Mrs. Miniver (1942) on Netflix
Kay Miniver keeps a comfortable home in Belham, a village outside London. As World War II begins, her son Vin falls for Carol Beldon, and her husband Clem volunteers his motorboat.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.6/1021,547 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes93%
Trailer
Plot summary
Clem Miniver, an architect, and his wife Kay raise three children at Starlings, a house with a garden and a landing stage on the River Thames. Their older son Vin, home from Oxford, meets Carol Beldon, granddaughter of Lady Beldon of nearby Beldon Hall. The two clash at first over class and duty, then fall in love, and Vin proposes in front of his family. As the war reaches England, Vin enlists in the Royal Air Force and qualifies as a fighter pilot. Clem joins other boat owners who take their motorboats to the Dunkirk evacuation, and one morning while he is away Kay comes upon a wounded German airman hiding in the garden, who holds her at gunpoint.
Cast
- Christopher Severnas Toby Miniver
- Marie De Beckeras Ada
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into the war, the garden scene was re-filmed in February 1942 to reflect the tough new spirit of a nation at war, the key difference being that Mrs. Miniver was allowed to slap the pilot across the face.
- Wilcoxon and director William Wyler wrote and re-wrote the key sermon scene the night before it was shot; the speech was used in essence by President Roosevelt as a morale builder, and part of it was the basis for leaflets printed in various languages and dropped over enemy and occupied territory.
- Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels privately admired the film's effectiveness, writing that it contained not a single angry word against Germany yet still achieved a perfectly accomplished anti-German effect.
- Jackson & Perkins introduced a medium-red hybrid tea rose called “Mrs. Miniver” in 1944, named after Mr. Ballard’s rose; in 2015 one remaining plant was located in Germany, propagated by St Bridget’s Nurseries in Exeter in 2016 and returned to commerce in 2017.
- As the screenplay was written over several months the United States moved closer to war, and scenes were rewritten: the scene where Mrs. Miniver confronts a downed German pilot in her garden was made more confrontational in each revision.
- The film was originally planned to be shot at MGM's studio in Denham, England, but wartime difficulties forced the production to move to Culver City, California instead.
