Greer Garson was an actor in the right place at the right time -specifically MGM during WW2, where she epitomised class and glamour so loved by Louis B Mayer. She had the type of British-ness that the Yanks were just in the mood for - though to be fair the Poms lapped it up as well (cultures don't mind inaccurate portrayals as long as they're positive). Few stars had their reign so defined by war - she had hits from 1939 to 1945, but thereafter it was heavy going. You might say that "well, the war was over and people didn't dig lady like stars anymore" - but then what about Deborah Kerr? Greer just picked some bad films - and also she got old; she didn't get started as an actor til she was 27, and not famous til her mid 30s - it gives hope to careers of female actors who don't bloom til late.
I didn't realise how big she was on the London stage - once she became popular, she was really popular.The kicker is, she was only ever in the one popular play, Coward's Mademoiselle - the rest were flops, but Greer got great reviews in them (she was one of those stars-who-are-just-waiting-for-a-hit-film, like Mel Gibson was before Lethal Weapon and Colin Farrell is technically still today). This is an excellent biography, well researched, well written, affectionate towards its subject, who was probably riper for more satire (she gave the legendary incredibly long Oscar acceptance speech).
Greer Garson was a very haughty thing at times - when signed to MGM various producers kept asking for her to be in films, e.g. Day at the Races but she kept turning them down. Indeed she was inactive for over a year - she was going to sign in Dramatic School but got sick, before getting the small role in Goodbye Mr Chips which ended up launching her to stardom. (Living proof that there are no small parts, etc)
She seemed to bewitch people, on and off camera - audiences (in war time at least), the MGM front office (who she stood up to - the studios were meant to be bullies but like a lot of bullies they withered when you stood up to them, especially if you smelled of class and were devoted to your mother), the poor lawyer who became her first husband (after the honeymoon she realised she'd made a mistake and basically left him while he went off to India - he kept asking to have her back but no dice), Laurence Olivier (who directed her in a play and with whom she had an affair).
While the writer clearly has great affection for Greer, he has done his work and allows the facts to speak for themselves, and they show that she could be a right royal pain in the neck. She complained about MGM's treatment of her from the get go, even when she was queen of the lot, whining about not being able to do comedy, clashing with directors (even William Wyler on Mrs Miniver - which she didn't want to do at first because it meant she'd play a mother), rewriting scripts, and continually having poor choice of material. (She also dumped her first husband when they got back from the honeymoon).
MGM really tried with Garson - in her hey day they gave her top budgets and support talent, even in her decline they kept giving her chances - all her 1945 onwards films must have sounded great on paper: a romantic comedy with Clark Gable, a my-husband-isn't-dead-like-I-thought-he-was melodrama with George Cukor and Robert Mitchum, a broad family comedy, an adaptation of The Forysthe Saga, a sequel to Mrs Miniver, a remake of trusted material with hot new star Michael Wilding, a melo re-teaming with Walter Pigeon along the lines of Blossoms in the Dust.
But just as she could't put a foot wrong during the war she was cursed with bad luck after it - Adventure became a hit on the strength of its stars but no one liked it and seems to have been one of those hits that actually hurt you (eg the song Accidentally Kelly St by Frente), Desire Me was a disaster which George Cukor ended up leaving and on which Greer almost died, The Forsythe Saga did pretty well but failed to recoup its large budget (and wasn't quite there as a film, suffering from miscasting of Robert Young and Pigeon), no one wanted to see Mrs Miniver in peacetime, the Mike Wilding film proved too rusty (he had lousy luck, too, Wilding - after hitting it big in Herbert Wilcox movies he worked for all the right people - MGM, Hitchcock, Korda - but kept striking out), and the last one with Pigeon was too Dore Schary (i.e. done on the cheap and realistically) when it needed a little of the old MGM gloss. Julia Misbehaves was, surprisingly, her big hit from this time.
Of course, Deborah Kerr was there to snatch her roles, too - but at the end of the day Garson really has no one to blame but herself, she simply had no taste and was reliant on people to pick movies for her. She remained in demand for work right up until her death, though, even if just for theatre and guest shows and television, and to her credit never sold out and did something against her principles, ef a horror film. Marrying an oil millionaire gives you FU money I suppose.
There are lots of interesting tidbits - MGM wanted to make a film in the late 40s of The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney with Garson, the studio considered Stewart Granger for Marc Anthony in Julius Caesar (laugh but I think he could do it), Schary wanted to make an epic called Magna Carta with Granger, Garson, Simmons and Wilding, the film she made after leaving MGM, Strange Lady in Town was a hit but seems to have done little for her career, she badly wanted to made Interrupted Melody (in which I think she would have been ideal and which would have revived her career) but MGM dithered and she left the studio, whereupon they cast Eleanor Parker. (NB I don't think this was due to hostility for Garson - Dore Schary went on to cast her in Sunrise at Capobello - just a desire to lock down a decent male co star and they couldn't do it in time)
This book would have to be the definitive account of Garson's life and career - it is hard to imagine a more loving and detailed portrait, unless, say, you got really specialised, like an in-depth look at the making of one of her films, or a more detailed account of her partnership with Pigeon (it is a little hazy on the fate of her first two husbands after she left them).
That's not to say it's without flaws, the most notable being the excessive amount of time devoted to her post-MGM career - this starts around page 272 and goes til around page 370, and gets a little wearying at times, especially compared to the first two sections. Greer moved to Texas, home of her oil millionaire third husband Buddy Fogelson, who was smart enough to realise that if you marry an actress you let them act every now and then so she never really retired but was semi-retired from that point on. This seems to have been a genuinely happy marriage with the added benefit of meaning Garson spent the last section of her life totally loaded with cash (she had no kids). So we have a hundred pages of Garson being rich and happy, doing the odd acting job (eg The Singing Nun, bits of theatre and television, a Love Boat), accepting lots of awards, attending dinners and giving speeches. For all her repeated refrain that "oh they won't let me play anything other than the grand dame" she was often the grand dame in real life, poking fun at her image - but never too much fun. Not the "extraordinary lady" that Troyan argues she is, but a genuine, true aristocrat.
