In comparison to past and her performances after 1945, Bette Davis gave a restrained but compelling performance as the schoolteacher in a Welsh town who wants to improve the education of the town's children (already mostly miners in "The How Green Was My Valley" vein) through education.
In this wonderful performance, I see elements of Davis's "The Little Foxes" as well as her 1944 film "Mr.Skeffington."
Leave it to Davis to find a brilliant student, a terrific John Dall, in her midst. The problem is that Dall is a drinker who feels he is betraying his fellow miners in pursuing an education. The maid's daughter, Bessie, played with evil intent by a fabulous Joan Loring, gets into trouble thanks to Dall, and she threatens to ruin all concerned. The end, where Davis agrees to take the unborn child and raise it herself, while vowing never to see Dall again, may be regarded today as corny but is well done.
This film is memorable because of its depiction of class structure and the opportunity for upward mobility. Both Dall and Loring received Oscar nominations in the supporting categories but Davis was denied a best actress nomination here which is somewhat surprising.
Mildred Dunnock and Rhys Williams costar as teachers in Ms. Moffat's school. Dunnock, so young here, but displays the same vulnerability as Elsie Thornton in 1957's "Peyton Place."
In this wonderful performance, I see elements of Davis's "The Little Foxes" as well as her 1944 film "Mr.Skeffington."
Leave it to Davis to find a brilliant student, a terrific John Dall, in her midst. The problem is that Dall is a drinker who feels he is betraying his fellow miners in pursuing an education. The maid's daughter, Bessie, played with evil intent by a fabulous Joan Loring, gets into trouble thanks to Dall, and she threatens to ruin all concerned. The end, where Davis agrees to take the unborn child and raise it herself, while vowing never to see Dall again, may be regarded today as corny but is well done.
This film is memorable because of its depiction of class structure and the opportunity for upward mobility. Both Dall and Loring received Oscar nominations in the supporting categories but Davis was denied a best actress nomination here which is somewhat surprising.
Mildred Dunnock and Rhys Williams costar as teachers in Ms. Moffat's school. Dunnock, so young here, but displays the same vulnerability as Elsie Thornton in 1957's "Peyton Place."