Trivia / Mrs. Miniver

• Actor Allusion: When discussing Vin marrying Carol, Kay says she should be proud. Clem asks "are you prejudiced?" as a reference to Greer Garson's role in Pride and Prejudice (1940).
• Actor-Inspired Element: Henry Wilcoxon contributed a lot to the priest's closing sermon.
• California Doubling: Since real location shooting would mean filming in the middle of a war zone.
• Cast Incest: A year after the film's release Greer Garson married Richard Ney, who played her on-screen son. They divorced in 1947, which led to Ney's character being written out of the sequel without explanation.
• Contractual Obligation Project: Greer Garson was forced to do the film by contract.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Vin is said to be not yet twenty. Richard Ney was twenty-six.
  • Carol is eighteen, while Teresa Wright was twenty-four.
• Fake Brit: At least half the cast, due to the California Doubling. It seems most real Brits were kind of busy at the time...
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The US was neutral when the script was first written. As it was developed, and America eventually entered the war, the pro-British propaganda became more overt - hence the scene where Kay subdues a German soldier in her kitchen.
• Those Two Actors: Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson did seven other films together.
• Underage Casting: Only eleven years separate Greer Garson and her on-screen son Richard Ney.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Norma Shearer was the first choice for Kay, but she refused to play a mother.
  • The scene where Kay finds a downed German pilot was re-shot after Pearl Harbor to make the German more overtly evil. In the second version, Kay is allowed to slap him.

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