Light in the Darkness: Bette Davis in The Corn is Green

“I have never talked to a man for more than five minutes in my life without wanting to box his ears.” Miss C. L. Moffat

From her earliest days as a contract player at Warner Brothers, Bette Davis struggled fiercely against being categorized as a glamour girl. The studio system would make over starlets with bleached hair, heavy makeup, false eyelashes, and often unsuitably sexy clothes and sort of fling them into various parts to see if anything stuck. Davis hated almost all of her early roles. There were a few exceptions, such as The Man Who Played God, with her mentor and champion, the great English star George Arliss, and of course her breakout performance in Of Human Bondage as the horribly destructive Mildred.

She won great praise for her acting in Of Human Bondage, but was bitterly disappointed when the studio failed to offer her parts as good as that one. There followed years of struggles back and forth between Davis and the studio. She went on strike, was sued by Warners, lost her court case, but won the reluctant respect of the studio bosses. Besides, Jack Warner could see a looming future of tremendous hassles every time he assigned her a project.

So Davis was no longer forced into glamour girl mode, though she could certainly look lovely if it suited the character, in Dark Victory, for example, and as the newly self-reliant Charlotte Vail in Now Voyager. But she was free to consider parts that had no glamour or romance at all.

Which leads to my favorite Bette Davis movie: The Corn is Green.

“The Corn is Green” was a hit play by Welsh actor Emlyn Williams, partly based on his own experiences as a youth, when an inspirational teacher helped him rise above his deprived background and eventually graduate from Oxford University, leading to a career as a writer, playwright, and actor. His play, though fictionalized and set in an earlier era, the 1890’s, was meant as a tribute to his teacher, and indeed all teachers. The great Ethel Barrymore starred as Miss Moffat on Broadway, and it says much for the power of the stardom Bette Davis had achieved by 1945 that she wanted and got the part in the movie.

Ethel Barrymore as Miss Moffat on Broadway

Because there is no glamour or romance in The Corn is Green, something that seems to have stymied the studio publicity department, which produced sexy looking posters that were most unsuitable. Miss Moffat is not just an unrepentant middle-aged spinster, she views most men with pretty obvious contempt. She would probably agree with the great feminist Flo Kennedy’s remark that “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” She’s not crazy about simpering women, either. She’s not pretty, or accommodating, or self-effacing. She does not believe that gentlemen know best. She is brisk, decided, and confident.

We first meet Miss Moffat when she arrives in a small Welsh coal mining town to take possession of a house bequeathed to her by a relative. With her come her housekeeper, known as Watty (Rosiland Ivan) and Watty’s teenage daughter, Bessie (Joan Lorring). She starts right out by alienating the local gentry in the person of the Squire, played by Nigel Bruce. She is shocked to discover that in this area, boys as young as eleven work full-time in the mine, and that no education is available to the largely illiterate population.

Rhys Williams, Mildred Dunnock, Bette Davis, and Nigel Bruce

Miss Moffat is outraged by this. She is a nonconformist in many ways, but one thing she does believe in is education. She decides to start a school. After struggling with and overcoming local opposition, she discovers among her pupils one teenage boy with exceptional abilities, Morgan Evans.

Williams added a few melodramatic plot points, and some ginned up suspense, but the main story is still about something very unusual in Hollywood — intellect. The erudite Miss Moffat sets herself the task of reaching the intelligence of one exceptionally talented young man, Morgan Evans (John Dall), and unlocking it, freeing him from his narrow existence and opening the world to a person of unlimited potential.

John Dall and Bette Davis

The fact that this task becomes an exciting struggle is a tribute to playwright Williams, director Irving Rapper, and particularly Bette Davis. She makes no effort to soften Miss Moffat, to make her more conventional, to make her conform to the stereotypes of the 1940’s, much less the 1890’s. Miss Moffat’s fierce determination is not the slightest bit romantic. She is not in love with him; she is not in love with anybody. She wants Morgan to have a chance because he deserves a chance, and the world deserves the benefit of his talents instead of having them wasted down a coal mine.

Williams’ The Corn is Green is a very cleverly and economically constructed play, which means all of the action takes place in one set. The film makes some efforts to “open it out,” but in this case the cramped quarters are actually a good thing. This story is about the necessity and importance of study — an unusual subject for drama! — and Miss Moffat’s task is to open the world of books and self-expression to Morgan Evans. What he needs to do is sit down at a desk and read and write.

The conflicts that arise are secondary in importance to Morgan’s intellectual progress. First, Miss Moffat starts off by offending the Squire, the major landowner and employer in the area, who is insulted by her brisk manner and complete lack of deference to his social position or his sense of masculine superiority. She eventually has to backtrack and wheedle his support in an amusing scene. I have to say that Nigel Bruce, much underrated as an actor, is every bit Davis’ equal, moving from affronted suspicion to indulgent support in a just a few lines of dialog.

Joan Lorring as the extremely troublesome Bessie Watty

A bigger problem turns out to be Bessie Watty, who is the very definition of the British phrase “No better than she should be.” The all too rarely seen Joan Lorring is marvelous as Bessie; dishonest, lazy, self absorbed, greedy, and sly, she has only been waiting to grow up so she can be promiscuous, too. She turns out to be Miss Moffat’s worst enemy, her identity completely wrapped up in attracting men. When Morgan becomes a star, he’s the one she aims for.

The remaining problem turns out to be Morgan himself and the social pressure he feels from his former mates in the colliery, who mock him and call him, “The schoolteacher’s little dog.” (Only in Welsh.)

Once this is resolved, however, the whole village becomes extremely supportive, treating Morgan almost as a sports star. When Morgan competes for an Oxford scholarship, the villagers are on tenterhooks waiting for news of his success or failure.

Miss Moffat in the end has not only given Morgan Evans a new life, but she has changed the life of the village permanently. Her classrooms are full of young and old cheerfully learning their letters. All of the children will have a better chance thanks to her determination.

Speak up!