The Corn Is Green | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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Directed by | Irving Rapper |
Produced by | Jack Chertok |
Written by | Emlyn Williams (play) Frank Cavett Casey Robinson |
Starring | Bette Davis Nigel Bruce John Dall |
Music by | Sol Polito |
Cinematography | Max Steiner |
Editing by | Frederick Richards |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date(s) | July 14, 1945 |
Running time | 115 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Corn Is Green is a 1945 drama film starring Bette Davis as a schoolteacher determined to bring education to a Welsh coal mining town, despite great opposition. It was adapted from the play of the same name by Emlyn Williams.
John Dall and Joan Lorring were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively.
Middle-aged Lily Cristobel Moffatt (Bette Davis) sets up a school in a Welsh coal mining town, despite the determined opposition of the local squire (Nigel Bruce). Eventually, she considers giving up. Then she discovers a promising student, Morgan Evans, a miner seemingly destined for a life of hard work and heavy drink. With renewed hope, she works hard to help him realise his potential.
Through diligence and perseverance, Morgan gets the opportunity to take an examination for Oxford University with, hopefully, a prized scholarship. Moffatt, the rest of the teachers, and their students are hopeful Morgan will pass the Oxford interview, and so he does.
However, Bessie Watty (Joan Lorring), a young woman who has recently given birth to Morgan's child, blackmails the faculty into giving her part of Morgan's scholarship money in order to help raise the baby. The conniving young woman has designs on another male suitor. Instead, Moffatt volunteers to adopt the child so that Morgan's academic future will not be ruined and Watty will be free to marry another man, unfettered by her responsibility to the child (since she and her affianced never really cared for it in the first place). Morgan quickly hears about Watty's scandalous, self-serving motives, and insists upon raising the child himself. Through a heartfelt and persuasive conversation, Moffatt convinces the young man to continue his higher education and contribute something to the world.
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