Just watched this scene right now. He kisses her on her right cheek, not on her lips.

Just watched this scene right now. He kisses her on her right cheek, not on her lips.

Kissing family members on the lips is decidedly non English. Well at least it used to be until the lower orders started aping Eurotrash customs in the hope of being thought urbane. It is creepy now so it must have been really creepy to the English of the early 20th Century.

I agree with you about the kisses bestowed on Ney by Greer Garson, especially the second one
Vin was about to climb into a plane to go and fight "Jerry". I think we're expected to think she was worried she might not see him again.

I agree with you about the kisses bestowed on Ney by Greer Garson, especially the second one, but when Walter Pidgeon kisses Wright I am fairly certain the kiss was on her cheek.

As it was Teresa Wright, I would have too!

If I were an actor and the scene called for me to kiss Teresa Wright, I'd go for it.

I kissed my Dad on the lips 'til the day he died. Nothing shameful, sexual, or intimate about it.

It's common in Europe to kiss full on the lips. I didn't see anything sexual about Pidgeon kissing Wright or Garson kissing Ney.

I did not grow up being kissed that way, but know those who did and are jealous! If it was not called out as weird at filming, I don't see how one could seriously find it strange. I mean, yes - to our dysfunctional eye it causes a double-take. But so do adult daughters calling their fathers Darling, or young kids sharing a bed. How sad that non-sexual physical intimacy can disturb some of us. What IS disturbing is families NOT kissing - and not eating meals together!

Of course this kissing was innocent. It's ridiculous to think that the film was presenting it any other way and then remarking not a bit further on this side to these father-in-law/daughter-in-law and mother/son relationships!
But, I am a child of my time, culture, and specific circumstance: I intellectually understand that the kisses were innocent, but I can't help but find them disturbing and funny nonetheless.
Not that I blame Garson for wanting to kiss/marry Ney he looked like Barry Brown. Strikingly so in many shots.
Matthew

Mrs. Miniver kissing her son full on the lips
I noticed that too!
Rome. By all means, Rome.

The problem with our sex-obsessed culture is that everything gets seen through that filter. Neither of my parents kissed us much at all after we were babies, but I have known other families from various backgrounds in which kissing on the lips is quite natural and has nothing to do with sleaziness. Nothing like projecting one's own prejudices onto other people, is there?

I don't know how you get kissed from your mother but I found them not disturbing at all. Even my Grandma kisses her grand-children like Greer did before we leave for vacation or something like thatI actually always thought that's normal with family members. I grew up that way.

Sorry I too have to go with the poster who said Greer Garson's kisses on the lips to her son Vin were disturbing. And I had forgotten she had married Richard Ney and seeing the movie again reminds of how YOUNG he looked. What an odd couple they must have been. Guess it proves Greer Garson was just human.

In both cases the actions of all the parties involved is completely innocent and wholesome as it was intended.
Do you really think something as untoward as you are suggesting would pass the censors when the film was released?
Dont try to place social mores of today on an almost 70 year old film.

What I found far more unsettling was Mrs. Miniver kissing her son full on the lips in at least two scenes I can recall. Not a motherly kiss at all.
But of course, they ended up marrying in real life so maybe that explains it

That's why he had to ask his son, Vin, first for permission!