and one of the leading actors received their call-up papers, added to which the disruption of transport and the imposition of the blackout caused considerable logistical difficulties. Nevertheless, the film finished only three days over schedule.

The Proud Valley appeared in 1940, around the same time as Carol Reed's film of A.J. Cronin's mildly socialistic best-seller, The Stars Look Down, which had Michael Redgrave as a miner's son who struggles to become an MP and to end the oppressive practices of the mine-owners. Inevitably the two films were compared. Both had disaster scenes, and it was generally noted that The Proud Valley, in spite of its smaller budget, had achieved greater realism. There was another handicap that the Ealing film had to face. Paul Robeson had been giving interviews on his return to America that were heavily pro-Russian. Had he said the same things less than two years later he would have been applauded, but at that time in the war, close on the heels of the signing of the German & Soviet Pact and the attack on Finland, the Russians were tainted with as much opprobrium as the Germans. A large section of the public was incensed, including the autocratic press baron, Lord Beaverbrook, who instantly banned all mention of Robeson and his films in the newspapers he controlled. Such petty spitefulness was one of Beaverbrook's traits.
Extract© George Perry: Forever Ealing.