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
Margaret Tallichet (1941), and "The Devil Pays Off" (1941). The latter film was released in November 1941 when she was pregnant with her second child. She did not return to the screen. Even before the United States entered the war, her husband was an outspoken advocate for the defense of Great Britain. His first Oscar-winning film, "Mrs. Miniver" (1942), was a sympathetic portrayal of an English family enduring the Battle of Britain. After completing that film, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps and flew in missions over Europe in order to make documentaries about them. At the 1943 Academy