Mrs. Miniver

So many wonderful, talented actors and actresses in this, where do I begin? Here we have the magnificent line-up of Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Teresa Wright, Dame May Whitty, and Henry Travers, to name but a few. All do a splendid and highly accomplished job. Greer Garson is lovely, as usual, and Henry Travers is a most likeable old character actor. This sentimental WWII drama tells its simple, honest story remarkably well, and is most definitely a classic. As a side note, this, along with the movie Random Harvest, made in the same year, served to put Garson right at the top in Hollywood in no time.

It is not easy to describe this film. For the current generation, the film might not mean much but imagine those who watched this film, witnessing the events they themselves have gone through. Only then you truly understand the power of the film.

To me, who is in his mid-30s, the film is certainly a reflection of decent, honest, not over the top acting you may be accustomed to see in films of the same era. This is certainly the reason it gets the score I gave.

It could certainly be shorter but then you’d have to give up on some important character development scenes.

Would I watch this film again? I don’t think so. Would I make my friends watch it? Possibly not.

At times, I found this to be just a little too sentimental; but a nonetheless remarkable and beautifully filmed tale of the end of an era that saw Britain declining as an Imperial power. A decline never better portrayed than by Dame May Whitty as the redoubtable "Lady Beldon" now faced not just with the harsh reality of the physical war, but of the social changes that are sweeping her into political oblivion. Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson again demonstrating the stoic spirit of WW2 Britain with dignity and fortitude. Henry Travers plays "Mr Ballard" with some tenderness too. The story is told through rose-tinted spectacles, but still well worth watching even now - 75 years after it was made.