The Valley of Decision (1945)

Directed by Tay Garnett

It’s been a long time since the members of either major American party have paid attention to men who make things in the great factories of the world.  When I was born, Detroit was a muscular city, the fifth largest in the nation, turning out cars and trucks by millions.  Where would you look for tires and rubber, if not to Akron?  And Pittsburgh, the city of the three rivers, a port city more than two thousand miles by water to the sea, was the city of steel.  There was smoke, sure, and there was pride.  The Pittsburgh man could say, “Next time you cross a bridge, think that the river below might as well be our Allegheny.”

I doubt that Hollywood nowadays is any more interested in industrial matters than most politicians are.  Industry is too muscular, perhaps.  But the situation is ideal for high drama: brute matter against human intelligence and will; men risking life and limb; immense outlays, and immense gains or losses; commodities that bring ease and even beauty to our lives, but also smoke belched into the air and sludge leached into the water. And the factories flare at night like outposts of hell.

Our Film of the Week, The Valley of Decision (1945) is an excellent example of what Hollywood could once do, when so many of its people came from the working class, and knew by observation or by the memories in their muscles what it was to farm, to fish, to fight in war – or to make steel.  The place is Pittsburgh. The time is the 1870's, when the city was flooded with immigrants from northern and central Europe.  The bullhorn for the unhappy steelworkers, Pat Rafferty (Lionel Barrymore, who by this time was confined to a wheelchair), plays an old Irish immigrant who lost his legs in an accident at the mill.  He’s a naturally benevolent man, warped by hatred and vindictiveness.  His imagined enemy is the mill owner, William Scott (Donald Crisp; see him as the heroic coal miner in one of our other Films of the Week, How Green Was My Valley).  Scott lives in a mansion now.  But he’s the son of another Irish immigrant, his father, who came to America with nothing, and who by hard work and much good fortune built up the Scott Mills.  Nor has Scott forgotten Rafferty.  He has provided him with a monthly pension equal to his pay when he was crippled for life.

What does it mean to be in charge of making things, and to care for the men who do the grueling work?  The film begins and ends – I won’t give away the ending – with an offer to the Scotts, to sell the mill to the “big fish,” Andrew Carnegie.  Mr. Scott turns down the first offer, a very good one, because the mill is a part of him. He’s only a “little fish,” and though he can’t make nearly as much steel as Carnegie makes, he can make better steel, the best in America.  That is when his son Paul (Gregory Peck) comes back from Europe – not a grand tour for the rich boy, but a survey of German steel mills – with the idea of the open hearth, to mix a wide variety of ingredients to produce steel fit for all kinds of purposes.  It will be hugely expensive, and there is no guarantee it will work.  But Mr. Scott, a proud and courageous man, tells him to go ahead.

Meanwhile, Rafferty's lovely daughter Mary (Greer Garson, with a delicate Irish brogue), has gone into service in the Scott mansion.  There, by her efficient work and her engaging intelligence, she wins the trust and friendship of Mrs. Scott (Gladys Cooper), and the interest of Paul. He is no snob. Can you be a snob, in fact, if you’re going to be an excellent industrialist? Won’t you have to get your hands dirty in the work? Won’t you have to rely on men with experience, and not just ideas on paper? And who will save you if your plans don’t go well, and the working men begin to grow restless and angry, especially if they have someone like Rafferty to fuel their anger?

I assure you, this is not a plot by Hollywood formula.  There are surprises along the way. If for nothing else than for the brilliant cast, The Valley of Decision is well worth your time.  But it delivers much else besides, asking important questions about the good of manufacture, and about labor, responsibility, and the common good. We need to ask them again.

We found a long clip from “The Valley of Decision,” but could not find a free version online.

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Word & Song by Anthony Esolen is an online magazine devoted to reclaiming the good, the beautiful, and the true. We publish six essays each week, on words, classic hymn, poems, films, and popular songs, as well a weekly podcast, alternately Poetry Aloud or Anthony Esolen Speaks. To support this project, please join us as a free or paid subscriber. Learn more about our subscription tiers by clicking the button below.