![]() ![]() Her final screen appearances were in The Singing Nun (1966) as "Mother Prioress" and The Happiest Millionaire (1967). This film was, perhaps, her finest work and landed her seventh and final Academy Award nomination. Then, 1960 found her cast in the role ofĮleanor Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello (1960). For the remainder of the 1950s, she endured several predictably unappreciated films. The next year, she reprised her role as "Kay Miniver" in The Miniver Story (1950), though audiences were unsurprisingly put off by her character's untimely demise from cancer, leaving screen husband Walter Pidgeon to soldier on alone. ![]() 1947's Desire Me (1947) was no less a disaster, downward spiral finally arrested with the hit That Forsyte Woman (1949). In 1946, Greer appeared in Adventure (1945), which was a flop at the box-office. Two standard seven-year contract extensions kept her at MGM until 1954 when, by mutual consent, she left the only studio she had ever known. MGM felt that they had an winning formula and saw no compelling reason to alter it. Still, Garson began to chafe at the unbroken stream of "noble woman" roles in which the studio was casting her. Sure enough, in 1945, she won yet another nomination, for her role as "Mary Rafferty" in The Valley of Decision (1945). ![]() It began to seem that any movie she was part of would be an automatic success. As Marie Curie in Madame Curie (1943), she would draw yet another nomination, and the same the next year in Mrs. Miniver (1942), in a role that she would forever be known by, that actually brought her the Oscar statuette as Best Actress. 1941 saw her earn a second nomination for her role as Edna Gladney in Blossoms in the Dust (1941), but it was the moving, if propagandist, Mrs. The following year would see Greer in the highly acclaimed Pride and Prejudice (1940) as "Elizabeth Bennet". Chips (1939), earning her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress - the first of six she would receive. Garson's very first film under that arrangement was the immensely popular Goodbye, Mr. Mayer while he was on a visit to London looking for new talent. During a stage production of "Old Music," Garson was offered a studio contract by MGM Vice President of Production Louis B. During her off hours she appeared in local theatrical productions, gaining a reputation as an extremely talented and charismatic performer. University of London intending to become a teacher, she opted instead to take a job at an advertising agency. ![]() Of Scottish and Ulster-Scots descent, Garson displayed no early interest in becoming an actress. Overall, the performances and the basic outline of the story buoy the film, which could have taken more time to develop its characters.Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson was born on Septemin London, England, to Nancy Sophia (Greer) and George Garson, a commercial clerk. The performances by Greer Garson and Ronald Colman are strong, and Garson's charms are on display both in her role as alluring dancer/singer, as efficient secretary, and as notable society wife. A good opportunity for a compelling scene is ignored, and the film suffers for it. What is more, the final resolution comes about solipsistically rather than spurred by the "secretary's" work. This is the "old movies" courtship that involves women and men speaking about marriage after the first or second meeting, but here it is more ridiculous considering the uncertainty of the man's position. The initial courtship between "Smithy" and Paula is so quick and seemingly insubstantial that it defies believability that she should so quickly give up her life for him. The plot of this film is excellent in its construction, but its execution lacks. A WWI amnesiac falls for a dancer, but their marriage fails when he loses his new memories and regains his old ones. ![]()
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