MRS. MINIVER Movie Review

1942 William Wyler

The years have been less than kind to William Wyler's early World War II propaganda/soap opera, but that does not diminish its importance. Any film that achieves such widespread popularity with audiences, critics, and the industry—it won virtually all of the important Academy Awards in 1942—deserves attention.

The opening titles explain that this is the story of a typical middle-class British family in the summer of 1939. Architect Clem Miniver (Walter Pidgeon) and his wife Kay (Greer Garson) have three children—the oldest off at Oxford—maids, tutors, cooks, a charming little ivy-covered cottage in the village of Belham, a short train ride from London. Yes, just a typical middle-class family. Audiences in 1942 could accept that kind of idealized world as a setting for a “realistic” story. But conventions and viewers' expectations of cinematic “reality” have changed to the point that Wyler's bucolic England is just around the corner from Oz.

Contemporaneous moviegoers didn't see it that way. They saw Anglo-American characters engaged in a valiant struggle against a rising tide of Nazi barbarism; good, decent people who are able to overcome their stuffy class system, accept each other as equals and pull together to defeat their common enemy in “the people's war.” Why? What was it about the picture that made it the biggest boxoffice hit of the decade?

A large part of the reason lies in simple timing. Shooting began on November 11, 1941; the finished product opened in May 1942, neatly bracketing the cataclysmic events of December 7, 1941. Clearly, it arrived at a time when Americans were ready for the right inspirational message. Wyler, who had made six Best Picture–nominated films in the previous six years, was just the man to deliver that message.

Roughly the first half is glossy sweetness and light that turns more ominous when the air raid sirens wail. At a fairly leisurely pace, Wyler brings in the retreat from Dunkirk; the Battle of Britain; wartime romances between son Vin (Richard Ney) and Carol Beldon (Teresa Wright), granddaughter of the local gentry, and between Gladys (Brenda Forbes), the cook, and her beau Horace (Rhys Williams); even a wounded German pilot (Helmut Dantine) who lands in the garden. All of those events are positioned to reinforce the basic decency of these characters and their society. It all ends with one of the finest motivational sermons ever put on film. (The famous speech was reportedly revised the night before it was shot by Wyler and actor Henry Wilcoxon, who delivers it. The scene was a huge hit with Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt, and the short piece was widely published in magazines.)

Though the acting seems arch and oddly accented today, it too struck the right note with the first audiences. In the Best Actor category, Walter Pidgeon lost to James Cagney's even more patriotic Yankee Doodle Dandy, but all the other key players on both sides of the camera took home Oscars. That sweep explains the film's popularity. Forget the flaws of then and now. Mrs. Miniver captures the emotion of the moment, and no one can argue with that.

Cast: Greer Garson (Kay Miniver), Walter Pidgeon (Clem Miniver), Teresa Wright (Carol Beldon), May Whitty (Lady Beldon), Richard Ney (Vin Miniver), Henry Travers (Mr. Ballard), Reginald Owen (Foley), Henry Wilcoxon (Vicar), Helmut Dantine (German flyer), Aubrey Mather (Innkeeper), Rhys Williams (Horace), Tom Conway (Man), Peter Lawford (Pilot), Christopher Severn (Toby Miniver), Clare Sandars (Judy Miniver), Marie De Becker (The Cook), Connie Leon (Simpson, the maid), Brenda Forbes (Gladys), John Abbott (Fred), Billy Bevan (Conductor), John Burton (Halliday), Mary Field (Miss Spriggins), Forrester Harvey (Mr. Huggins), Arthur Wimperis (Sir Henry), Ian Wolfe (Dentist); Written by: George Froeschel, James Hilton, Arthur Wimperis, Claudine West; Cinematography by: Joseph Ruttenberg; Music by: Herbert Stothart. Producer: Sidney Franklin, MGM. Awards: Academy Awards '42: Best Actress (Garson), Best Black and White Cinematography, Best Director (Wyler), Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Wright); Nominations: Academy Awards '42: Best Actor (Pidgeon), Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Supporting Actor (Travers), Best Supporting Actress (Whitty). Running Time: 134 minutes. Format: VHS, Beta, LV.