May 1945: The Valley of Decision













Gregory Peck and Lionel Barrymore… And Greer Garson… Oh, I’ve seen her in Mrs. Miniver, which was very good indeed…

Uh-oh! It’s a movie about Irish in the US.

ME AM SUSPICIOUS

There’s something particularly dreadfully tedious about Irish cultural extruded product. The combination of religiosity, pomposity, sentimentality and forced cheer is positively venomous. If only these things had actual humour instead of some asshole saying and then going “HO HO HO” there’d been something to enjoy.

So I’ve got a totally open mind here! No prejudices! I’m sure this will be a wonderful movie!

[time passes]

OK, the first half hour was boring, and then the next three hours were annoying, and then the last nineteen hours were just excruciating.

It’s everything I expected. And more.

It’s a horrible, horrible movie.

Did it win all the Oscars? Hm…. No! Garson was nominated for best actress, which is well deserved, I guess, but then the entire world tried to forget that the movie ever happened.

But people liked it:

The film was a massive hit, earning $4,566,000 in the US and Canada and $3,530,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $3,480,000 in profit.

How many Irish are there anyway?

The Valley of Decision. Tay Garnett. 1945.

Popular movies in May 1945 according to IMDB:

PosterVotesRatingMovie
13617.4The Valley of Decision
62907.4The Body Snatcher
2957.0Molly and Me
10106.9The Scarlet Clue
2736.7Pillow to Post
28366.7Back to Bataan
5076.6Thrill of a Romance
2036.5Boston Blackie Booked on Suspicion
7406.4The Bullfighters
3386.4The Brighton Strangler

This blog post is part of the Decade series.

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