Themes: Social Climbing, Class Differences, High School Life
Main Cast: Norman Ainsley, Jennifer Jones, Sara Allgood, Charles Boyer, Peter Lawford, Margaret Bannerman, Helen Walker, Florence Bates, Reginald Gardiner
Release Year: 1946
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
The time is just prior to World War II. Lovely Cluny Brown (Jennifer Jones) is the niece of a London plumber; when her uncle is indisposed, Cluny rolls up her sleeves and takes a plumbing job at a society home, where she meets a handsome Czech author (Charles Boyer) - a refugee who has fled the Nazis and now resides with a snobbish and stuck-up family. Hoping to advance herself socially, Cluny accepts a position as a maid in a fancy country home, where she once more meets the Czech author, who is a house guest; they promptly fall for each other, and Cluny follows his lead by turning her nose up at stiff-necked English propriety. Cluny Brown is directed by the matchless Ernst Lubitsch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Cluny Brown is another charming Ernst Lubitsch satire on the aristocracy and, aided by a wonderful script, Lubitsch fills the story with light (but well-aimed) social observations. While Lubitsch's primary targets are the upper classes, and their ostrich-like approach to the world around them, he is also critical of the provincialism that opts for ignorance and the unquestioning allegiance of servants to a class system that keeps them on the lowest rung. As always with Lubitsch, there is a steady stream of sexual innuendo, not the least of which is Cluny's fascination with plumbing (she repeatedly boasts of how she loves to "bang the pipes"). This culminates in a wonderful scene in which Cluny's obsession for plumbing shocks her prudish suitor, Wilson, and his friends and family. The funny lines come fast and with an expertise of delivery that makes them feel impromptu. Among the best: "Where's your sense of adventure? Are you the type of man who puts on his pants before he answers the telephone?" and "When the lower classes start throwing away pound notes, the upper classes better look out." Only in a Lubitsch film could you find a dapper-looking Charles Boyer being confused for a plumber, and among the other throwaway gags are the recurring sights of Boyer taunting Wilson by ringing his doorbell and running away before detection. Boyer and Jennifer Jones are fine in the leads, but Cluny is the sort of character that, a decade later, Audrey Hepburn or Leslie Caron would have turned into a more layered personality. Richard Haydn steals most of his scenes as the prissy Wilson, and Una O'Connor gives a terrific turn as his mother in a performance that contains no dialogue, only grunts. ~ Bob Mastrangelo, All Movie Guide
Russell J. Spencer - Art Director, Lyle Wheeler - Art Director, Bonnie Cashin - Costume Designer, Ernst Lubitsch - Director, Dorothy Spencer - Editor, Cyril Mockridge - Composer (Music Score), Emil Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ben Nye, Sr. - Makeup, Joseph La Shelle - Cinematographer, Ernst Lubitsch - Producer, Paul S. Fox - Set Designer, Thomas K. Little - Set Designer, Fred Sersen - Special Effects, Roger Heman - Sound/Sound Designer, Arthur L. Kirbach - Sound/Sound Designer, Samuel Hoffenstein - Screenwriter, Elizabeth Reinhardt - Screenwriter, Margery Sharp - Book Author
Fräulein Seifenschaum ·Aufs Eis Geführt ·Blindekuh ·Zucker Und Zimmt ·Der Erste Patient ·Der Letzte Anzug ·Der Kraftmeier ·Wo Ist Mein Schatz? ·Schuhpalast Pinkus ·Der Gemischte Frauenchor ·Das Schönste Geschenk ·Der G.m.b.H. Tenor ·Leutnant auf Befehl ·Seine Neue Nase ·Ossis Tagebuch ·Der Blusenkönig ·Wenn Vier Dasselbe Tun ·Das Fidele Gefängnis ·Prinz Sami ·Der Rodelkavalier ·Der Fall Rosentopf ·Ich Möchte Kein Mann Sein ·Das Mädel Vom Ballet ·Meyer Aus Berlin ·Das Schwabenmädel ·Kohlhiesels Töchter ·Romeo Und Julia Im Schnee ·If I Had A Million(segment "The Clerk")
