An unsentimental tale of a middle-class family on the eve of WWII, when suddenly their ideallic lifestyle is shattered. Greer Garson portrays Kay Miniver the stoic English wife and mother but with a hint of frivolity. As her world falls apart around her, she finds some delight by having a rose named after her.
Classic Hollywood is the characterization of ordinary people under extraordinary circumstances; such as when Kay and Clem calm themselves and their two small children by reading Alice in Wonderland in their bomb shelter while explosions rack the world above.
Mrs. Miniver is a potent reflection of when powerful film personas were well loved and remembered. And for which Garson won the Best Actress Oscar.
Best Actor when to tough-guy de lux, James Cagney singing and dancing his way through the life story of George M Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy. His opponents were Walter Pidgeon (Mrs. Miniver) Ronald Colman (Random Harvest) Gary Cooper in Pride Of The Yankees and Monty Woolley for The Pied Piper.
1943 Casablanca
This is not just a film - this is a romantic experience. Casablanca is the ultimate love story. Set in unoccupied French Morocco. Rick's Café Americain, owned by Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is the refuge meeting place for refugees seeking freedom from Nazi occupied Europe. Bogart is the disillusioned café proprietor nursing his amatory wounds, and Ingrid Bergman as the woman he felt once jilted him but who now once to re-enter his life as the wife of a French resistance leader. As much as Casablanca will be remembered for its romance as for it's one liners so impeccably dished out by the Epstein brothers, such as Lorre: "You despise me, don't you Rick?" Bogart: "I probably would if I gave any though to it." The film in black and white capture a place and time with a tight smart script, fabulous performances and brilliant direction and photography.
Best Actress Jennifer Jones for Song of Bernadette with her touching simplicity and honesty as the poor peasant girl who glimpsed a holy vision in Lourdes. Her Oscar was extraordinary because the 4 actresses also nominated were of great stature and experience, like Jean Arthur (The More The Merrier) Ingrid Bergman (For Whom The Bell Tolls) Joan Fontain (The Constant Nymph) and Greer Garson for Madame Curie.
Best Actor Paul Lukas in Watch On The Rhine, a gripping drama of Nazi indoctrination was translated on film with accuracy and depth. Which unlike Casablanca dug deep behind the scenes of the war to tell the intimate personal story of little people and their struggles with love over principles.
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