JohnHowardReid Copyright 13 April 1945 by Loew's Inc. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 3 May 1945. U.S. release: 14 April 1945. U.K. release: 26 November 1945. Australian release: 28 March 1946. 12 reels. 10,787 feet. 120 minutes.SYNOPSIS: In 1880 Pittsburgh, Mary Rafferty becomes a servant in the home of William Scott, despite the opposition of her father, Pat Rafferty, who had been crippled in an accident in Scott's steel mill. Mary endears herself to Clarissa, William Scott's wife, and to the four children: Paul, Constance, William Jr, and Ted. Eventually love comes to Mary and Paul, but she decides not to wed him because of her lowly position.NOTES: Number 7 at the domestic box office for 1945. Initial domestic rental gross: $5,560,000. Photoplay Gold Medal Award: Best Film of 1945. Photo-play Gold Medal Award: Greer Garson, Best Actress of 1945. Number 4 on the Film Daily Annual Poll of domestic film critics and commentators. Film debut of Marshall Thompson, according to many reference books, but in point of fact his initial movie was 1944's Reckless Age. Greer Garson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress, losing to Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce. Also nominated: Best Music Scoring in the Drama/Comedy category, but Stothart lost to Miklos Rozsa's Spellbound.COMMENT: Here's another of those stories that appear so often in vintage movies. It's all about the humble servant girl who makes good in the big house on the hill and marries the young master. When our little slavey is played by that wide-eyed mistress of do-goodiness Greer Garson, and the upright chip by the impeccably stolid Gregory Peck, we just know we are in for a studiously well-mounted yet craftily well-wearisome time. But wait! In this movie the unexpected happens. True, we should have remembered that the script is based on a three-decker novel. So just as she is about to marry half-way through the film, there is trouble at the mill. This leads to consequences that add ten years to the happy consummation (which translates into another hour of screen time which the director can put to good use with lots of dewy-eyed close-ups of Miss G. and lots of stolid close-ups of Mr P. putting an eminently respectable brave front on things). When this film was made, a sort of fourth-rate Girls Own Paper Pride & Prejudice like this had a lot of box-office clout. The men were all overseas in the war and the home audience consisted mostly of women seeking this sort of synthetic escapism. And it must be admitted that though there are some glaringly obvious backdrops, the miniatures of the mill are impressively realized and Joseph Ruttenberg's black-and-white photography (which makes the film look like the first pull of a brand-new steel engraving) is always visually stylish to look at. The sets, costumes also help. At times, Garnett's direction is quite deft, though mostly he is content to let his players amble (or fulminate in the case of Lionel Barrymore) through their scenes. This easy-going attitude makes it even more difficult to accept the second half of the film where Duryea and Thompson who seemed so mildly agreeable in the first half, show a mildly disagreeable side to their characters. With Jessica Tandy, oddly enough, the reverse is true. She is always so disagreeable that her big speech loses most of its impact because it's so predictable! So we have here a situation where a director tries two opposite methods to keep our interest in the piece and both of them don't work, leading to the conclusion that the contrived, artificial, unbelievable and completely hackneyed and derivative script itself is the problem.

bkoganbing Marcia Davenport's novel The Valley Of Decision got the full MGM star gloss treatment when it came to the big screen. It was bought for the woman who was probably their biggest female star at the time Greer Garson. And Garson was given up and coming new leading man Gregory Peck in only his third film.The Valley Of Decision bears the unmistakable influence of Edna Ferber as well, no doubt this was who Davenport was trying to imitate. It's a story of an Irish working class lass who came to work as a maid for a wealthy steel family and gets quite involved with them and their problems. Quite the family as well with parents Donald Crisp and Gladys Cooper and their offspring Gregory Peck, Dan Duryea, Marshall Thompson, and daughter Marsha Hunt. Look at the cast and the children are pretty much as you classic movie fans can type them. Only Peck seems to have a real love for the business itself that brought them their wealth and of course he's who Crisp has pinned his hopes on to carry on after Crisp leaves this earth.Garson is the Irish lass of course and she does not exactly go with the blessings of the house. Lionel Barrymore is her father with adapted brogue and all and this is one of the few times Barrymore's wheelchair and paralysis is actually given explanation. He had an industrial accident and even though Crisp's family has given a small pension to live on, Barrymore is full of bitterness and hate. It all boils over and leads to a climatic tragedy. The character of the three sons also plays a part in that same tragedy.Other roles of significance are Preston Foster as a union organizer, John Warburton as the English impoverished Earl who courts and weds Marsha Hunt, and Jessica Tandy the society girl who Peck weds. The novel no doubt needed considerable editing to be brought to the screen, but I get the feeling it was done at the expense of Tandy's character. It's strangely underdeveloped for a major role.In Michael Freedland's book about Gregory Peck, Peck was quoted as saying he learned early on that this was a Garson picture because when he saw the shots of them together, she was always radiant and fully lit while he was in the shadows. Seeing the film, damn if Peck wasn't right. Garson knew her business and she got an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, but lost to Joan Crawford for Mildred Pierce. Peck also was in the Oscar running for Best Actor, but for his second film The Keys Of The Kingdom. Herbert Stothart's musical scoring got the only other Academy recognition with a nomination in that category.The Valley Of Decision shows MGM movie-making at its height and at its best. This was one expensive production and the sets show it as well as the impressive cast list. Definitely one for fans of Greer Garson.

rday-9 I happened to catch this one on TCM. I'd heard about how Peck was one of the few hunks left at home during WWII but was not as familiar with Miss Garson except for perhaps Goodbye Mr. Chips. Also, I am more a fan of Warner Brothers films than the glossy MGM fare. Nevertheless, I was captivated by this one. Garson plays with charming capability the Irish servant Mary to the Scott scion Peck against the backdrop of a Pittsburg steel mill. It's rather soap operatic but Peck manages to bring it down to earth. You could already see the Atticus Finch in him. Only Lionel Barrymore as Mary's bitter father manages to wreck things with his usual ham overacting. The story was also surprisingly politically correct with the servants, especially Mary, being treated more like cousins than workers as one might find in say, class conscious British films. The ending was a tad implausible but a happy one nonetheless. I would definitely add it to my rainy day, sick in bed with the flu, can't sleep insomniac collection.

tjonasgreen In Pittsburgh in 1873, plucky Irish immigrant Greer Garson accepts a position as a servant in the mansion of steel magnate Donald Crisp, though her father was crippled in his mill. Inevitably, Greer and Gregory Peck (as the principled second son of the family) find themselves drawn to each other despite class differences, and surprisingly, his parents spprove. But a series of dramatic events -- a steelworkers' strike, three violent killings, a spite marriage, a natural death and a surprising bequest -- all conspire to keep Greer and Greg apart while the audience is left to wonder when and how they can get together.In a way we don't care since these mismatched stars have no chemistry together. In only his third screen role, Gregory Peck is always competent and is sometimes better than that, but his cool, placid demeanor works against this tale of romance thwarted for over a decade. For her part, Greer Garson was never one to suggest sexual attraction or romantic passion, and she has the further handicap of looking much older than Peck and seeming too old to play her character in the early parts of the film. But by the end, when her character's age has caught up to her, Garson's usual poise and authority seem just right.If the lack of fireworks between the stars seems like a drawback, it somehow isn't because the narrative is really about the love affair an unhappy woman has with a warm, charismatic family. And here, the producer and the director Tay Garnett make sure the film is enlivened with a talented and varied supporting cast including Donald Crisp, Gladys Cooper, Lionel Barrymore (a hambone as usual), Dan Duryea, Preston Foster, Reginald Owen, Marshall Thompson and young Dean Stockwell. Of particular interest are two excellent supporting performances. MGM stalwart Marsha Hunt brings some bite and complexity to the role of Peck's sister, a selfish, superficial woman who is nevertheless decent and loving. And though Jessica Tandy spends most of the film in a thankless role as a brittle society girl hoping to snag Peck, by the end of the film she is allowed to give a vivid performance of bravura shrewishness, the kind of thing Agnes Moorehead usually did so well.