Cluny Brown

1946

1h 40m

Comedy

List

94%

18 Reviews

Tomatometer

79%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

To teach her to stay within her social station, Cluny Brown (Jennifer Jones) is sent by her plumber uncle to work as a parlor maid in the country house of Sir Henry Carmel (Reginald Owen) and his wife, Alice (Margaret Bannerman). Brown soon finds herself torn between her attraction to Adam Belinski (Charles Boyer), a political refugee staying as a houseguest, and the prospect of a stable marriage with stuffy Jonathan Wilson (Richard Haydn), a chemist.

Read More

Read Less

Frances H

Not up to Margary Sharp' usual standards. This plot is just a bit too much,, although interesting. But I prefer her Britannia Mews and the Miss Bianca children's books.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

12/13/21

Full Review

jim b

The most unbelievably BORING movie I've seen in a while. It's not funny, and the story is TERRIBLE. I can't believe that this thing is popular. Jennifer Jones starts out the picture with some promise, the idea of her being a plumber and dressed as she was, made me think this might have some promise. But the stuff English "humor" provided not one single laugh for me. She works as a maid in an English manor. (?!?) I got this solely to see Jennifer Jones. I have never been so misled with a movie as with this one - at least, not in ages. It's boring as hell. And one character is SO stuffy (well, they all are in this, actually - except Cluny), he seems to be the basis of Peter Seller's most stuffy British characters. Speaking through the nose literally, as being so snobby. Except when Sellers did it, it was a parody. This is atrocious, and only the rules here have stopped me from swearing. Worthless. Don't believe the hype. This is ****.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Jennifer Jones proves she has some wonderful comic timing (though her accent is awful). Over all, it is very hard to follow what is going on in this movie. Its like an inside joke that you try to get in on, and then realize you don’t care. It’s just boring.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

05/24/20

Full Review

Audience Member

Still hilarious Lubitch flick.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The best comedy movie ever made!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

Full Review

s r

A cute romantic comedy about breaking stereotypes for love.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Ernst Lubitsch

Director

Charles Boyer

Adam Belinski

Jennifer Jones

Cluny Brown

Peter Lawford

Andrew Carmel

Helen Walker

Elizabeth "Betty" Cream

Reginald Gardiner

Hilary Ames

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

76%

72%

I Was a Male War Bride

88%

66%

It Happens Every Spring

79%

68%

Monkey Business

85%

78%

How to Marry a Millionaire

87%

75%

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Keith Uhlich

Time Out

So go feed some squirrels to the nuts. This is as good as movies get.

Rated: 5/5

May 25, 2023

Full Review

Richard Brody

New Yorker

Ernst Lubitsch's last completed film, from 1946, looks back to the prewar year of 1938 to take stock of the postwar world and to show how it got that way.

Jun 5, 2014

Full Review

Tom Milne

Time Out

Lubitsch's last film and one of his most engaging comedies.

Jun 5, 2014

Full Review

James Agee

The Nation

Lubitsch's direction -- always, at its best, so shrewd about protocol -- makes the film more amusing than there was any other reason to expect; and Richard Haydn's performance as a prissily bullying, mother-bound druggist is very nice caricature.

Jun 23, 2021

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

Effervescent, as Lubitsch was oft wont to be, it may not reach the generously comical heights of his greatest, but it's a fitting finale in its devious examination of smug, supercilious social hierarchies.

Rated: 3.5/5

Aug 11, 2020

Full Review

Alberto Abuín

Espinof

Still a good movie, which recovers in some moments the best of Lubitsch. [Full Review in Spanish]

Feb 12, 2020

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

To teach her to stay within her social station, Cluny Brown (Jennifer Jones) is sent by her plumber uncle to work as a parlor maid in the country house of Sir Henry Carmel (Reginald Owen) and his wife, Alice (Margaret Bannerman). Brown soon finds herself torn between her attraction to Adam Belinski (Charles Boyer), a political refugee staying as a houseguest, and the prospect of a stable marriage with stuffy Jonathan Wilson (Richard Haydn), a chemist.

Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Production Co: Twentieth Century Fox
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Runtime: 1h 40m