Mrs. Miniver (film)

Mrs. Miniver
Mrs. Miniver promotional poster
Directed by	William Wyler
Produced by	Sidney Franklin
Written by	Jan Struther (book) George Froeschel James Hilton Claudine West Arthur Wimperis
Starring	Greer Garson Walter Pidgeon Teresa Wright Dame May Whitty Reginald Owen Henry Travers Richard Ney Henry Wilcoxon
Music by	Herbert Stothart
Cinematography	Joseph Ruttenberg
Editing by	Harold F. Kress
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	June 4, 1942 (USA premiere)
Running time	134 mins
Country	USA
Language	English
Gross revenue	$5,358,000
Followed by	The Miniver Story

Mrs. Miniver is a 1942 drama film directed by William Wyler and starring Greer Garson in the title role. It was produced as a propaganda film aimed at ending American isolation from World War II, and was based on the fictional English housewife created by Jan Struther in 1937 for a series of newspaper columns, Mrs. Miniver.^[1]

The film won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Director.

1 Background
2 Plot
3 Cast
4 Awards and nominations
5 Romantic interest
6 Radio adaptations
7 Legacy
8 References
9 External links

Background

The film adaptation of Mrs. Miniver was produced by MGM in 1942 with Greer Garson in the leading role and William Wyler directing. Under the influence of the American Office of War Information, the film attempted to undermine Hollywood's prewar depiction of England as a glamorous bastion of social privilege, anachronistic habits and snobbery in favour of more democratic, modern images. To this end, the social status enjoyed by the Miniver family in the print version was downgraded and increased attention was given to the erosion of class barriers under the pressures of wartime.

The film exceeded all expectations, grossing $5,358,000 in North America (the highest for any MGM film at the time) and $3,520,000 abroad. In Britain, it was named the top box office attraction of 1942. Of the 592 film critics polled by American magazine Film Daily, 555 named it the best film of 1942.

Plot

Teresa Wright, Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson

Although not as 'socially privileged' as in the book, the Mrs. Kay Miniver (Greer Garson) of the film version is still presented as living a comfortable life at a house called 'Starlings' in a village outside London. The house has a large garden, with a private landing stage on the river Thames, and a motorboat. Her husband Clem (Canadian born actor Walter Pidgeon) (despite his North American accent) is a successful English architect. They have three children: the youngsters Toby and Judy (Christopher Severn and Clare Sandars), and an older son Vin (Richard Ney) who is at university. They have live-in staff: Gladys the housemaid (Brenda Forbes) and Ada the cook (Marie De Becker).

As World War II looms, Vin comes down from university and meets Carol Beldon (Teresa Wright), granddaughter of aristocratic Lady Beldon (Dame May Whitty) from nearby Beldon Hall. Despite initial disagreements, for example the contrast of Vin's idealistic attitude to class differences and Carol's practical altruism, they fall in love: Vin proposes to Carol at dinner time after young brother Toby has embarrassingly blurted out that he should do so if they are in love. They eventually marry. As the war comes closer to home, Vin feels he must do his bit, joins the Royal Air Force as a pilot, and when qualified is posted to a base near to his parents' home. Clem takes his motorboat to assist in the Dunkirk evacuation.^[2] There are scenes of the family during an air-raid, when Mr. Foley (Reginald Owen), the storekeeper and air-raid warden, advises them to close their curtains; and they are shown in their shelter in the garden. Left alone at home, Kay finds a wounded German pilot (Helmut Dantine) in her garden. She feeds him, then calmly disarms him and calls the police.

After the flower show's competition, in which the entry of the stationmaster (Henry Travers) named the 'Mrs. Miniver' rose is judged the winner over Lady Beldon's rose, Kay, with Carol, drives Vin to join his squadron just as an air attack begins. On their return home Kay stops the car: Carol is wounded in an attack from a German plane, but she dies a few minutes after they reach home. The local inhabitants assemble at the badly damaged church and, with their vicar (Henry Wilcoxon), affirm their determination to fight on and defend their way of life.

Wilcoxon and director William Wyler "wrote and re-wrote" this key sermon "the night before the sequence was to be shot."^[3] The speech "made such an impact that it was used in essence by President Roosevelt as a morale builder and part of it was the basis for leaflets printed in various languages and dropped over enemy and occupied territory."^[3]

Cast

Greer Garson as Mrs. Miniver
Walter Pidgeon as Clem Miniver
Teresa Wright as Carol Beldon
Dame May Whitty as Lady Beldon
Reginald Owen as Foley
Henry Travers as Mr. Ballard
Richard Ney as Vin Miniver
Henry Wilcoxon as Vicar
Christopher Severn as Toby Miniver
Brenda Forbes as Gladys - Housemaid
Clare Sandars as Judy Miniver
Marie De Becker as Ada
Helmut Dantine as German Flyer
John Abbott as Fred
Connie Leon as Simpson

Awards and nominations

The film won six Oscars:

Academy Award for Best Picture - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Sidney Franklin, producer)
Academy Award for Best Actress - Greer Garson
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress - Teresa Wright
Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White - Joseph Ruttenberg
Academy Award for Directing - William Wyler
Academy Award for Writing, Screenplay - George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West, Arthur Wimperis

It was nominated for another six Oscars:

Academy Award for Best Actor - Walter Pidgeon
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor - Henry Travers
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress - Dame May Whitty
Best Effects, Special Effects - A. Arnold Gillespie (photographic), Warren Newcombe (photographic), Douglas Shearer (sound)
Best Film Editing - Harold F. Kress
Best Sound, Recording - Douglas Shearer

Romantic interest

Soon after filming, Richard Ney, who played Greer Garson's son and 11 years her junior, married Garson.

Radio adaptations

The film was adapted into an episode of the Lux Radio Theater in 1943. That episode in turn was popular enough to inspire a 5 day a week serial, starring radio veteran Trudy Warner on CBS^[4].

Legacy

Mrs Miniver is briefly mentioned in a J. D. Salinger story, "Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters". In June 2006 it was placed #40 on the American Film Institute's list celebrating the most inspirational films of all time.

References

^ "Mrs. Miniver (1942) at Reel Classics". http://www.reelclassics.com/Movies/Miniver/miniver.htm. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
^ There is a parallel story here: Sub-Lieut. Robert Owen Wilcoxon of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, only brother of Henry Wilcoxon, assisted in the Dunkirk evacuation on May 29th 1940; but, having helped to get hundreds of Allied troops off the beach to safety in his assault landing craft, he was fatally injured when, after returning to the sloop HMS Bideford to arrange a tow back to Dover, the ship had its stern blown off by a bomb dropped from a dive-bombing German aircraft. This must have been on Wilcoxon's mind during the making of the film. This event is reported in the book The Evacuation from Dunkirk, 'Operation Dynamo', 26 May-4 June 1940 ed. W. J. R. Gardner, pub. Frank Cass, London, 2000 ISBN 0714651206
^ ^a ^b Daynard, Don Henry Wilcoxon in Peter Harris (ed.) The New Captain George's Whizzbang #13 (1971), p. 5
^ "Jan Struther Bibliography". October 20, 2008. http://www.zip.com.au/~lnbdds/home/janstruther7.htm.

External links

Mrs. Miniver at the Internet Movie Database
Mrs. Miniver at Allmovie
Mrs. Miniver at the TCM Movie Database
"Where Is Today's Mrs. Miniver?". http://www.objectivistcenter.org/cth--1681-Miniver2006.aspx. Retrieved on 2008-04-28.
"Mrs. Miniver Opening Scenes". http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XIsjGh42OiQ&feature=related. Retrieved on 2008-08-20.
"Mrs. Miniver and the German Soldier". http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yTPVp1-Io5g. Retrieved on 2008-08-20.
"The full Cast of Mrs. Miniver". http://www.cinema.com/film/8071/mrs-miniver/cast.phtml. Retrieved on 2008-10-09.
"Mrs. Miniver Script transcript". http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/mrs-miniver-script-transcript-greer.html. Retrieved on 2008-10-08.

Awards
Preceded by How Green Was My Valley	Academy Award for Best Picture 1942	Succeeded by Casablanca

v • d • e Films directed by William Wyler

1920s	The Crook Buster (1925) • The Gunless Bad Man (1926) • Ridin' for Love (1926) • The Fire Barrier (1926) • Don't Shoot (1926) • The Pinnacle Rider (1926) • Martin of the Mounted (1926) • Lazy Lightning (1926) • The Stolen Ranch (1926) • The Two Fister (1927) • Kelcy Gets His Man (1927) • Tenderfoot Courage (1927) • The Silent Partner (1927) • Blazing Days (1927) • Shooting Straight (1927) • Galloping Justice (1927) • The Haunted Homestead (1927) • Hard Fists (1927) • The Lone Star (1927) • The Home Trail (1927) • Gun Justice (1927) • The Phantom Outlaw (1927) • The Square Shooter (1927) • The Horse Trader (1927) • Daze of the West (1927) • The Border Cavalier (1927) • Desert Dust (1927) • Thunder Riders (1928) • Anybody Here Seen Kelly? (1928) • The Shakedown (1929) • The Love Trap (1929)

1930s	Hell's Heroes (1930) • The Storm (1930) • A House Divided (1931) • Tom Brown of Culver (1932) • Her First Mate (1933) • Counsellor at Law (1933) • Glamour (1934) • The Good Fairy (1935) • The Gay Deception (1935) • Barbary Coast (1935) • These Three (1936) • Dodsworth (1936) • Come and Get It (1936) • Dead End (1937) • Jezebel (1938) • Wuthering Heights (1939)

1940s	The Westerner (1940) • The Letter (1940) • The Little Foxes (1941) • Mrs. Miniver (1942) • Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944) • The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) • Thunderbolt (1947) • The Heiress (1949)

1950s	Detective Story (1951) • Carrie (1952) • Roman Holiday (1953) • The Desperate Hours (1955) • Friendly Persuasion (1956) • The Big Country (1958) • Ben-Hur (1959)

1960s	The Children's Hour (1961) • The Collector (1965) • How to Steal a Million (1966) • Funny Girl (1968)

1970s	The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970)

Academy Award for Best Picture

How Green Was My Valley (1941) · Mrs. Miniver (1942) · Casablanca (1943) · Going My Way (1944) · The Lost Weekend (1945) · The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) · Gentleman's Agreement (1947) · Hamlet (1948) · All the King's Men (1949) · All About Eve (1950) · An American in Paris (1951) · The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) · From Here to Eternity (1953) · On the Waterfront (1954) · Marty (1955) · Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) · The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) · Gigi (1958) · Ben-Hur (1959) · The Apartment (1960)

Complete List · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)

v • d • e Academy Award for Best Actress

1928-1940	Janet Gaynor (1928) · Mary Pickford (1929) · Norma Shearer (1930) · Marie Dressler (1931) · Helen Hayes (1932) · Katharine Hepburn (1933) · Claudette Colbert (1934) · Bette Davis (1935) · Luise Rainer (1936) · Luise Rainer (1937) · Bette Davis (1938) · Vivien Leigh (1939) · Ginger Rogers (1940)

1941-1960	Joan Fontaine (1941) · Greer Garson (1942) · Jennifer Jones (1943) · Ingrid Bergman (1944) · Joan Crawford (1945) · Olivia de Havilland (1946) · Loretta Young (1947) · Jane Wyman (1948) · Olivia de Havilland (1949) · Judy Holliday (1950) · Vivien Leigh (1951) · Shirley Booth (1952) · Audrey Hepburn (1953) · Grace Kelly (1954) · Anna Magnani (1955) · Ingrid Bergman (1956) · Joanne Woodward (1957) · Susan Hayward (1958) · Simone Signoret (1959) · Elizabeth Taylor (1960)

1961-1980	Sophia Loren (1961) · Anne Bancroft (1962) · Patricia Neal (1963) · Julie Andrews (1964) · Julie Christie (1965) · Elizabeth Taylor (1966) · Katharine Hepburn (1967) · Katharine Hepburn / Barbra Streisand (1968) · Maggie Smith (1969) · Glenda Jackson (1970) · Jane Fonda (1971) · Liza Minnelli (1972) · Glenda Jackson (1973) · Ellen Burstyn (1974) · Louise Fletcher (1975) · Faye Dunaway (1976) · Diane Keaton (1977) · Jane Fonda (1978) · Sally Field (1979) · Sissy Spacek (1980)

1981-2000	Katharine Hepburn (1981) · Meryl Streep (1982) · Shirley MacLaine (1983) · Sally Field (1984) · Geraldine Page (1985) · Marlee Matlin (1986) · Cher (1987) · Jodie Foster (1988) · Jessica Tandy (1989) · Kathy Bates (1990) · Jodie Foster (1991) · Emma Thompson (1992) · Holly Hunter (1993) · Jessica Lange (1994) · Susan Sarandon (1995) · Frances McDormand (1996) · Helen Hunt (1997) · Gwyneth Paltrow (1998) · Hilary Swank (1999) · Julia Roberts (2000)

2001-present	Halle Berry (2001) · Nicole Kidman (2002) · Charlize Theron (2003) · Hilary Swank (2004) · Reese Witherspoon (2005) · Helen Mirren (2006) · Marion Cotillard (2007) · Kate Winslet (2008)

Complete list · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001-present)

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