Greer Garson of World War II in "Mrs. Miniver". ("Guinness Book of World Records" credits her with the longest Oscar acceptance speech, at five minutes and 30 seconds, after which the Academy Awards instituted a time limit.) In 1942, Garson also co-starred in the powerful, dramatic film "Random Harvest" with Academy Award winner Ronald Colman. Set at the end of World War I with Ronald Colman as a shell-shocked, amnesiac soldier and Greer Garson as his love interest, "Random Harvest" received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It lost to "Mrs. Miniver", and Garson won the Academy Award for that role.
Mrs. Miniver December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war. Following the attack, the scene was filmed again to reflect the tough, new spirit of a nation at war. The key difference was that in the new version of the scene, filmed in February 1942, Mrs Miniver was allowed to slap the flyer across the face. The film was released 4 months later. Wilcoxon and director William Wyler "wrote and re-wrote" the key sermon the night before the sequence was to be shot. The speech "made such an impact that it was used in essence by President