Not a question

[sandmaster]

more of a moan.
One of my favourite books is How Green Was my Valley.
In the local lending library last weekend I saw a DVD of the 1940 production. B&W but I thought that would add to the drama.
I couldn't believe the American idea of how Welsh miners lived. The inside of the cottages were like rich ranchers houses. Huge and with fine furniture and bone china. The women always seemed dressed in 'Sunday' best.
Few live in such houses today!!

[Rosetta]

Aww, are you going to tell me that films aren't realistic. I'm crushed. LOL

[China Doll]

We all live in castles over here in England y'know... I think sometimes it's possible some Americans struggle with the idea of history in some ways because comparitively (time being a very vast things) they're quite a new country. Plus there are some quite romantic ideas about England... I took a couple of American friends out, they loved London and then I brought them back to where I lived, Peckham... They were a little suprised at the difference being as the only other place they'd visited so far had been richmond. Just a question of perspective I guess.

[paddywak]

I'm afraid its not just the Americans who have these wierd ideas. One year while on holiday in Zante the hotel we were in had a number of families from London,one night over a few beers I Imentioned (as you do) that we were all mineworkers and I couldn't believe their ideas about mining,they seemed to think we were like the seven dwarfs crawling about with a candle on our hats and a pick over our shoulder. When I told them I was an electrical shift charge engineer one man came straight out and called me a lier as "they didn't have electricity in coal mines" and this was in 1989

[jno]

big rooms in films are more a matter of having enough room for the director and camera crew as well as the cast than about realism.

[sandmaster]

Paddywack - did you tell them that our youngest children were used to open and close the ventilation doors as the older children passed by towing the trams!!
Once they grew up (over 9) of course they were at the picks

[paddywak]

To be honest sandmaster, I was amazed, I half expected them asking who was looking after the whippets and pigeons and what days did we beat our wifes on.I got the distinct impression that as far as they were concerned if you lived north of Watford Gap you were 100yrs behind.Speaking of the North/South thing on breakfast tv they were interviewing a guy in a village that had no gas for and electric for 2-3 days when asked how they'd managed while other parts of the country struggled he just replied that "They're soft down South"

[saxy_jag]

Have a look at the 1940s Hollywood production of Pride and Prejudice (can't remember who was in it). Elizabeth wears the most gorgeous Victorian crinoline and Darcy a very fetching stovepipe hat. A friend at uni who did her thesis on Hollywood costume informed me that this was because the studio had just blown its budget on Gone With the Wind and had to reuse some of the costumes for Pride and Prejudice.

There again, Hollywood has this weird idea of how things ought to be represented so that movie-goers will want to go and see them. A while back, I watched an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies - from about the 1960s, I think. The family was visiting England and were staying in a big old castle in Kent - complete with kilted piper on the ramparts and highland backdrop. At one point, Grandma went to the neighbouring castle to borrow a cup of sugar.

[Francis Asis]

And have you noticed how you can always tell the bad guy in an American film - its the one with the English accent!!

[sophie_1003]

I think they quite often re-used props in Hollywood, am pretty sure a lot of the ones in Wizard of Oz were from somewhere or other and the coat Profeesor Marvel wore actually once belonged to Frank L. Baum who wrote the book the film was based on
http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/ozcoat.asp
sorry, a bit off topic I know but I thought it was interesting!

[sandmaster]

Certainly is Sophie. I used to love The Wizard of Oz when I was a kid. First saw it about 52 years ago and it still has magic for me. But as you say it is a bit naff in places.

[sophie_1003]

:-0!! It is not naff, I said nothing of the sort!!! I love it and want Glenda's dress, it is beautiful!!

[spudqueen]

I understood that the film was to be made in Wales, but with the onset of war they filmed it in Hollywood. I wonder how different it would have been if they had filmed it in Wales.

[sandmaster]

Spudqueen - we may have got a feeling for the grinding poverty that prevailed in pit villages. Long hours, hard work and a subsistence level of living.
In the US version all were well fed, hardly ever seemed to work and dressed in clean clothes as well as living in large houses.
I enjoyed the film for what it was, but it certainly did not show life in Wales at that time.

[woodelf]

Hi Sandmaster, I don't know if anyone else has said this, but I think there's either a video or dvd of How Green etc starring Stanley Baker and Sian Philips made on BBC. Woodelf

[sandmaster]

Thanks woodelf - I'll look out for it. I may have seen it sometime in the past because whenever I think of the book I always picture Stanley Baker as the lead!!