Helmut Dantine "Mrs. Miniver" (1942), playing a downed German pilot captured by the title character (played by Greer Garson). This film was a huge hit and Dantine received much positive attention. In August 1942 Warners signed him to a new contract. The studio kept him busy in war films: "The Pied Piper" (1942); "Desperate Journey" (1942), fighting Errol Flynn; and "The Navy Comes Through" (1942). He had a sympathetic role in "Casablanca" (1942), as the young refugee trying to earn money for a visa via gambling who is helped by Humphrey Bogart. Warners begin to give Dantine more sizeable roles in "A"
Mrs. Miniver (character) The columns were first published in book form in 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II. Struther stopped the regular newspaper columns that year, but wrote a series of letters from Mrs. Miniver, expanding on the character's wartime experiences. These were published in later editions. The book became an enormous success, especially in the United States, where Struther went on a lecture tour shortly after the book's release. The U.S. was still officially neutral, but as war with Nazi Germany intensified in Europe, the tribulations of the Miniver family engaged the sympathy of the American public sufficiently that