The Last Days of Dolwyn
Encyclopedia
The Last Days of Dolwyn is a 1949 British
drama film
directed by Russell Lloyd
and Emlyn Williams
and starring Edith Evans
, Richard Burton
and Anthony James. A Welshman, who has done well in London, returns home planning to flood the valley he grew up in - provoking fierce opposition.
The film marked an early appearance of Burton; his second film.
A massive dam
and reservoir to supply water to Liverpool
has been constructed at the head of the valley above Dolwyn, but construction has stopped due to geological difficulties; what was thought to be limestone
is actually granite
. Realising that a cheaper and easier scheme would involve the flooding of the village, Lord Lancashire, the scheme's promoter, dispatches an agent, Rob, to visit the village and buy the land.
Rob persuades a reluctant, and debt-ridden, Lady Dolwyn to sell the land, and also offers the leaseholders large sums for their leases. They are also offered new houses in a Liverpool suburb and jobs in a cotton mill for those who want them.
Rob has his own reasons for wanting the village flooded; he is a native of Dolwyn, but was stoned
out of it twenty years before for thievery. He is thus hated by the villagers, whom he looks down on, and especially Gareth, the village shop owner, who helped to stone him.
Whilst preparing to pack up and leave, Gareth, who has also lived in England and thus is more conversant with the language, discovers documents that prove his foster-Mother, Merri (who has very little English), to own her hand in perpetuity. A solicitor conforms this title.
Lord Lancashire himself visits Merri, but soon realises that this simple village woman cannot be bought off or cajoled - and to top it all, she is able to cure his rheumatic shoulder with simple manipulation. He decides to leave the village alone and use the more expensive and difficult method of construction. Rob is furious and decides to sabotage
the dam to flood the valley. He is unable to do so and instead decides to set fire to Merri's cottage.
He is confronted by Gareth and a fight ensues. Rob is knocked down by Gareth and he falls into the fire he planned to use for his devilish work. He dies of a heart attack.
Merri has witnessed the events and is horrified. Determined that the killing shall not be discovered, she herself makes her way to the dam's valve
room and opens the valves.
The villagers watch sadly from nearby safe ground as their beloved village is slowly drowned.
A short prelude to the film shows a plaque near the dam marking the deaths of two people in the flood, but that only one of the bodies was recovered. The plaque not identify the two casualties of the flood, and the mystery of their identities is used in the film to add suspense, and, more importantly, in leading to the film's theme of moral ambiguity. The riddle is implicitly answered at the film's close; of the two bodies, one belongs to the villain of the story. Clearly, this is the body that was never found, for the village was flooded in order to conceal the manslaughter forever. The one found is the body of a shepherd whose voice has been, throughout the film, the voice of the beauty of the now-flooded valley, an innocent we last see alone in the village, sitting, singing on a wall while the rising flood waters lap at his booted feet.
The film may be based on the construction of the Elan Valley Reservoirs
, designed to supply water to Birmingham
. Some filming was carried out at these dams.
Cinema of the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Russell Lloyd
Russell Lloyd (film editor)
Russell Lloyd was a British-born American film editor who amassed fifty credits on feature films. Lloyd had a notable collaboration with the director John Huston that extended over eleven films...
and Emlyn Williams
Emlyn Williams
George Emlyn Williams, CBE , known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor.-Biography:He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family in Mostyn, Flintshire....
and starring Edith Evans
Edith Evans
Dame Edith Mary Evans, DBE was a British actress. She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.Evans was particularly effective at portraying haughty...
, Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
and Anthony James. A Welshman, who has done well in London, returns home planning to flood the valley he grew up in - provoking fierce opposition.
The film marked an early appearance of Burton; his second film.
Plot
The story is set in 1897 in and around the small peaceful (fictional) farming village of Dolwyn in Mid-Wales.A massive dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
and reservoir to supply water to Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
has been constructed at the head of the valley above Dolwyn, but construction has stopped due to geological difficulties; what was thought to be limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
is actually granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
. Realising that a cheaper and easier scheme would involve the flooding of the village, Lord Lancashire, the scheme's promoter, dispatches an agent, Rob, to visit the village and buy the land.
Rob persuades a reluctant, and debt-ridden, Lady Dolwyn to sell the land, and also offers the leaseholders large sums for their leases. They are also offered new houses in a Liverpool suburb and jobs in a cotton mill for those who want them.
Rob has his own reasons for wanting the village flooded; he is a native of Dolwyn, but was stoned
Stoning
Stoning, or lapidation, is a form of capital punishment whereby a group throws stones at a person until the person dies. No individual among the group can be identified as the one who kills the subject, yet everyone involved plainly bears some degree of moral culpability. This is in contrast to the...
out of it twenty years before for thievery. He is thus hated by the villagers, whom he looks down on, and especially Gareth, the village shop owner, who helped to stone him.
Whilst preparing to pack up and leave, Gareth, who has also lived in England and thus is more conversant with the language, discovers documents that prove his foster-Mother, Merri (who has very little English), to own her hand in perpetuity. A solicitor conforms this title.
Lord Lancashire himself visits Merri, but soon realises that this simple village woman cannot be bought off or cajoled - and to top it all, she is able to cure his rheumatic shoulder with simple manipulation. He decides to leave the village alone and use the more expensive and difficult method of construction. Rob is furious and decides to sabotage
Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...
the dam to flood the valley. He is unable to do so and instead decides to set fire to Merri's cottage.
He is confronted by Gareth and a fight ensues. Rob is knocked down by Gareth and he falls into the fire he planned to use for his devilish work. He dies of a heart attack.
Merri has witnessed the events and is horrified. Determined that the killing shall not be discovered, she herself makes her way to the dam's valve
Valve
A valve is a device that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically pipe fittings, but are usually discussed as a separate category...
room and opens the valves.
The villagers watch sadly from nearby safe ground as their beloved village is slowly drowned.
A short prelude to the film shows a plaque near the dam marking the deaths of two people in the flood, but that only one of the bodies was recovered. The plaque not identify the two casualties of the flood, and the mystery of their identities is used in the film to add suspense, and, more importantly, in leading to the film's theme of moral ambiguity. The riddle is implicitly answered at the film's close; of the two bodies, one belongs to the villain of the story. Clearly, this is the body that was never found, for the village was flooded in order to conceal the manslaughter forever. The one found is the body of a shepherd whose voice has been, throughout the film, the voice of the beauty of the now-flooded valley, an innocent we last see alone in the village, sitting, singing on a wall while the rising flood waters lap at his booted feet.
The film may be based on the construction of the Elan Valley Reservoirs
Elan Valley Reservoirs
The Elan Valley Reservoirs are a chain of man-made lakes and reservoirs in the Elan Valley in Powys, Mid Wales , using the rivers Elan and Claerwen...
, designed to supply water to Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
. Some filming was carried out at these dams.
Cast
- Edith EvansEdith EvansDame Edith Mary Evans, DBE was a British actress. She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.Evans was particularly effective at portraying haughty...
- Merri - Emlyn WilliamsEmlyn WilliamsGeorge Emlyn Williams, CBE , known as Emlyn Williams, was a Welsh dramatist and actor.-Biography:He was born into a Welsh-speaking, working class family in Mostyn, Flintshire....
- Rob - Richard BurtonRichard BurtonRichard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
- Gareth - Anthony James - Dafydd
- Alan Aynesworth - Lord Lancashire
- Barbara CouperBarbara Couper-Selected filmography:* Heaven Is Round the Corner * The Story of Shirley Yorke * The Last Days of Dolwyn * Paul Temple's Triumph * Happy Go Lovely * The Lady with the Lamp...
- Lady Dolwyn - Andrea Lea - Margaret
- Hugh GriffithHugh GriffithHugh Emrys Griffith was a Welsh film, stage and television actor.-Early life:Griffith was born in Marianglas, Anglesey, Wales, the son of Mary and William Griffith. He was educated at Llangefni County School and attempted to gain entrance to university, but failed the English examination...
- The Minister - Maurice BrowningMaurice BrowningMaurice Browning was a British television actor.He appeared in several cult television series, including The Avengers, The Saint, The Champions and Doctor Who....
- Huw - Rita Crailey - Hen Ann
- Eileen Dale - Mrs. Ellis
- David Davies - Septimus
- Frank DunlopFrank Dunlop (director)Frank Dunlop is a British theatre director.-Early life:Dunlop was born in Leeds, England to Charles Norman Dunlop and Mary Aarons...
- Ephrain - Kenneth Evans - Jabbez
- Patricia Glyn - Dorcas
- Joan Griffiths - Eira
- Sam HintonSam HintonSam Duffie Hinton was an American folk singer and marine biologist, best known for his music and harmonica playing. Hinton also taught at the University of California, San Diego, published books and magazine articles on marine biology, and worked as a calligrapher and artist.-Biography:Sam Hinton...
- Idris - Dafydd Havard - Will
- Roddy HughesRoddy HughesRoddy Hughes was a British film and television actor. He appeared in over 80 films between 1932 and 1961.-Selected filmography:* Say It With Flowers * Poison Pen * Saloon Bar...
- Caradoc - Madoline ThomasMadoline ThomasMadoline Thomas was a Welsh actress whose career encompassed stage, film and television roles. Thomas' stage credits included a number of roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company during the 1960s in productions including The Comedy of Errors, Richard II, Richard III, Henry V and Henry VI, Part 2...
- Mrs. Thomas