The Proud Valley is a film with noble intentions that ultimately falls flat in its execution. The film stars early African American actor and civil rights titan Paul Robeson as a black West Virginian coal miner who goes to Wales searching for work. Along the way, he joins and helps organize a men's choir and takes part in union negotiations after an accident kills several miners. When they go back to work, he and a number of other miners get trapped in yet ANOTHER accident wherein he sacrifices his life to let the others escape. Here's the film's ultimate problem: it has no idea what kind of movie it wants to be. Three plot elements are especially prominent: singing, civil rights, and mining. The three themes are stitched together like Frankenstein's monster so that they don't mix together. Essentially, John Ford did this film correctly with How Green Was My Valley? one year later, sans the civil rights subtext. While the film has problems, Robeson's performance shines through. In fact, Robeson later revealed that of all of his films, The Proud Valley was his favorite. Too bad the rest of the film couldn't keep up with him.
6/10
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