Cluny Brown **** (1946, Charles Boyer, Jennifer Jones, Peter Lawford, Richard Haydn) – Classic Movie Review 2634

Producer-director Ernst Lubitsch’s last completed film is the 1946 sophisticated romantic comedy Cluny Brown, set in pre-World War Two England, getting its laughs out of satirising the smugness of British high society.

Jennifer Jones stars as young plumber’s niece Cluny Brown who shocks the upper-class British by not following all the protocol and rules, and by refusing to learn her place.

She has a fascination with plumbing and pipes, which gets her into trouble, as it is not ladylike, and her uncle decides to send her into domestic service as a servant at an English country estate.

But there she meets Czech refugee author Adam Belinski (Charles Boyer), who finds her spontaneity intoxicatingly refreshing. Belinski soon falls in love with Cluny and tries to keep her from marrying a dull shopkeeper named Jonathan Wilson (Richard Haydn).

There is spirited playing from the stars and enjoyable appearances by the Hollywood English colony: Una O’Connor, Peter Lawford, Helen Walker, Reginald Gardiner, C.Aubrey Smith, Reginald Owen, Margaret Bannerman, Sara Allgood, Ernest Cossart and Florence Bates.

Cluny Brown is a lightweight but still sparkling Lubitsch movie, a favourite of Peter Bogdanovich, who quotes from it and shows a clip from it in his 2014 movie She’s Funny That Way.

The attack on the British class system in the screenplay written by Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt, based on a 1944 novel by Margery Sharp, was a bit risky in 1946. It would possibly have gone down better in the UK if Lubitsch had taken more trouble to get the English details right.

Cluny Brown runs 100 minutes, is made and released by Twentieth Century Fox, and is shot by Joseph LaShelle. The music score is by Cyril J Mockridge.

The cast are Charles Boyer as Adam Belinski, Jennifer Jones as Cluny Brown, Peter Lawford as Andrew Carmel, Helen Walker as Betty Cream, Reginald Gardiner as Hilary Ames, Reginald Owen as Sir Henry Carmel, C Aubrey Smith as Colonel Charles Duff Graham, Richard Haydn as Jonathan Wilson, Margaret Bannerman as Lady Alice Carmel, Sara Allgood as Mrs Maile, Ernest Cossart as Syrette, Florence Bates as Dowager at Ames’ Party, Una O’Connor as Mrs Wilson, Billy Bevan as Cluny’s uncle Arn Porritt, Charles Coleman as Constable Birkins, Michael Dyne as John Frewen, and Christopher Severn as Master Ronald Snaffle.

It is the last film Lubitsch completed before his death of a heart attack on 30 November 1947 at the age of 55. His final film, That Lady in Ermine, with Betty Grable, was completed by Otto Preminger and released posthumously in 1948.

On leaving Lubitsch’s funeral, William Wyler said: ‘No more Lubitsch’ and Billy Wilder replied: ‘Worse than that, no more Lubitsch pictures.’

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2634

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com