The Corn Is Green is a 1945 American drama film starring Bette Davis as a schoolteacher determined to bring education to a Welsh coal mining town despite great opposition.

(Lily Cristobel) Moffatt, M.A, comes to a Welsh coal mining area, to the village of Glansarno (English spelling).

She enlists the help of Mr. Jones and Miss Ronberry, and plans to buy a nearby barn and turn it into a schoolhouse.

Then she discovers a promising student, Morgan Evans, a miner seemingly destined for a life of hard work and heavy drink.

She is captivated by an essay he writes that begins “If a light come into the mine...” With renewed hope, she works hard to help him realize his potential and opens her home to give lessons to people of all ages.

He is drunk and has just had a huge row with Miss Moffatt, rebelling at the constant control and the humiliation from those who call him “the teacher’s little dog.” Bessy sings a sweet-sounding but bawdy Welsh song to him, and they fall into each other's arms.

Miss Moffatt brings the Squire around by skillfully playing on his vanity, suggesting that if the Earl of Southampton can patronize a Shakespeare, he can support a Morgan Evans.

Morgan’s friends — who teased him unmercifully in the beginning — come for him, singing, and bring him to Miss Moffatt’s, where the Squire will invigilate.

The Squire is fully involved with the expanded school, saying that it is quite a thrill “watching these eager little beggars soaking up education.” According to Miss Ronberry, there are rumors in the village about Bessie.

Morgan is returning from the interview at Oxford and everyone—teachers, students, the Squire are eagerly waiting, many of them at the train station.

The Squire, Mr Jones and Miss Ronberry all come in and receive the same news: the results will arrive by post in two days.

It is Bessie, decked in a white fur cape and glittering jewelry, heavily made up and looking jaded and older than her years.

She made out to the Squire that he might become a writer, but she believes that he could be much more, “a man for a future nation to be proud of.” He could bring that light into the mine—and free the children.

Rhys Williams, Rosalind Ivan, Mildred Dunnock and Gene Moss, members of the Broadway cast, reprised their roles for this film.