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
James Hilton (novelist) months later it appeared as a book in Britain. Hilton, who lived and worked in Hollywood beginning in the mid-1930s, won an Academy Award in 1942 for his work on the screenplay of "Mrs. Miniver", based on the novel by Jan Struther. He presented six episodes of "Ceiling Unlimited" (1943) and hosted "The Hallmark Playhouse" (1948–1953) for CBS Radio. One of his later novels, "Morning Journey", was about the film business. Some of Hilton's novels were filmed: Hilton co-wrote the book and lyrics for "Shangri-La", a disastrous 1956 Broadway musical adaptation of "Lost Horizon". There is one sequel to "Lost