bkoganbing 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.

MartinHafer I am frankly shocked that I haven't seen this film, as I thought I'd seen about everything that Ernst Lubitsch directed in the States-- and many of his German films as well. But, oddly, I'd overlooked this one.Before I talk about the film in detail, I have a few comments about the cast. Casting Charles Boyer with Jennifer Jones is really odd and you just don't normally think of them together--but the film managed to handle this odd combination well. Additionally, the film has some excellent supporting character actors--Reginald Owen, Reginald Gardiner, C. Aubry Smith and Richard Haydn. And, while I am not a huge fan of Una O'Connor (she overacts horribly in some films), here she is great...as she says nothing! As far as Jennifer Jones goes, she is usually one of my least favorite actresses. I think it's because her lover (and later, husband), David O. Selznick, really mismanaged her career and placed her in some roles which were terrible for her. In "Duel in the Sun", she played a half-breed she-devil--and played it to the hilt. Coming from a woman who excelled in sweet roles (such as "Cluny Brown", "Song of Bernadette", "Since You Went Away" and "Love Letters"), playing such an unwholesome and sleazy character didn't work at all and came off as silly. Several of her other films were clear misfires due to casting her WAY against type (such as in "Beat the Devil" and "Ruby Gentry" and "Indiscretion of An American Wife"). Here, fortunately, Jones is at her very best--as a very sweet and ditsy sort of character you can't help but like. And, everyone she meets seems to like her in this sweet little comedy.The film begins with a stopped up sink. Reginald Owen and Charles Boyer are about to have a dinner party and are relieved when they think that the plumber has arrived--but it's NOT the plumber but the plumber's niece, Cluny (Jones) who shows. She isn't a plumber at all, but seems to enjoy fixing plumbing as a hobby. And, since her uncle is busy, she thought she'd come and give it a try. She very quickly fixes it, but they have her stay because she is so vivacious and sweet that they don't want her to go. And, after a couple drinks she REALLY opens up and shows a cute side of her that is fun to watch. Obviously, Boyer is taken with her--but can't do much about it, as he's a homeless refugee from the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia.A bit later, a rich idealist (Peter Lawford) meets Boyer and it turns out the Boyer is a famous professor and political refugee. So, wanting to help a guy down on his luck, Lawford invites him to stay at his family estate in the country. When Boyer arrives, he's thrilled to see that Jones has just been hired as a servant there--and spends as much time as he can with her. And, by the way, she's a terrible maid--but she's so nice, they can't stand to fire her.Sadly for Boyer, Jones is inexplicably taken with one of the most boring men in human history (Haydn). And, she somehow likes the idea of possibly becoming this dullard's wife. But what about poor Boyer? He's homeless and is secretly in love with Cluny--and the likelihood he'll ever win over Cluny is remote. And, even if he does, how can he possibly afford to marry? And, Haydn and his weird mother (O'Connor) are bound to choke the life and charm out of poor Cluny as they want her to be more proper and 'adult'--something no sane person would want from her! I could say more but think it's best you just see this charming film for yourself.Utterly charming from start to finish. I do so wish Jones had made more films like this and the lovely Lubitsch touch is more than enough to make this film a treat to watch. MY only quibble, and it's a tiny one, is that the scene in New York following the train ride at the end was NOT necessary. I think having the film end a tiny bit sooner would have been a bit better--just a bit.

jacegaffney Lubitsch's evolution as a director is the most delightful and surprising of Hollywood's old Guard giants. In a sense, he arrived on the scene from Germany ready-made; with little visual skill but a prodigious talent for gags which were transparently clever and loaded with innuendo but too rigorously rehearsed to be as funny as their reputation suggests. There's plenty of inventive bits of business in his 30s output to warrant the reputation for the "Lubitsch touch," but in review, the supreme brittleness of these pictures represents a spoon feeding arrangement between a maestro and an odd assortment of players (including Chevalier and Jeannette MacDonald) who seemed to be taking their marching orders on blind faith alone - rather than in thoughtful collaboration with the puppet master.But then in 1940, the naughty knowingness of cynical bedroom farce is replaced by the comedy of quiet desperation of workers at their appointed stations in the sublime SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. A true sense of actor participation and a celebration of democratic spirit (in spite of the artificial Budapest setting) is projected with unforgettable humour and warmth by a perfect ensemble featuring Margaret Sullavan, Jimmy Stewart, the blessed Felix Bressart and the most precious Frank Morgan. Instead of merely mirroring what the master wants in shadow play, the performers, for the first time in a Lubitsch production, appear in full command of their instruments. And there is something else that undergoes a transformation in Lubitsch's art as well.The screenwriter of THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, Samson Raphaelson, started with Lubitsch in the 30s adapting Continental stage comedies (into English) to the screen. SHOP was pivotal; still ostensibly set in Eastern Europe, it was as much about American manners as it was Old World sentiment. HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1943), starring Don Ameche, Gene Tierney and the invaluable, Charles Coburn, was explicitly a satire by Raphaelson and the director (lovingly administered) of U.S. sexual mores but before that, with TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942), starring Jack Benny and Carole Lombard, allusions to the English classics (ie. Shakespeare)took precedent over German ones (eg. Molnar)Ernst Lubitsch never mastered American popular culture (eg. the intricacies of baseball) to the same degree of expertise that his logical successor, Billy Wilder, did but, philosophically, his conversion to an Anglo-American outlook was more sincere and more surprisingly profound.His most perfect film remains THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER. He and Raphaelson accomplished something comparable - in terms of romantic sentiment and comic use of language - to the music of Mozart. But in his last completed film, CLUNY BROWN (1946), he finishes off the comedy of Anglo-American (and Victorian)manners by returning home to its cultural source, Merry Ole England. This lovely, easy-going satire about the propriety of British "plumbing" is so gentle and deft in its ridicule that it is as much a salute to the country's eccentricity as it is a swipe at its silly stuffiness. Working with another great screenwriter, this time it is the more flagrantly absurdist,poetically digressive, Samuel Hoffenstein (LOVE ME TONIGHT (1932), LAURA (1944) ETC.), Cluny Brown is beyond obvious "touches" and is instead a steady succession of impeccable grace notes so clean and pellucidly clear as to rival the perfection of Bunuel's THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOSIE (1972). Charles Boyer, as Belinski, is not just a quintessentialized version of Boyer's familiar charm and usual persuasiveness; he is a stand-in for Lubitsch himself. When he tells Cluny at the train station to, "Get in," he is the director play-acting the most romantically momentous scene of his career. After "removing the strain of the drain," the first time, Jennifer Jones, as Cluny Brown, feels, with a revived intensity, "that Persian cat feeling coming on. Meow, meow." We don't need to understand (as we once did with Lubitsch) the meaning of the innuendo for "pipes" when we have before us the sexual soul of this divine creature served up to us, hilariously, on a silver tray.Hawks had the same comedic gift of exposing the personalities of his actors in the most gloriously charming light.Lubitsch does the same in CLUNY BROWN and the end result brings tears of gratitude to the viewer's eyes.Rating: 9 1/2 out of 10. (the missing .5% adds to the charm)

Alex da Silva Cluny Brown (Jennifer Jones) is sent to a country estate to act as a maid. However, she'd rather be a plumber. She strikes up an alliance with Adam Belinski (Charles Boyer) while finding love with shopkeeper Mr Wilson (Richard Haydn). Is this really the life for Cluny.....? This film is funny. Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones are two likable lead characters, but it is Richard Haydn who steals the comedy limelight. He is one of those characters that are so awful that they become fascinating. Watch how he proudly shows Jones a map of his life with his birthplace and his place of work heavily marked up, and the scene where he plays his harmonium with a sudden change of pace that is totally unsuitable for the moment. He also makes speeches in Latin. He is basically funny whenever he is on screen. Jones has funny moments as well - watch how she enthusiastically bashes various pipes with a hammer in the name of plumbing while continuing to make conversation. If there is a downside, it is in the character of Andrew (Peter Lawford) who seems to be unpleasant. Lawford doesn't seem to be able to do comedy. Betty (Helen Walker) is also unpleasant but she does at least manage to portray a comical character. Mrs Wilson (Una O'Connor) is just on the wrong side of annoying - she never speaks, she just clears her throat and it becomes tiresome. In contrast, the supporting characters of housekeeper Mrs Maille (Sara Allgood) and the butler Syrette (Ernest Cossart) are very funny in their desire to be nothing but servants.It's a funny film that is worth keeping to watch again.