The Corn Is Green

This was a late-night tv surprise. The Corn is Green is a highly engaging drama. Bette Davis is good as the well-intentioned, well-meaning but not always successful social engineer and pioneer in adult education, set in a rural Welsh mining town. A surprisingly 'modern' film for its release date with regard to its frankness about out-of-wedlock pregnancy. There was a good deal of Welsh language banter and phrases peppered throughout the film, despite the story's bias against Welsh in preference for the male lead receiving a 'proper' education in English. The film cannot be faulted for its expression of negative attitudes toward the indigenous language of Wales since minority languages were viewed as a detriment to progress in the modern world at the time. We know better now, but much damage has been done to the likes of the people depicted in the Welsh mining town of the Corn is Green, surrounded by a larger culture bent on their assimilation. This is an entertaining and near-tragic story which made me think.