Rent The Last Days of Dolwyn (1949)

Richard Burton makes his film debut here, in 1949, a timely film about a Welsh village flooded 1892 - The Last Days of Dolwyn review by PV

Richard Burton (Jenkins) makes his debut here, aged 24/5 maybe looking older. Welsh actor Anthony James plays his adoptive brother.

This is known as Woman of Dolwyn in USA which ruins the alliteration!

OK so it is all sets and filmed in England and dated BUT also a decent story which is emotionally connecting, showing Wales in 1892. Full of singing working Welsh folk and romanticised Welsh village life. But hey ho...

A plot is woven into the flooding of a village to create a reservoir - something used often by Welsh nationalist re a village in north Wales drowned to make a reservoir to supply water to Liverpool. Capel Celyn was a rural community to the northwest of Bala in Gwynedd, Wales, in the Afon Tryweryn valley. The village and other parts of the valley were flooded in the Tryweryn flooding of 1965 to create a reservoir, Llyn Celyn, in order to supply Liverpool and Wirral with water for industry

BUT this has happened a lot in England too: Derwent was a village 'drowned' in 1944 when the Ladybower Reservoir in Derbyshire, England was created. The village of Ashopton, Derwent Woodlands church, and Derwent Hall were also 'drowned'.

SO anyway, this old creaky film with some scratchy sound and occasionally wobbly old celluloid, is starkly relevant still.

Odd to think the heights Burton reached before his death in 1983 aged 58, from drink. Maybe the less successful actors were luckier...

4 stars