Mrs. Miniver flower show, with Maggie Smith's Violet Crawley in the place of Lady Beldon. In the play "A Raisin in the Sun", Brother, Ruth, and Beneatha give Mama (Lena) a gift with the note "To our own Mrs. Miniver – Love from Brother, Ruth, and Beneatha". Citations Further reading Mrs. Miniver Mrs. Miniver is a 1942 American romantic war drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. Inspired by the 1940 novel "Mrs. Miniver" by Jan Struther, the film shows how the life of an unassuming British housewife in rural England is touched by World War
Louis B. Mayer the top box office hit of 1942. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill both loved the film, said historian Emily Yellin, and Roosevelt wanted prints rushed to theaters nationwide. The Voice of America radio network broadcast the minister's speech from the film, magazines reprinted it, and it was copied onto leaflets and dropped over German-occupied countries. Churchill sent Mayer a telegram claiming that ""Mrs. Miniver" is propaganda worth 100 battleships." Bosley Crowther (1960 biographer of Mayer, below), wrote in his "New York Times" review that "Mrs. Miniver" was the finest film yet made about the war,