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.

... and the dialogue is just extraordinary.

Cluny Brown (Jennifer Jones) is a young English woman trying to find her place in life. She is quirky, outspoken, and she likes plumbing, mainly from watching her uncle be a plumber for years.

But she has to deal with the snobbery of all of the classes - the middle class represented in a village druggist, the servant class in the head servants in the house she works in, and the rich class. Since films of the time so often made fun of the rich, this one takes a different tack. The rich people are just agog over Czech intellectual and refugee Adam Belinski. They trip over themselves giving him money because it makes them feel like they are being a patron.

Cluny makes people uncomfortable because she does things that make her visible, when it seems that people want her to just disappear into the woodwork, to have no opinion or personality at all, including the village druggist who is considering marrying her. Belinski appreciates her fire and forwardness. He has a similar temperament, but because he is a man and an intellectual, nobody seems to mind the same behavior out of him.

I never cared for Peter Lawford in all of those collegiate MGM musical film roles, but here he is hilarious as the idealist son of a nobleman who is being treated badly by his steady girlfriend, Betty (Helen Walker), who refuses to give him clear signals as to where he stands.

The Lubitsch Touch is evident in this witty, intelligent film. Jennifer Jones shows a vivacity and humor she had never displayed before and would not again until her clever performance in "Beat The Devil". In one amazing scene where she cannot resist showing her wares as a Plumber (to the disdain of the other party guests) she gets to play a reaction to the debacle that is amazing in its combination of pathos and hilarity. Very interesting character actors including a very, very funny Una O'Connor (whose dialogue consists mainly of incessantly clearing her throat), the light as a feather and dead on playing of Margaret Bannerman, and also a chance to see Helen Walker. Charles Boyer plays with his customary light touch and is the anchor to this film, but finally it is Jennifer Jones' performance that takes one breath away and stays with you long after you've seen it.