Byron Rogers

When Mussolini came knocking on Hollywood’s door

A review of Mark Harris’ Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War. The brave irrational filmmakers who brought the war home

Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon survive the Blitz in Mrs Miniver (1942).Churchill reckoned it was ‘worth six war divisions’ and Goebbels considered it an ‘exemplary propaganda film’, but to Lillian Hellman it was‘a piece of junk’ [Getty Images/Shutterstock/iStock/Alamy] 
issue 29 March 2014
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  • Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War

    Mark Harris

    Canongate, pp. 511

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