Mrs. Miniver (character) President Franklin D. Roosevelt credited it for hastening America's involvement in the war. Winston Churchill is said to have claimed that it had done more for the Allied cause than a flotilla of battleships. Churchill is further quoted by Bernard Wasserstein in his book, "Barbarism and Civilization," as saying that the book (and later the film) was worth "six divisions of war effort." In 1942, when the film came out, Roosevelt ordered it rushed to theaters. The film adaptation of "Mrs. Miniver" was produced by MGM in 1942 with Greer Garson in the leading role and William Wyler directing. Under
History of film "Dumbo" (1941) and "Bambi" (1942). The onset of US involvement in World War II also brought a proliferation of films as both patriotism and propaganda. American propaganda films included "Desperate Journey" (1942), "Mrs. Miniver" (1942), "Forever and a Day" (1943) and "Objective, Burma!" (1945). Notable American films from the war years include the anti-Nazi "Watch on the Rhine" (1943), scripted by Dashiell Hammett; "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943), Hitchcock's direction of a script by Thornton Wilder; the George M. Cohan biopic, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942), starring James Cagney, and the immensely popular "Casablanca", with Humphrey Bogart. Bogart would star in