I have tried to warm to Greer Garson but, thus far, have drawn a blank. She was by no means a bad actress, but something of a nonentity on screen, lacking the charisma to overcome miscasting and relying too heavily on the projected 'goodness' of her usually saintly characters.

I realise that audiences of the era firmly disagree with me - she was a HUGE box office star in the 1940s, one of the biggest moneymakers of the time.

I have enjoyed some of Garson's films - Goodbye Mr Chips and Pride & Prejudice notably - but always find her lacking, and some of her prestige projects, such as Mrs. Miniver and Random Harvest, are relative failures, for me, at least in part because of the lack of a stronger leading lady.

Side question - did Garson ever play a 'bad' girl? Or is Lizzie Bennett as 'edgy' as she ever got...

I completely agree with everything you stated. Greer Garson, although I've never outright disliked her, has never managed to much register with me. Other than in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, that her role is so delightful in and serves to wonderfully spark the transformation of the Chips character, I've always found her too sweetness-and-light bland and "plastic" seeming - not like a real person's personality and ways. Her sing-song trademark airy speech pattern also gets old before long, and I don't think has served to date her well.

Another thing about Greer Garson is that, though she herself was semi-young when starring in the movies of her heyday, she came off matronly somehow (being paired with a "mature" seeming/looking actor like Walter Pidgeon no doubt contributed to the effect). Something about her "played," typically, as being older than she actually was. I don't at all mean that she looked in any way, shape, or form old, plain, or frumpy, or other than beautiful. But I guess her sainted formality and utter properness served to age her, persona wise.

It's curious that, as other actresses of her era also in large part came off as squeaky clean perfect and formal. But I guess they had more presence or personal star power or whatever, that gave them more charisma and appeal, and that allowed them to resonate more. A couple specific star actresses to contrast Miss Garson with might be Olivia de Havilland and (an even better comparison) Jennifer Jones.

For me, typically Goodbye, Mr. Chips is Miss Garson's only film I ever feel like sometimes watching. As a general rule, anytime I've had opportunity to watch some of her other films, I might now or then do so, but, by the end of it feel like I either wasn't interested, didn't much care, and/or that the movie in question wasn't my sort of thing.

Yes, I am fond of Goodbye Mr Chips and she is charming in it, although Robert Donat is the reason why it resonates as strongly as it does today. That meeting scene in the Alps is quite lovely and she is radiant there, undeniably.

I am surprised each time I see it just how small Garson's role is - surely one of the briefest performances ever nominated for an Oscar in the leading category, she cannot be on screen for more than fifteen minutes. Eleanor Parker in Detective Story is the only role that comes to mind which may be even shorter.

It hadn't occurred to me that Garson's role in Chips is as short as you mentioned. But, thinking back on it now, the Katherine character, indeed, appears only in a small number of scenes throughout the film.

Ah, Robert Donat - a favourite actor of mine! Such a shame his health problems limited and shortened his career, as he was such a bright shining light.