[chajin]

Mrs. Miniver was a movie that was propitiously timed, while The Magnificent Ambersons was a movie that was supremely poorly timed.

However, my favorite Greer Garson movie has been Random Harvest, where Paula, the Garson character, is much more complex and much better presented by her. She steals the movie from Ronald Colman, who was good but not great.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Couldn't agree more about her performance in Random Harvest--she was spectacular.

But Miniver and Harvest both came out during the same year. It's as if the Academy knew she had to win Best Actress, but they made the parriotic gesture in giving it to her for Miniver.

She knew, they knew, and we know. Right, Smithy?

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My two favorite moments:

1. She's delivered the terrible news that Smithy cannot accompany the troupe after all and then watched him dissolve. The camera is tight on her as, without a word, she processes this and then we see her reach a firm decision, her countenance suddenly resolute--I think she won the Award right there.

2. In the bedroom after the Prime Minister's party, comparing her new empress's necklace with her "cheap little beads" and reasoning with Charles and then utterly breaking down: a master class in acting.