MRS MINIVER

US, 1942, 134 minutes, Black and white.
Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Dame May Whitty, Reginald Owen, Henry Travers, Richard Ney, Henry Wilcoxon, Helmut Dantine, John Abbott.
Directed by William Wyler.

Mrs Miniver was an acclaimed American classic of 1942. It won the Oscars for best film as well as best director for William Wyler and best actress for Greer Garson. Teresa Wright (who was nominated that year for best actress for Pride of the Yankees) won best supporting actress. It also won Oscars for cinematography and for James Hilton as screenwriter.

Greer Garson had emerged in films with Goodbye Mr Chips and was soon teamed with Walter Pidgeon in a series of very popular films from Blossoms in the Dust to Madame Curie, Mrs Parkington, to the more frothy Julia Misbehaves and the sequel The Miniver Story. During the 50s they appeared together in Scandal at Scourie. Greer Garson was considered one of the great ladies of the Hollywood screen of the 40s. Walter Pidgeon continued a strong career into the television era.

The film has a cast of regular character actors from this period led by Dame May Whitty. Helmut Dantine often appeared as a Nazi in this time.

The film offered a powerful image of war for the Americans, newly entered into World War Two after Pearl Harbor. It offered a picture of the English resistance. It is an idealised portrait of a British family – but symbolises the courage and pluck of ordinary British citizens and the war effort.

1. This film is considered a classic of the war period, its impact in the forties? Its impact in succeeding decades?

2. The style of the film and the M.G.M. dramas of the forties? Black and white photography, music, sets etc.? The popularity in their day of the combination of Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon? The humanity implied in the dramas?

3. How successful a propaganda film was this? The emphasis on propaganda, a tribute to the British in time of war? The boosting of morale for the war, 1942, now?

4. The qualities of humanity that pervaded the film? The appropriate amount of sentiment, sentimentality? Its humane portrayal of the issues of life and death of ordinary people?

5. The contrast between the world of 1939 and the post war world? The changes the war was to achieve? The film as an aid to understanding the changing aspects of the thirties and forties because of the war.

6. Audience involvement in the film because of the opening? Mrs Miniver in London, the atmosphere of shopping, the buses in the streets, buying the bat? The atmosphere of the country station and looking at the rose, the contrast with Clem and buying the car? The ordinary issues of ordinary life?

7. The detailed attention to life in the village? Mrs Ballard at the station, the flower show, the shops, the church and the influence of the vicar? The traditional values that were cherished? What was important about them?

8. The importance of the detail of life in the Miniver home? The quality of married life? The quality of family life? The children? servants?

9. The contrast with Lady Beldon and her way of life? Aristocracy, aristocratic values of the past? The contrast with Carol? Lady Beldon's memories of her own life when prompted by Mr Miniver? The importance of the interview between the two women The consent to Carol's marriage? Lady Beldon at the flower show, their decision about the rose and giving it to Mr. Bellard? As a symbol of the ways in England?

10. The announcement of war? The church scene, the sermon of the vicar?

11. The portrayal of the war effort and the keeping up of morale? How real does this seem now? The uncertainties of the outcome of the war in the early forties?

12. How appropriate was the melodrama of the prisoner in the garden? Was he a real person, his difficulties? Kay Miniver's handling of this situation? The fear for an ordinary housewife?

13. The portrayal of Dunkirk and the involvement of the ordinary men with their small boats, the effect it had on then?

14. The importance of the sub-plot with Carol? How attractive a girl? Vin and his pompous style after the university? Their falling in love, their communication with each other? Marriage? The worry about Vin's possible death and visualising him in the plane, the Miniver's looking out the window at the planes? The pathos of Carol's death and its effect on them all? How sad for the audience?

15. How was the flower show a final symbol of the changing world and a preservation of values? The pathos with those who died so soon afterwards especially Mr Ballard? How well handled was the sequence of Mr Ballard going to receive the prize?

16. What were the basic appeals of this film? As Does it deserve its reputation? The academy awards that it won?