Cluny Brown
Cluny Brown
NR | 02 June 1946 (USA)
Cluny Brown Trailers

Amateur plumber Cluny Brown gets sent off by her uncle to work as a servant at an English country estate.

Reviews
Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
edwagreen Jennifer Jones as a plumber's niece who is reduced to being a scullery maid. She lands in the same home with playboy Peter Lawford's parents. Charles Boyer plays a Czechoslovakian hiding out from the Nazis as it's 1938. The picture could have had so many themes but instead it is greatly reduced due to the unbearable writing.The story jumps from Lawford being with playgirl Bette Cream, their supposed break-up followed by an announcement that they're marrying. Lawford's parents are supposed to be of royalty but instead they act more like imbeciles until the bedroom scene between mom and Ms. Cream.What excitement could have been generated with Boyer fleeing from the Nazis. This is just mildly glossed over while he looks at with loving eyes Miss Jones (Cluny) who acts almost as she did as the young Miss Dove 9 years later.Richard Haydn, 19 years before being the impresario in "The Sound of Music" comes across like Peter Sellers. I now think that Seller's intonation was based on Haydn. The latter's mother Una O'Connor never speaks but is constantly clearing her throat. As usual, Sara Allgood, as the head housekeeper is given little to do other than possibly becoming romantically involved with the head butler in this farce.The ending is too predictable. Chalk this up to fine actors being victimized by an impossible script.
Gary Lewin 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.
David (Handlinghandel) I would put "Desire" ahead of this. He directed some of it. But of movies for which Lubitsch got sole directories credit, this charming tale is my favorite.Charles Boyer is delightful. Richard Haydn is hilarious as the stuffy pharmacist who woos the title character.And as the title character, Jennifer Jones is lovely and very funny, in just the subtle way the script calls for. She was again to show her comic skills in "Beat The Devil." There she is an outright scream. Based on just these two performances, she must be counted as one of screen history's most adroit comediennes -- though her career generally took her in very different directions.The only part of "Cluny Brown" that makes me uncomfortable is the insertion of jokes about Nazism in a comedy. Yes, "To Be Or Not To Be" is built around that but "Cluny Brown" is a softer movie. It is a sort of drawing room comedy with some racy undertones. The plumbing: OK, it was and still is unusual for a woman to be a plumber. But this is about sex and class. (In a way, it is a slighter "Rules of the Game.") I don't care for the meanness in much of Lubitsch. Certainly he was a beautiful craftsman. But no matter how often I watch "Trouble In Paradise," I can't seem to like it."Cluny Brown" is filled with enormously likable characters. Buffoons too, but they aren't evil. It's one-of-a-kind -- and it's very funny and enormously charming.
Greg Couture 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!