estherwalker-34710 Review of The Tunnel

The Tunnel (1940)

Paul Robeson as vagabond African American coal miner and exceptional singer enchants a Welsh coal mining town.

[7/10 · 28 September 2021]

One year before the release of John Ford's 2hr. Oscar winning "How Green was my Valley", this 77min. British-made programmer was released, dealing with the same subject: the dangers and personalities of a Welsh coal mining town. Ford would have had it filmed on site in Wales, but with the bombing of England by the Germans, this was considered too risky. Thus, he had an entire Welsh coal town built near his studio. In contrast, the present film was filmed in a real Welsh coal town, mostly before the beginning of WWII. However, the last part of the film was influenced by the beginnings of WWII. Most notably, the finale was changed from the miners taking over the mine, after management refused to reopen it due too a bad gaseous fire that resulted in a number of deaths, to management considering reopening the mine if it could be proven likely safe. In this manner, the film's pro-socialist slant was much muted...........The film is based on the script " David Goliath"(in reference to Paul Robeson's unusual height and robustness) and written by far left writers Herbert Marshall and Friedel Brilliant, specifically to showcase Robeson, who was sympathetic with this theme. In turn, the script was inspired by an African American coal miner who journeyed to Wales in search of work...........SKIP THE FOLLOWING IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE LAST PART. Returning to the problem of demonstrating that the mine could be worked safely, so that management would OK reopening it: Management sent a representative to observe the miner's attempts to skirt the dangerous gaseous section. Eventually, he was impressed with their progress. But a potentially happy ending had to wait until another mine disaster was resolved. In a freak occurrence, one of the coal cars started rolling down the inclined track, gathering speed as it progressed. Eventually, it ran over the management representative and a miner, and, when it jumped the track, caused many roof supports give way, resulting in roof collapse, trapping the miners in the mine.(I would judge the runaway car very improbable, as well as the emphasized extensive damage to many wood supports) The miner's oxygen supply was rapidly diminishing, when someone thought of using their dynamite to blast a hole in the wall where it seemed weakest. One of the miners was chosen to push the plunger, resulting in his probable death. But Robeson somehow knocked this miner unconscious, without anyone noticing, and took his place as the plunger, resulting in his death, but providing a source of oxygen and a way for the miners to get out. Skipping over the details of negotiating the reopening of the mine, we see the town folk celebrating its reopening. This is followed by a patriotic glorification of Wales, including a choir singing of the Wales National Anthem: "Land of our Fathers"(English translation)............Robeson relished this film above all his others for several reasons: 1) He gets to sing, with or without a choir backup, a number of Welsh songs. 2)Its statement about how race relations should be. Most Welsh appeared to immediately accept him as an equal person, working along side him in the mine. Perhaps this was facilitated by his strong base/baritone voice that impressed them(He was the 'darky' who famously sang 'Ole Man River", in the 1936 film "Showboat"). 3) He definitely agreed with the socialist slant of the film, even if the worker take over of the mine was deleted.......... I didn't find the film at YouTube. I saw it on TCM. Unless you are willing to wait until its next showing on TV, there is a four film package that includes it, currently available at Amazon, for a quite reasonable price.