Cluny Brown

I first was aware of Cluny Brown because the book was written by Margery Sharp, better known by many as the author of the Rescuers (mice) children's novels. The film was brought up again after I watched another Ernest Lubitsch film, To Be or Not To Be. 

The film stars Jennifer Jones as Cluny Brown and Charles Boyer as a refugee Czech philosopher in 1938 Britain. Brown has a love of plumbing and not knowing "her place" in class-based Britain. 

The film is largely a satire of British society. Peter Lawford, later a Kennedy brother-in-law (until the divorce) has an early supporting role. He is quite concerned about what is happening in Europe but his idea of doing something about it is writing a letter to The Times and talking about how concerned he is. 

The DVD was a Criterion collection deal with some interesting extras that talked about the film. There was also a radio version of the film starring Charles Boyer. Boyer was in many famous films of the day.

I found the film enjoyable -- the two leads were quite fun and the supporting characters were suitably clueless. I only watched about half of it though did watch forty-five minutes of extras. The ending is cute.

One scene I skipped was addressed in one of the extras. I also skipped some of the less interesting confusion among the supporting cast. I recall at least reading some of the book. I might check it out again.

The film is currently available for free on YouTube.