Editing Joan Greenwood (section)

===Stardom===
Greenwood was cast in the lead role of ''[[Saraband for Dead Lovers]]'' (1948), as [[Sophia Dorothea of Celle]], alongside [[Stewart Granger]], but it was an expensive box-office failure.<ref>MacFarlane, Brian. ''An Autobiography of British Cinema'', Methuen, 1997, p. 482</ref> She did ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest]]'' (1949) for TV; then played [[Lady Caroline Lamb]] in ''[[The Bad Lord Byron]]'' (1949), a notorious flop.

More successful was ''[[Whisky Galore! (1949 film)|Whisky Galore!]]'' (1949), which kicked off the Ealing comedy cycle. It was directed by [[Alexander Mackendrick]], and Greenwood was top-billed along with Basil Radford. She did another for Ealing, ''[[Kind Hearts and Coronets]]'' (1949), with [[Dennis Price]] and [[Alec Guinness]], directed by [[Robert Hamer]]. Both films became regarded as comedy classics.

Greenwood was Richard Todd's leading lady in ''[[Flesh and Blood (1951 film)|Flesh and Blood]]'' (1951), at British Lion. She went to France to co-star with [[Bourvil]] in ''[[Mr. Peek-a-Boo]]'' (1951). She did another for Ealing with Mackendrick and Guinness, ''[[The Man in the White Suit]]'', then ''[[Young Wives' Tale]]'' (both 1951) and did ''[[The Importance of Being Earnest (1952 film)|The Importance of Being Earnest]]'' (1952) again, this time as a feature film. She appeared on TV shows such as ''[[BBC Sunday-Night Theatre]]''.

Greenwood then appeared in ''[[Lovers, Happy Lovers!]]'' (1954), a French film shot at the Elstree Studios of Associated British and on location across London, with [[Gérard Philipe]]. She did ''[[The King and Mrs. Candle]]'' for American TV, and made her third film with Guinness and second with Hamer, ''[[Father Brown (1954 film)|Father Brown]]'' (both 1954). She did ''A Doll's House'' in Copenhagen, then was in ''The Confidential Clerk'' by T.S. Eliot which had a short run on Broadway in 1954.<ref>{{cite news |title=Don Iddon's NEW YORK DIARY |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245142699 |newspaper=[[The Herald (Melbourne)|The Herald]] |issue=23,923 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=28 January 1954 |access-date=24 October 2020 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> 

In Hollywood, she was the female lead in ''[[Moonfleet (film)|Moonfleet]]'' (1955) at MGM, replacing original choice [[Merle Oberon]].<ref>Joan Greenwood Pauses for a Moment: Hollywood Letter By Richard Dyer MacCann. ''The Christian Science Monitor'', 23 November 1954: p. 11.</ref>