Cluny Brown

Have seen this more than once on TV (though not for quite a few years now) and I'd be first in line if Fox Classics were to issue it on video. It's a slight bit of fluff, given the full Twentieth gloss, and elevated to sublimely sly tongue-in-cheek humor, courtesy of Herr Lubitsch. Everyone in the cast is in top form (Thank goodness David O. Selznick was willing to loan his treasure, Jennifer Jones, to Fox...She's a delight in this one!) Standouts are Sara Allgood as the mansion's oh-so-proper head housekeeper and Richard Haydn as the hilariously stuffy Mr. Wilson, Cluny's would-be suitor. The final shot of Jennifer falling in a dead faint (due to her impending, but not yet obvious maternity) seen through a 5th Avenue bookstore window, is one of the best curtains in screen annals!

For years I had searched for this movie in the vain hope of ever finding it. Till last night I found it on Youtube. My sincere thanks to the person who uploaded it and gave me the chance at last to see this little treasure.

I'm curious to know how today's movie going audience brought up on a combination of action adventure and mindless idiocy would come to this movie. Its so far out of what's being made to today as to be from a totally different world. And yet I would like to think that people would love it for what it is, a charming piece of old world cinema.

It is possible that this movie could be made today. Though I'm not sure who would be able to play all the parts with the sincerity the cast do in the movie without going over the top. Especially I wonder who could play a character like Cluny with the charm and depth that Jennifer Jones brings to it.

Jennifer Jones's Cluny is one of the most captivating characters I've ever met on screen. So engaging, so charming, so innocent.

Jennifer Jones acting is sublime. I couldn't help but watch the different expressions on her face through each emotion she was going through. Good facial expression is always for a me a good sign that the actress is immersed fully in the part.

Charles Boyer's Adam Belinski must be the kind of man women dream about meeting but probably never will. Handsome, french accent, worldly wise, kind, gentle, understanding. He is of cause the perfect man for Cluny as against the boring Wilson played with great verve by Richard Haydn. I hated the character, lol. But I thought Haydn's performance quite brilliant too.

The rest of the cast do a fine job too. And the ending is perfect.

Ernest Lubitsch used the charms and abilities of his leads Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones to get some maximum performances out of them and make his next to last film Cluny Brown a great success. I've not heard that Lubitsch had to contend with Jennifer's husband and Svengali David O. Selznick on the set, but it's a safe bet they clashed because Selznick could not help interjecting himself where his wife was concerned.

Jones is the daughter of English plumber Billy Bevan and the most interesting thing is that in this English setting her non-English speech pattern is perfectly acceptable even against Bevan's cockney accent. Jones was also perfectly acceptable in another English part in Love Letters and certainly got no criticism. The camera always loved Jennifer Jones and in parts like Cluny Brown as the girl next door she lit up the screen.

Boyer as often as not played a whole lot of European types not necessarily French. Here he's a Czech refugee over in the United Kingdom fleeing from Mr. Hitler. The film is set in Neville Chamberlain Great Britain and Boyer is one of many bringing unpleasant news to the British public.

After Bevan rescues Jones from Boyer and Reginald Gardiner Jones is placed as a maid at a country estate where she meets Boyer again. There should be some class barriers, but Boyer breaks them down and Jones is more than agreeable.

Lots of agreeable Lubitsch touches and a minimum of Selznick interference make Cluny Brown still a treat after over 60 years.

Cluny Brown (1946)

"It's never too late for a cat." And this is the essence of the movie, a supposed satire on British manners pre-WWII, but more likely just a bit of delightful nonsense. The star for me is the delectable Jennifer Jones who is more than just a pretty decoration-she gives her role as a uninhibitted working class woman a kind of Audrey Hepburn freshness. Before Audrey Hepburn.

Charles Boyer is no doubt the most esteemed star here, but he's his usual self with a bit of forced charm. Director Lubitsch makes the whole scene quite delicious, so it's the big view that makes the small pieces click. (And this is what he is famous for, setting the European scene with a subtle, sharp eye.) There is humor here (it's a comedy, yes) but there is a kind of elegand disdain that is something more than that.

And it's beautifully filmed, by young (great) cinematographer Joe LaShelle.

What holds it all back for me is the writing, which is a kind of forced comedy, creating situations that are "made" for comedy. An awkward confrontation, an improbable entry of one character into another character's world. There is whispering and disbelief and nonchalance all mixed together in a way that is, in fact, lighthearted, but isn't as funny or bright as you would want.

And so the movie zips on, quite fun and lighthearted but always (for me) missing some basic gut humor or even a more trenchant critique of its subject, the British upper class. I did, I have to admit, love the ending, which was perhaps inevitable, but which pulled of a clever telling of the future of the leading characters. Fun, well done! And Jones is sublime even when she's goofy.

"Cluny Brown" had quite an impact on me when I saw part of it as a child. I'm sure my feelings had to do with the luminous beauty of Jennifer Jones and wanting to be just like her when I grew up.

Jones has the title role of an imaginative young woman who, being the niece of a plumber, doesn't mind picking up a hammer herself once in a while and having a good whack at the pipes. It gets her into some trouble at the apartment of Hilary Ames (Reginald Sinclair) when she arrives before a party to clear out his sink before his guests arrive.

There she meets Adam Belinski, a Czech academician who's on the run from Hitler. Well, that's who the very earnest Andrew Carmel (Peter Lawford) assumes he is...Belinski never actually says.

When her uncle finds Cluny drunk and on the couch at the Ames apartment, he puts her into service. She winds up working at the Carmel country estate, where Belinski comes to stay.

Attracted to her, he sets about aggravating the local pharmacist, Mr. Wilson (Richard Haydn) who is courting Cluny, and getting involved with Andrew's romance with Betty Cream (Helen Walker).

This is a very sweet, light comedy from Lubitsch that touches on not only the class system in England but the attitude of the upper class toward the impending war. As in the Fox film "This Above All," the upper class in "Cluny Brown" seems annoyed by the mere thought of war and hope the nonsense will just go away. As for Cluny, born to her class, she's expected to work and behave a certain way, though it isn't really her nature.

The performances are all very good, with Boyer a delight as Belinski, a character perhaps modeled on the Czech freedom fighter Jan Mazurek - though he basically doesn't act in danger or worried and manages to hit Andrew up for money. One is never really sure throughout the film what he's up to.

Richard Haydn is hilarious as Cluny's suitor Mr. Wilson, one of the best scenes taking place when he plays the harmonium for her and she all but swoons. As his mother, all Una O'Connor does is cough, but that's all she needs to do.

Playing opposite boyish Peter Lawford, Helen Walker seemed too old for the part of Betty. The other supporting players are all excellent, including Sara Allgood, Reginald Owen, and Margaret Bannerman.

David O. Selznick saw Jennifer Jones in his outer office, and it was love at first sight. It's easy to see why. She is radiant and spirited as Cluny, her vivid imagination shining through her eyes and smile. A wonderful presence - gentle, vulnerable, and guileless.

"Cluny Brown" isn't at the top of Lubitsch's best - it's uneven and doesn't have enough of a plot. It's entertaining nonetheless, and the ending is pure joy.