Cluny Brown

Norman Ainsley Director: Ernst Lubitsch Ernst Lubitsch

Overview

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.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/17/2019
UPC:	0715515235211
Original Release:	1946
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	8
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Time:	1:40:00
Sales rank:	15,253

Special Features

New conversation between film critics Molly Haskell and Farran Smith Nehme on unconventional female characters in Ernst Lubitsch's films New video essay by film scholar Kristin Thompson The Lubitsch Touch, an interview with film scholar Bernard Eisenchitz from 2004 Screen Directors Playhouse radio adaptation of the film from 1950, featuring Dorothy McGuire and Charles Boyer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Norman Ainsley	Mr. Tupham
Jennifer Jones	Cluny Brown
Sara Allgood	Mrs. Maile
Charles Boyer	Adam Belinski
Peter Lawford	Andrew Carmel
Margaret Bannerman	Lady Alice Carmel
Helen Walker	Betty Cream
Florence Bates	Dowager
Reginald Gardiner	Hilary Ames
Billy Bevan	Uncle Arn
Reginald Owen	Sir Henry Carmel
Whit Bissell	Dowager's Son
Charles Coleman	Constable Birkins
Ernest Cossart	Syrett
Harold de Becker	Mr. Snaffie
Michael Dyne	John Frewen
Rex Evans	Guest Pianist
Betty Fairfax	Woman in Chemist's Shop
Richard Haydn	Wilson
George Kirby	Latham
Queenie Leonard	Weller
Mira McKinney	Author's Wife
Clive Morgan	Waiter
Philip Morris	New York Policeman
Ottola Nesmith	Mrs. Tupham
Una O'Connor	Mrs. Wilson
Jean Prescott	Mrs. Snaffie
Christopher Severn	Master Snaffie
C. Aubrey Smith	Colonel Duff-Graham
Al Winters	Rollins
Billy Gray	Boy in Shop
Brad Slaven	English Boy on Bike

Technical Credits

Samuel Hoffenstein

Elizabeth Reinhardt

Ernst Lubitsch	Director,Producer
Bonnie Cashin	Costumes/Costume Designer
Paul S. Fox	Set Decoration/Design
Roger Heman	Sound/Sound Designer
Samuel Hoffenstein	Screenwriter
Arthur L. Kirbach	Sound/Sound Designer
Joseph La Shelle	Cinematographer
Thomas K. Little	Set Decoration/Design
Cyril Mockridge	Score Composer
Emil Newman	Musical Direction/Supervision
Ben Nye	Makeup
Elizabeth Reinhardt	Screenwriter
Fred Sersen	Special Effects
Dorothy Spencer	Editor
Russell J. Spencer	Art Director
Lyle Wheeler	Art Director

Editorial Reviews

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.

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