“Mrs.
Miniver” is a romantic war drama based on the story
by Jan Struther and directed by William Wyler.
It
tells the story of the Miniver’s, an English middle-class family, as they
experience life in the first months of World War II.
The
film opens with Mrs Miniver (Greer Garson) returning on the train to the
idyllic village where she lives after a shopping trip to London and is desperately
trying to figure out how to tell her husband Clem (Walter Pidgeon) she has squandered
far too much on a frivolous new hat, although she needn’t have worried because
Clem was in a similar position as he’d bought himself a new car.
When
she disembarks from the train, the stationmaster, Mr. Ballard (Henry Travers),
asks Mrs Miniver’s permission to name a rose he's cultivated after her for the
flower show, and her gracelful acceptance brings about her first encounter with
Lady Beldon (Dame May Whitty) the formidable Lady of the Manor.
However
it was not to be the last, because their oldest son, Vin (Richard Ney), having
left Oxford for the RAF, courts and marries Lady Beldon's granddaughter Carol
(Teresa Wright).
But
war touched the people of the village, Clem took his small boat to Dunkirk and
his wife captured a downed German Pilot and again more tragically when a bad
raid took the lives of several villagers on the day of the flower show,
including newlywed Carol.
The
film won a host of Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actress for Greer
Garson, Best Supporting Actress for Teresa Wright, Best Director for William
Wyler, and all well deserved.
While there were also other nominations, Walter Pidgeon for Best Actor, Henry
Travers for Best Supporting Actor and Dame May Witty for Best Supporting
Actress, but lost to her fellow cast member Teresa Wright.
I think it was the penultimate scene between Greer Garson and Teresa Wright
that won them both Oscars.
But
judge for yourselves, I would suggest that you have to see it, I can't say more
than that; the hardest of hearts will be moved.
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