Everything About Greer Garson -- Mrs. Miniver (1942)

MissGreerGarson.com by Ed S.

BLOG! Home GreeResources Fun stuff Addenda
Miniver Random Curie Parkington Valley

Mrs. Miniver (1942) pic

Pictures!

Click here for pictures

Some of Ed's favourite moments

This is Greer's most famous movie, of course. I can't get over how beautiful she manages to be throughout this movie, in so many ways, wearing basically the same hairdo and lipstick.
Her cinematographer, Joseph Ruttenberg, did such a good job of making her look good that Greer insisted on having him shoot every subsequent movie she made at MGM (except perhaps one). This guy won four Oscars and had six other nominations. (!)
I just love the first half hour of this movie: Greer buying the hat, Walter buying the car, Mr. Ballard's rose, trepidation at the dinner table, showing Clem her hat.
Her first "Oh" in this movie comes at the very beginning, but it's inaudible. Her second "Oh" comes a moment later.
These are just warm-ups for the magnificent "oh" in Ballard's office after she gets off the train.
On the bus at the beginning: Some nice close-ups. The bus conductor (Billy Bevan) has the high point of his entire career when his face is mere inches away from Greer's.
Now, if I had been him, I would've "stumbled" during one of the takes and accidentally bumped into Greer and stolen a kiss.
On the train with the Vicar (Henry Wilcoxon): He looks older than Greer, doesn't he? But he isn't.
We get a lip-purse and some lower lip when Ballard says: "...horse manure... That's where you come in."
The "Oh"s in her previous movies were mere warm-ups for the fabulous "Oh" that she executes when Ballard tells her that he's named the rose after her.
Did you notice another actor from "Pride and Prejudice" who's in this movie along with Greer? Gerald O. Smith is the guy who sells that car to Walter. He played Colonel Fitzwilliam two years earlier.
He's also the butler in "Mrs. Parkington."
Greer has a slip of the tongue while she's talking to Sophie on the phone. "I'll tell him after night -- after dinner tonight."

The director (William Wyler) presumably didn't yell "Cut!" because Greer had recovered instantly and so why bother doing this long scene over again. This is odd since he was known as a very meticulous director ("102-take Wyler" is what Walter called him), one who would shoot many, many takes of a scene.
At the dinner table with Walter Pidgeon they are both scared to admit how much money they've spent that day.
Listen to her breathy voice when she says "I bought it today."
"Isn't it lovely." "I do think it does something for me, don't you?" As if Greer needs a hat.
"Not for people with a car like ours." "You're pretty clever, aren't you?" "If you think so, darling." I love this bit.
Isn't it cute how they sleep in twin beds? They're still in twin beds in "Madame Curie" the next year. About ten years later, though, in "Scandal at Scourie", they're finally in a double bed.
Another Greer-slip!!

When Carol Beldon comes over for her first visit, to request that Greer ask Mr. Ballard not to enter his rose, Greer begins to say the line "but no one's ever entered..." She stumbles as she starts this line and doesn't complete it, because Teresa Wright laughs and says "No" and then says the same line herself. Greer and Walter also laugh, and Walter mumbles something unintelligible. Greer even starts to put her hand to her neck, which I believe is her unconscious giveaway.

I believe that Greer said Teresa's line instead of her own line. Watch how Teresa laughs and then recovers the take. There is absolutely no reason for the three of them to be laughing at this point in the scene.

I am certain that something like this has happened here. I guess that "102-take Wyler" didn't have them do it over again because it was a such long scene and hard to get right. They had probably done it a dozen times already that day.

When do we get to see the Deluxe version of "Mrs. Miniver", with out-takes and bloopers?
Richard Ney kisses his movie-girlfriend Teresa Wright and then looks at his real-life girlfriend Greer to gauge the latter's reaction to his forced transgression.
Walter grabs Greer's chin and wiggles her head after he wakes up from his ten-hour beauty sleep. He gets to play with her hair, too.
"I took it from him and called the police." "Oh, you just took it to the police." Sounds like Walter Pidgeon made a little slip here.
After she tells Walter that she gave the German pilot some milk, she turns around to make the bed and has another little smirk before Walter slaps her ass.
Greer shows great consideration for the movie-going public when she turns around and lets us watch her rubbing her ass after Walter has slapped it.
I wonder how sore Greer was after a dozen or so takes.
A little sleight-of-foot by Gladys.
Greer does her left forefinger bend when she hugs Toby after the German pilot has been taken away. A moment later she keeps her left forefinger bent for some reason.
We can see similar left-fore-finger action in "Goodbye, Mr. Chips." And check out her left forefinger in this picture.
After her masterful interview with Lady Beldon, Greer sits straight upright and absolutely beams at May Whitty.
When she is reading "Alice in Wonderland" in the bomb shelter, there are two brief moments when Greer looks at a spot very close to the camera. It's like she's looking right at me!
A moment later, when Walter asks her if she wants anything from the house, she pokes her tongue through her cheek. He doesn't want to risk his life for her knitting needles, and she gives him a smile which somehow looks so genuine to me, as if she's smiling not at Clem Miniver but at Walter Pidgeon.
When they go back into the shelter, he starts to back in but says suddenly, "Oh no you don't." Was she going to stick a knitting needle up his butt?
She knits. Looks good to me, but I'll have to get my mother-in-law's opinion on how good a knitter Greer is.
However, there do exist pictures ( one and two) of her knitting when she's not on camera.
At the flower competition: "You've such a way of looking at people." If Greer ever looked at me like that, I'd wet my pants.
As Mr. Ballard is stumbling his way to the podium to receive his award, he stops and gets a kiss from Greer. As she turns her head to the podium, he gives her a look of such devotion that it leads my wild imagination to believe that Henry Travers was himself smitten with Greer Garson. But maybe he was just acting. After all, he did get his Oscar® nomination for this role.
Walter Pidgeon made eight movies with Greer, the first four providing Greer with Oscar® nominations. How could he go home to his wife every night after spending the day with Greer?
Peter Lawford is supposed to be here.

I think that's him at the airfield running past the car and delivering the line, "Gerries over London in hundreds" just before the fateful car ride.
John Abbott is listed in the main credits at the end of the movie (as "Fred"), as if he's actually in the movie for a significant amount of time. (He's the Organian Peace Treaty guy from Star Trek.)

But I can't find him in "Mrs. Miniver" at all! Someone please tell me where he is.
William Wyler, the director, went off to serve in the war after making this movie. Did he enlist because he was in love with Greer but she had fallen in love with Richard Ney?

Boy, what an imagination.
I believe that Greer and Walter had this conversation before this movie was made:

GREER
You should feel lucky to get this role, Walter.

WALTER
Well, I was hoping to work with Garbo this time around.

GREER
Oh, no. Greta tells me her next one is a stinker.

WALTER
I hear that Norma Shearer turned "Miniver" down, so you're stuck with it. Too bad.

GREER
Yes, and she's seeing that ski instructor. Twenty years her junior!

WALTER
My goodness. The lengths some actresses will go to just to hold on to their youth.

GREER
I'll have you know that I insisted on you for this picture, Walter.

WALTER
Well, after I got that Oscar nomination for you last year, I think it's my turn to get one this year.

GREER
Well, then I'll try not to steal too many of your scenes.

WALTER
I don't like the name "Clem," though. Makes me sound like a farmer.

GREER
Maybe they can change it to "Wylbur," or "Clyde."

WALTER
And we have a college-age son this time.

GREER
I know. I sure hope they can rewrite that part.

WALTER
Well, they'll have to slap some pretty heavy make-up on me to make me look old enough.

GREER
Or younger. We also have two small children.

WALTER
But I don't relish the idea of having to kiss a co-star who's almost a grandmother.