#997: LUBITSCH, Ernst: Cluny Brown (1946)

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LUBITSCH, Ernst (United States)
Cluny Brown [1946]
Spine #997
Blu-ray


The final film completed by Ernst Lubitsch, this zany, zippy comedy of manners, set in England on the cusp of World War II, is one of the worldly-wise director's most effervescent creations. Jennifer Jones shines in a rare comedic turn as Cluny Brown, an irrepressible heroine with a zeal for plumbing. Sent to work as a parlormaid at a stuffy country manor, she proceeds to turn the household upside down — with plenty of help from Adam Belinski (Charles Boyer), an eccentric Continental exile who has fled the Nazis but is still worried about where his next meal is coming from. Sending up British class hierarchy with Lubitsch's famously light touch, Cluny Brown is a topsy-turvy farce that says nuts to the squirrels and squirrels to the nuts.

100 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
1:37:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2019
Director/Writers


Based on the novel by Margery Sharp.

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

 The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt.

Commentary

None.

Conversation

Between film critics Molly Haskell and Farran Smith Nehme on unconventional female characters in Lubitsch’s films.

The Lubitsch Touch

An interview with film scholar Bernard Eisenschitz from 2004.

Screen Directors Playhouse

Radio adaptation of the film from 1950, featuring Dorothy McGuire and Boyer.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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