''The Green Years'' is a 1946 American

comedy-drama film Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, illness, betrayal, grief, etc. ...

directed by

Victor Saville Victor Saville (25 September 1895 – 8 May 1979) was an English film director, producer, and screenwriter. He directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954. He also produced 36 films between 1923 and 1962. Biography Saville produced his first f ...

and featuring

Charles Coburn Charles Douville Coburn (June 19, 1877 – August 30, 1961) was an American actor and theatrical producer. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award ("Oscar") three times – for '' The Devil and Miss Jones'' (1941), '' Th ...

Tom Drake Tom Drake (born Alfred Sinclair Alderdice; August 5, 1918August 11, 1982) was an American actor. Drake made films starting in 1940 and continuing until the mid-1970s, and also made TV acting appearances.

, Beverly Tyler and

Hume Cronyn Hume Blake Cronyn Jr. (July 18, 1911 – June 15, 2003) was a Canadian-American actor, screenwriter and playwright. He appeared in many stage productions, television and film roles throughout his career, and garnered numerous accolades, includ ...

. It was adapted by

Robert Ardrey Robert Ardrey (October 16, 1908 – January 14, 1980) was an American playwright, screenwriter and science writing, science writer perhaps best known for ''The Territorial Imperative'' (1966). After a Broadway (theatre), Broadway and Cinema of th ...

and

Sonya Levien Sonya Levien (born Sara Opesken; 25 December 1888 – 19 March 1960) was a Russian-born American screenwriter. She became one of the highest earning female screenwriters in Hollywood in the 1930s and would help a number of directors and film ...

from

A. J. Cronin Archibald Joseph Cronin (Cronogue) (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981) was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known novel is ''The Citadel (novel), The Citadel'' (1937), about a Scottish physician who serves in a Welsh coal mining, minin ...

's 1944 novel of the same name. It tells the story of the coming-of-age of an Irish orphan in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Plot

In 1900, Robert Shannon, a young orphan, is sent from Ireland to live with his grandparents in Scotland. His great-grandfather becomes the lad's mentor/father figure, helping him overcome the challenges of youth, and mollifying the cold stinginess of Robert's grandfather. The young Robert suffers life's trials, and the kind, old great-grandfather, despite given to drink and tall tales, is always there to help him rebound. In time, the intelligent Robert grows into a teenager, and comes to love his childhood friend Alison. After many twists and turns, setbacks and near misses, fate inevitably and irrevocably intervenes. He proceeds to attend medical college, attains a career, then marries his sweetheart.

Cast

as Alexander Gow *

as Robert Shannon (as a young man) * Beverly Tyler as Alison Keith (as a young woman) *

as Papa Leckie *

Gladys Cooper Dame Gladys Constance Cooper (18 December 1888 – 17 November 1971) was an English actress, theatrical manager and producer, whose career spanned seven decades on stage, in films and on television. Beginning as a teenager in Edwardian musica ...

as Grandma Leckie *

Dean Stockwell Robert Dean Stockwell (March 5, 1936 – November 7, 2021) was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned seven decades. As a child actor under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he appeared in '' Anchors Aweigh'' (1945), '' ...

as Robert Shannon (as a child) *

Selena Royle Selena Royle (November 6, 1904 – April 23, 1983) was an American actress of stage, radio, television and film and later, an author. Early life and career Actress Royle was born in New York City to playwright Edwin Milton Royle and actress Se ...

as Mama Leckie *

Jessica Tandy Jessie Alice Tandy (7 June 1909 – 11 September 1994) was a British actress. An icon in the film industry, she appeared in over 100 stage productions and had more than 60 roles in film and TV, receiving an Academy Award, four Tony Awards, a BAF ...

as Kate Leckie *

Richard Haydn Richard Haydn (10 March 1905 – 25 April 1985) was a British comedian. Early life George Richard Haydon was born in 1905 in Camberwell, in the London Borough of Southwark. After working as a music hall entertainer and overseer of a Jamaica, J ...

as Jason Reid *

Andy Clyde Andrew Allan Clyde (March 25, 1892 – May 18, 1967), was a Scottish-born American film and television actor whose career spanned some 45 years. In 1921 he broke into silent films as a Mack Sennett comic, debuting in ''On a Summer Day''. H ...

as Saddler Boag *

Norman Lloyd Norman Nathan Lloyd (''né'' Perlmutter; November 8, 1914 – May 11, 2021) was an American actor, producer, director, and centenarian with a career in entertainment spanning nearly a century. He worked in every major facet of the industry, inc ...

as Adam Leckie * Robert North as Murdoch Leckie *

Wallace Ford Wallace Ford (born Samuel Grundy Jones; 12 February 1898 – 11 June 1966) was an English–American vaudevillian, stage performer and screen actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly-faced demeanor with ...

as Jamie Nigg *

Eilene Janssen Mary Eilene Janssen (born May 25, 1938) is an American retired film and television actress. Early life Eilene Janssen was born in Los Angeles, California on May 25, 1938, to Henry Janssen and Mary Ellen Thompson. Film career Janssen began her ...

as Alison Keith (as a child) * Hank Daniels as Gavin Blair (as a young man) * Richard Lyon as Gavin Blair (as a child) *

Henry O'Neill Henry O'Neill (August 10, 1891 – May 18, 1961) was an American actor known for playing gray-haired fathers, lawyers, and similarly dignified roles on film during the 1930s and 1940s. Early life Henry O'Neill was born in Orange, New J ...

as Canon Roche *

Henry Stephenson Harry Stephenson Garraway (16 April 1871 – 24 April 1956) was a British actor. He generally portrayed amiable and wise Gentleman, gentlemen in many films of the 1930s and 1940s. Among his roles were Joseph Banks, Sir Joseph Banks in ''Mutiny ...

as Blakely *

Norma Varden Norma Varden Shackleton (20 January 1898 – 19 January 1989), known professionally as Norma Varden, was an English-American actress with a long film career. Life and career Early life Born in London, the daughter of a retired sea captain ...

as Mrs. Bosomley

Uncredited

Morris Ankrum Morris Ankrum (August 28, 1897 – September 2, 1964) was an American radio, television, and film character actor. Early life Ankrum was born in Danville in Vermilion County in eastern Illinois, and pursued a career in law. After graduating ...

as Dr. Galbraith *

Jimmy Aubrey Jimmy Aubrey (23 October 1887 – 2 September 1983) was an English actor who worked with both Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy, having gone with Fred Karno's theatrical company to America in 1908. However he left to start on his own in va ...

as Speller * Gary Gray as Boy Making First Communion *

Brandon Hurst Brandon Hurst (30 November 1866 – 15 July 1947) was an English stage and film actor. Early life Born in London, England, Hurst studied philology in his youth and began performing in theater in the 1880s. Before he began acting professional ...

as Bookseller * Mitchell Lewis as Smithy

Reception

The film was very popular at the box office. According to MGM records it made $4,222,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $2,432,000 elsewhere, leading to a profit of $1,941,000. It was one of the more popular films of the year."60 Top Grossers of 1946", ''Variety'' 8 January 1947 p. 8
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Awards and nominations

Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 9th Academy Awards to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in ...

(nomination) –

Academy Award for Best Cinematography The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work on one particular motion picture. History In its first film season, 1927–28, this award (like others such as the acting awards) w ...

(nomination) –

George Folsey George Joseph Folsey, A.S.C., was an American cinematographer who worked on 162 films from 1919 to his retirement in 1976. Biography Born in Brooklyn, Folsey was hired by Jesse Louis Lasky to work as an office boy in his newly formed Jesse L. ...

* Golden Berlin Bear for Best Picture at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

(nomination) –

Philip Leacock Philip David Charles Leacock (8 October 1917 – 14 July 1990) was an English television and film director and producer. His brother was documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock. Career Born in London, England, Leacock spent his childhood in the ...

''The Green Years'' on Turner Classic Movies

''The Green Years'' was shown on Turner Classic Movies on July 13, 2008 as part of a salute to

. It was also shown on the network April 8, 2021 as part of their annual "31 Days of Oscar" showcase.

Introductory comments

"Hi, I'm

Robert Osborne Robert Jolin Osborne (; May 3, 1932 – March 6, 2017) was an American film historian, author, actor and the primary television host for the premium cable channel Turner Classic Movies (TCM) for over twenty years. Prior to hosting at TCM, Os ...

. One of Broadway's and Hollywood's finest, Hume Cronyn, is our man of the night. Next, we have Hume Cronyn in a movie called ''The Green Years'' from MGM in 1946. It's one of those movies that you probably never heard of and maybe don't recognize the names from the cast, but the movie itself is really good and certainly worth watching. It's a story about an orphan Irish lad taken in by Scottish relatives where the boy begins a long and loving relationship with his rather crusty but fascinating great-grandfather. The film was based on a novel by the famed writer A. J. Cronin and it's one of the few films made by MGM in the forties which didn't have a Gable or a Tracy, a Rooney, Garson or Hedy Lamarr or some other big star among the players, but the cast we do get really couldn't be better. The leading role is split between two actors — Dean Stockwell, at the age of ten, playing the young lad, Robert, and Tom Drake plays the grown-up Robert — and both are wonderful. Tom Drake you'll recognize from the movie ''

Meet Me in St. Louis ''Meet Me in St. Louis'' is a 1944 American Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith family in St. Louis ...

''. He was the boy next door that Judy Garland falls in love with and sings about. In our movie there's also Charles Coburn giving a rip-roaring performance which earned him a Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination as Robert's gruff but very loving great-grandad. And you'll see Hume Cronyn, this time appearing with his real-life wife, Jessica Tandy. This was actually the third movie in which the couple had appeared The Seventh Cross'' and '' The Seventh Cross (film)">The Seventh Cross'' and ''Blonde Fever''">Blonde_Fever.html" ;"title="The Seventh Cross (film)">The Seventh Cross'' and ''Blonde Fever">The Seventh Cross (film)">The Seventh Cross'' and ''Blonde Fever'' but they don't play husband and wife in this movie — Cronyn actually plays Jessica's father — and that casting is even more curious when you consider that Jessica Tandy was actually older than Hume Cronyn. She was also very pregnant at the time this movie was made. Well, when the director, Victor Saville, actually found out she was pregnant, he was gonna replace Jessica, but then he couldn't find anybody he thought could do the part as well as she. So she stayed. But do notice that she's often bundled up in very bulky clothes or strategically placed behind furniture to cover her expanding torso. Here, from nineteen forty six, a really wonderful movie, ''The Green Years''."

Robert Osborne's closing comments

"You know, it's kind of hard to grasp the fact that sweet-faced little Dean Stockwell who we just saw as the young Robert, is the same fellow who, years later, played the lip-synching psychopath in David Lynch's '' Blue Velvet''. Dean Stockwell's had a very interesting career — three or four careers, really. There's Dean Stockwell, child star, in films like the one we just showed… and also '' Anchors Aweigh'' and ''The Boy with Green Hair">Anchors Aweigh (film)">Anchors Aweigh'' and ''The Boy with Green Hair'' and other movies. Then there's Dean Stockwell that played the thrill killer in ''Compulsion (1959 film)">Compulsion Compulsion, Compulsive, Compelling, or Compulsory may refer to: Psychology * Compulsive behavior, a psychological condition in which a person does a behavior compulsively, having an overwhelming feeling that they must do so. * Obsessive–compul ...

Plot

Cast

Uncredited

Reception

Awards and nominations

''The Green Years'' on Turner Classic Movies

Introductory comments

Robert Osborne's closing comments

References

External links