Cluny Brown (1946) and Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Toronto Film Society presented Cluny Brown (1946) and Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) on Sunday, November 17, 2024 as part of the Season 77 Series, Programme 1.

CLUNY BROWN (1949)

Production Company: 20th Century Fox.  Director/Producer: Ernst Lubitsch.  Screenplay: Samuel Hoffenstein, Elizabeth Reinhardt, based on the novel by Margery Sharp.  Photography: Joseph La Shelle.  Editor: Dorothy Spencer.  Special Effects: Fred Sersen.  Art Direction: Lyle Wheeler, J. Russell Spencer, Thomas Little, Paul Fox.  Wardrobe: Bonnie Cashin.  Music: Cyril Mockridge, Emil Newman.  Released: June 3, 1946.

Cast:  Charles Boyer (Adam Belinski), Jennifer Jones (Cluny Brown), Peter Lawford (Andrew Carmel), Helen Walker (Betty Cream), Reginald Gardiner (Hilary Ames), Reginald Owen (Sir Henry Carmel), C. Aubrey Smith (Col. Duff Graham).

In 1946, Ernst Lubitsch returned to directing after a period of three years, during which time he had been recovering from a series of heart attacks.  This was to be his last directed picture. In this later example of Lubitsch’s famous “comedies of manners”, he attempted to evoke the wit and charm of his earlier sparkling films and, although the atmosphere of the times compelled a more serious approach, the general result delivered an enjoyable, irreverent satire of the British class system.

The success of The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and Heaven Can Wait (1943) marked a new phase in the Lubitsch style, adding a reflective tone to the witty ironies of his previous sophisticated comedies.  The novel by Margery Sharp, “Cluny Brown”, was an international bestseller in 1944, and Lubitsch’s treatment, complete with the renowned visual “touches”, was expected to make for terrific box-office results.

But the relative failure of the film was attributed to various problems: the satire of the British blindness towards the German threat may have been hostilely received; the strained playing of Jennifer Jones and Charles Boyer in a comedy unsuited to their talents; the unfortunate choice of Jones as the fey, slightly wacky heroine (“Never had he been strapped with an actress so utterly humourless”, Louis Giannetti, Master of the American Cinema); and generally speaking, the post-war tastes were shifting away from this type of screen comedy.  Despite all these observations, however, Cluny Brown is seen today as one of Lubitsch’s more successful tongue-in-cheek tales.  Perhaps, as Lubitsch himself felt, the film was too sophisticated and too rich in satire for the audience of its time.

Jennifer Jones, as the renegade Cluny, in fact combines the right amount of whimsy and innocence in a role which was atypical of her more serious endeavours.  Generally regarded as never having equalled the Academy-award winning performance of The Song of Bernadette (1943), Jones is often maligned for her neurotic style of acting, but it must say something for her range to see her go from the brazen half-breed Pearl Chavez in Duel in the Sun (completed in the same year as Cluny Brown, although released later), smashing food into Gregory Peck’s face, to the light-hearted, dreamy Cluny, attacking a plugged drain with glee in Cluny Brown.

Charles Boyer was similarly dismissed in this film, for the same reason – this was his first attempt at a comic role and, although he still plays the traditional foreign lover, he tackles the Lubitsch style of farce and sophisticated comedy in a performance which was seen as a transformation solely achieved by the director.  Although both Jones and Boyer were complimented for their portrayals, it was Richard Haydn who received the rave reviews.  As the stuffy, complacent chemist who intrigues Cluny, Haydn manages to steal scenes throughout the film, with his nasal twang and his hilariously pompous attitudes.

The supporting cast, carefully chosen from Hollywood’s “British colony”, were all particularly adept at playing the different levels of the English class society.  Reginald Owen, as Sir Henry, is humorously befuddled and vague, while Margaret Bannerman represents the indomitable upper-class matriarch whose sense of order never deserts her. It is Lady Alice who provides the ironic counterbalance to the forceful commentary of Adam, the outsider in whose view the satire is achieved.  Peter Lawford and Helen Walker, as the young romantic couple, are both effectively humorous.

Many of the Lubitsch touches are still in view in Cluny Brown–the double entendres, the closed door, the close-up reaction shots, etc.–but it is perhaps the simplicity and quietness of Lubitsch’s direction in this film which dominates.  For the first time, he develops the entire group of secondary characters more than before and allows them all the chance to reveal their views.  Also, there is less of the commenting camera in evidence and longer takes in certain scenes.

The epilogue, which reveals to what extent the major characters have succeeded in taking their place in society, is shot entirely in pantomime and retains all of the Lubitsch charm and raffishness.  By maintaining a balance between the tragic and comic elements, and the positive and negative characters, Lubitsch succeeded in creating “a radical and unconventional reworking of the comic traditions behind his earlier films” (William Paul, Ernst Lubitsch’s American Comedy).

Notes by Geraldine V. Koohtow

KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (1949)

Production Company: Ealing Studios.  Director: Robert Hamer.  Producers: Michael Balcon, Michael Relph.  Screenplay: Robert Hamer, John Dighton, based on the novel “Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal” by Roy Horniman.  Photography: Douglas Slocombe.  Editor: Peter Tanner.  Music: Ernest Irving.  Released: June 13, 1949.

Cast:  Dennis Price (Louis), Alec Guinness (The D’Ascoyne Family), Valerie Hobson (Edith), Joan Greenwood (Sibella).

This offering is a heart-warming tale of love, family, and murder among snobbish elites, resentful black sheep, and connivers with dark, dark souls. Murders notwithstanding, Kind Hearts and Coronets is actually a black comedy, full of the famously British dry wit that satirizes elitism, mocks nobility, and throws in a handful of just desserts, for good measure; it has all the mirthful delight in skewering one’s “betters”… and sometimes killing them too.

Alec Guinness played eight members of the noble D’Ascoyne family, ranging in age from young to very old, and questionably ladylike, giving a family resemblance feel to each of the characters. Not to be outdone, Dennis Price played the protagonist, Louis D’Ascoyne Mazzini, and also his own relation – look for it! At 35 years old at the time and knighted a mere ten years later, Guinness unerringly plays his future elderly self, whom we see in his later films…an immense talent.

Peter Sellers was a big of fan of Guinness: “The first real film I made was The Ladykillers. I used to watch Alec Guinness, who is an absolute idol of mine, do everything, his rehearsals, his scenes, everything. He is my ideal… and my idol.” Inspired by Guinness, Sellers would go on to play multi-character roles in Dr. Strangelove and The Prisoner of Zenda. Alas, what more can one say about Sir Alec Guinness that hasn’t been said before? Moving right along…

Kind Hearts is a production of Ealing Studios and the film is considered one of its earlier great comedies in the studio’s heyday (1947-1957). Other great films from this studio include: The Ladykillers, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Man in the White Suit (all of which starred Alex Guinness); Passport to Pimlico, Whiskey Galore! (renamed Tight Little Island for the USA market) and, not to mention, the St. Trinian films. The Ealing Studio location holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest continuously working studio facility for film production. Known as ‘the White Lodge on Ealing Green’, Ealing Studios’ iconic building and studio grounds were bought in 1902 by a silent film producer, who turned it into a film-making operation; by the mid-1930s, it became Ealing Studios. In the opening sequences of Kind Hearts, the Execution Notice posted on the prison door is dated in the year ‘1902’ – perhaps a nod to the studio’s establishment.

Kind Hearts is based on the novel, “Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal” (1907) by Roy Horniman; a notable change from the novel was that Louis’ father was Jewish, instead of Italian. The title, Kind Hearts and Coronets, as explained in the film, is a quote from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “Lady Clara Vere de Vere”, published in 1842:

Kind hearts are more than coronets,

And simple faith than Norman blood.

Although Lord Tennyson was a friend of the de Vere family, this poem was a scathing criticism of idle elitism and the evil inflicted by so-called ‘betters’ on servants and working people. The real Lady Clara toyed with the affections of a ‘yeoman’, a servant in a noble household, only to toss him aside later; heartbroken, the poor man ended his life. She fails to see that kindness and integrity are more important than noble trappings and a family pedigree. The poem entreats Lady Clara to find more worthy pursuits to quell her boredom and to “Pray Heaven for a human heart, And let the foolish yeoman go.”

The dialogue in Kind Hearts has other literary quotes that may sound antiquated to modern ears. Early in the film, Louis paraphrases the English writer and scholar, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), with a pithy quote on death and focus:

“Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”

The Beggar’s Opera (1728) is a 3-act ballad opera that, in a similar theme to Kind Hearts, satirizes the upper class obsession with Italian opera, and makes statements on social inequities between the poor and their ‘betters’. Near the end of Kind Hearts, there’s a difficult quote from The Beggar’s Opera that may need a modern translation:

“How happy could I be with either,

Were t’other dear charmer away”,

Translation:

“I’d be cool with either of these chicks,

so long as one of them would just take off, eh.” [English, Canadian]

Unlike the lovely quotes throughout this film, brace yourself near the end for a bit of a shock when Sibella recites what was once a common nursery rhyme – those were different times…not right…but different.

And now for our TFS Can-Con:

When meeting the Reverend Henry D’Ascoyne, Louis passed himself off as the Bishop of Matabeleland, it sounded like a laugh line; a joke in the film. Nope! Matabeleland is a region in Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia. Most found the portrayal of the Bishop as hilarious, especially his few words in the Matabeleland language: “aah blaw bluw blab la Daniel bwaaaaaa,” but not everyone was amused. The first Bishop of Matabeleland, appointed in 1953, was The Right Reverend William James Hughes and he was not amused. He wanted the film banned and instructed his lawyers to send a sternly worded letter to Sir Michael Balcon, head of Ealing Studios, that read in part, “we have to inform you that we have been instructed by the Bishop of Matabeleland, who is very aggrieved and indignant by the portrayal of the Bishop of Matabeleland in the film Kind Hearts and Coronets.”

The Bishop claimed the film had caused him extreme embarrassment and made him an international laughing stock; the film ridiculed him and his calling, and caused a loss of financial support for his diocese. It should be noted that the film was released in 1949, and the good Bishop didn’t sic his lawyers on Ealing Studios until 1957. Fortunately, Kind Hearts did little to harm his career: Hughes was soon appointed Archbishop of Central Africa in 1957. He then retired in 1970 to Canada and continued to minister at Holy Trinity, Port Burwell, Ontario until his death in 1979.

Money and murder – the pursuit of one, often leads to the other. At the beginning of Kind Hearts, the Executioner casually described his work week, “a poisoner on Monday; a baby farmer at Holloway [a women’s prison] this morning…very horrible crimes, the both of them.” What in the world is baby farming? From Wikipedia: “the historical practice of accepting custody of an infant or child in exchange for payment…” and, “it was more profitable for the baby farmer if the infant or child she adopted died.” In Canada, we had The Ideal Maternity Home which operated in Nova Scotia, from 1928 until 1947. The term Butterbox Babies is a reference to the “butter boxes,” a type of grocery crate used as coffins for the babies killed at the Ideal Maternity Home. Of the estimated 800 to 1,500 babies born at this home, it’s not clear how many ended up in a butterbox. Look up the 1995 Gemini Award-winning film, Butterbox Babies, adapted from the book of the same title.

Notes by Caroline Whittaker