A Boyer for all occasions, be it Summer, Spring, Autumn, or Winter, I'm sure you can find a Boyer watch suitable for your needs. Young or mature; Romance or Drama; Hero or Villain; Radio, Tele, or Film.
Thus far in our CINEMA COFFEE chats, we've had coffee with Boyer two times (read "Don't cry on the rolls" and "You're the first Kansas I've met") ... "Coffee with Boyer," *in my Katharine Hepburn THE PHILADELPHIA STORY voice* "It sounds like dancing, doesn't it?" In short, my mom and I did a lot of Boyer brew 'round here.
However, this CINEMA COFFEE, help yourself to some cookies on me ... Oh! While I'm at it, for anyone interested, my mom and I had sort of a taste testing, with coffee creamers in coffee or cappuccinos, where we would try every Coffee Creamer, one finished bottle after the other, until we finally narrowed it down to the brands and flavors to become our "go-to's." It became a toss-up between International Delight's "Carmel Macchiato" or "Southern Butter Pecan," Coffee Mate's "Italian Sweet Cream," before our absolute stick to in both brand and flavor, Bailey's "Toffee Almond Cream."
However, this CINEMA COFFEE, help yourself to some cookies on me ... Oh! While I'm at it, for anyone interested, my mom and I had sort of a taste testing, with coffee creamers in coffee or cappuccinos, where we would try every Coffee Creamer, one finished bottle after the other, until we finally narrowed it down to the brands and flavors to become our "go-to's." It became a toss-up between International Delight's "Carmel Macchiato" or "Southern Butter Pecan," Coffee Mate's "Italian Sweet Cream," before our absolute stick to in both brand and flavor, Bailey's "Toffee Almond Cream."
While in the grocery store the other day, I saw our favorite brand had a new creamer, "Bourbon Vanilla Pound Cake," that I knew my mom and I would try. Had to pick it up and give it a test #ForMyMom. Although I don't drink, Baileys (non-alcoholic) Coffee Creamers are an absolute recommend from top to bottom. In short, I think we'd both co-sign this new flavor.
Alright, carry on ... As I was mentioning, it's cookies, and Robert Osborne, that brings this featured film to the coffee pot. The film being ... "Hello, Cluny Brown." CLUNY BROWN (1946). The cookies being our annual Spritz Cookies, made by moi, eaten by "Ma," and a recommended watch by Robert Osborne, when Robert Osborne introduced the film to the TCM "at home" viewing audience several years back during the holidays as one of "Bob's Picks." Talk about #FlashbackToFunTimes
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... The main thing I remember most that stood out in his intro to this film, aside from it being the first time aired on TCM, was him stating straight away that this was not a holiday film but was a film that brought this time of year to mind, with its charm and warmth, a film he'd pair with the holidays. That stuck with me, (from the kitchen ... more on that in a moment), so deeply, that it had since become an unofficial Christmas holiday watch.
The elements that bring this film together outside of a cast which, starring and featuring, consists of Charles Boyer, Jennifer Jones, Peter Lawford, Helen Walker, Reginald Owen, Una O'Connor, Richard Haydn, Sara Allgood, C. Aubrey Smith, Ernest Cossart, and lest we forget, Reginald Gardiner, who reminds us of just how valuable a cast member he is, be it through a character that sticks around for the duration as in THE BLACK WIDOW or one who has a plumbing problem on a Sunday Afternoon in 1938 London, awaiting "50 people popping over for cocktails." Yes, we've talked Reginald Gardiner before (read my CINEMA COFFEE "Milk? I loathe milk!"), but actor's that carry that sort of quality can stand a repeated name drop.
Made by Twentieth Century-Fox, the film is based on the novel of the same name by Margery Sharp, (think Disney's THE RESCUERS films). Though the story is warm enough, what (IMO) brings the coal to the fire is "The Lubitsch Touch." That's right, CLUNY BROWN was under the direction of Ernst Lubitsch ... "How do I love these films? Let me count the watches" ... THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, NINOTCHKA, DESIGN FOR LIVING, BLUEBEARD'S EIGHTH WIFE, ANGEL, TROUBLE IN PARADISE, HEAVEN CAN WAIT -- Hmm? Oh ... ahem ... yes, well, if that alone doesn't urge you to watch ... we may need to rethink this whole film chat.
CLUNY BROWN would be one of Ernst's last films under his direction, as he would pass away days after filming what would be his final film in November of 1947, THAT LADY IN ERMINE (1948) starring Betty Grable and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., with completion of, after filming, going into the hands of Otto Preminger. "The Lubitsch Touch" is as evident in CLUNY BROWN as much as you would expect a Lubitsch film to be. You witness the feeling of his touch within the first encounter with Cluny Brown, acted by Jennifer Jones, who goes from Plumber's niece to Country maid ("Nuts to the squirrels."), and Charles Boyer's character, Mr. Adam Belinski ("No, it doesn't. It should be "squirrels to the nuts"."), and Reginald Gardiner's, Hilary Ames, character, ("My dear Ames, where's the Gypsy in you?"):
"What's a Persian cat feeling?"
The reviews for this film spoke the same praises in 1945 and 1946. From 'Variety,' "Apart from its whammo entertainment and box-office aspects Cluny Brown can be recorded as glamorizing the first of a clan. A lady plumber. And a looker, no less. The kind for whom stopped-up pipes are a pleasure," (read Variety's full article here) to 'The New York Times'' 1946 review ... (ahem, although they missed the film's title in the header as "Clany Brown") ... Typos with or without modern age autocorrect gets the best of us: Read here for The New York Times CLUNY BROWN Review.
I can't say what I enjoy most about this film. The characters, the story or the lines throughout that stay with me. I think if Richard Haydn would've said "Outrageous!" just once more, I'd run out of tissue from laughing. The reaction on a shocked Peter Lawford's face, "What the devil are Belinskis?", is priceless. And the simplicity with which Charles Boyer says, "Hello, Cluny Brown," whilst sitting on a stump in the fields as Jennifer Jones is escorted back home by "Mr. Wilson" (Richard Haydn), bares the gesture you give when you stop everything you're doing to be quiet and listen to that line in a film you always wait for. (SIDE NOTE: The sets used in CLUNY BROWN were reused from Jennifer Jones' Oscar-Winning role film, SONG OF BERNADETTE (1943).)
I can't say what I enjoy most about this film. The characters, the story or the lines throughout that stay with me. I think if Richard Haydn would've said "Outrageous!" just once more, I'd run out of tissue from laughing. The reaction on a shocked Peter Lawford's face, "What the devil are Belinskis?", is priceless. And the simplicity with which Charles Boyer says, "Hello, Cluny Brown," whilst sitting on a stump in the fields as Jennifer Jones is escorted back home by "Mr. Wilson" (Richard Haydn), bares the gesture you give when you stop everything you're doing to be quiet and listen to that line in a film you always wait for. (SIDE NOTE: The sets used in CLUNY BROWN were reused from Jennifer Jones' Oscar-Winning role film, SONG OF BERNADETTE (1943).)
As for Charles Boyer himself, his comedic side is just as funny as his sinister side in GASLIGHT (another #ForMyMom favorite watch from which we'd quote from daily). In fact, if you really want a suggestion, let me suggest making a full night at the movies at home with a featured watch of GASLIGHT (1944), with a coffee break refill for a follow-up feature watch of CLUNY BROWN to follow right after. That will give you two sides to the coin of Boyer's acting. Brilliant. Just as you favor his neck jerked movement paired with his sly watchful eyes glazing over Ingrid Bergman in GASLIGHT, *in my Charles Boyer French accent* "Paula," you too find the way he looks at Cluny Brown with just his eyes alone while she's describing her dream of him as the two are standing in the garden, so realistically done, it transcends time. It is an expression used through the years! Laying all my cards on the table, it's a look I use often myself when I hear someone say something that jerks my attention to wonder if they actually heard what they just said, or are they just talking? Yet Boyer does it in such a "you beautiful little fool" manner, you can't help but wait in anticipation for the moment Cluny, if she ever does, comes to realize Mr. Belinski is in love with her.
*Sniffs the aroma* ... Ah, the cookies should be done now. I did tell you cookies went with the watch. Why? Well, on the night that Robert Osborne was to introduce the film as one of Bob's Picks, my mom asked me if I'd make my annual "Christmas Cookies." Not having a cookie press at the time, making those Spritz Cookies, though ever so good, is a process. A complete process. Looking at the time, knowing the recipe I have yields around 72-74 cookies (we don't half bake in this house unless it's an emergency), I told her, there's no way I'd finish making them before midnight, and I'd miss the premiere of CLUNY BROWN! But, as was often the case, the "pretty please" voice and look placed on my mom's face, followed by the cream cheese laid out to soften. Though I had to walk back and forth from the counter to the oven, back to the telly, with my mom calling out what was going on in between when my back was turned, I never did mind it at all. Not once. I wouldn't change up that night for anything. As forever was and now will be, whenever I watch CLUNY BROWN, I always see Spritz Cookies and my mom beaming with a childlike smile as I handed her some cookies from my first batch out of the oven. Let it be clear, however, that my mom was the cookie baker in this outfit, my dad the cake baker, but I was happy there was at least one recipe she'd call on me for. Though it puts a smile on my face to know, it also puts tears in my eyes to remember, so I'll leave you here with some coffee and cookies (a picture of the last batch I made #ForMyMom)
For my other CINEMA COFFEE blog pieces:
#ForMyMom Cinema Coffee ... | COFFEE CINEMA: Talking Streetcar | CINEMA COFFEE: "Et tu, Brute?" | CINEMA COFFEE: "La Chocolaterie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Milk? I loathe milk!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Elderberry Wine ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The choice I never had ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The smell of Mimosa" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Mighty like a Rose" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Don't cry on the rolls" | CINEMA COFFEE: "You're the first Kansas I ever met" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Everybody calls me Gracie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "What the devil are Belinskis?!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Hello friends and enemies." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Stop remindin' me of heaven." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Even Gatsby could happen" | CINEMA COFFEE: "I made a wish" | CINEMA COFFEE: Audie Murphy | CINEMA COFFEE: Put The Blame on Mame | CINEMA COFFEE: "Just Singleton." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Where I Come From, Nobody Knows" | Film Therapy: Coping through Cinema | CINEMA COFFEE: Socks fall down | CINEMA COFFEE: "The moon's reaching for me" | CINEMA COFFEE: The Horne: Luso World Cinema Blogathon | CINEMA COFFEE: Aunt Bettye Lightsy | CINEMA COFFEE: I never lose | CINEMA COFFEE: "I have a mother!" | CINEMA COFFEE: THE SIGN OF GEMINI | CINEMA COFFEE: Venus Rising | CINEMA COFFEE: Stan vs Geek | CINEMA COFFEE: "Positively the same dame"
#ForMyMom Cinema Coffee ... | COFFEE CINEMA: Talking Streetcar | CINEMA COFFEE: "Et tu, Brute?" | CINEMA COFFEE: "La Chocolaterie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Milk? I loathe milk!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Elderberry Wine ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The choice I never had ..." | CINEMA COFFEE: "The smell of Mimosa" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Mighty like a Rose" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Don't cry on the rolls" | CINEMA COFFEE: "You're the first Kansas I ever met" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Everybody calls me Gracie" | CINEMA COFFEE: "What the devil are Belinskis?!" | CINEMA COFFEE: "Hello friends and enemies." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Stop remindin' me of heaven." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Even Gatsby could happen" | CINEMA COFFEE: "I made a wish" | CINEMA COFFEE: Audie Murphy | CINEMA COFFEE: Put The Blame on Mame | CINEMA COFFEE: "Just Singleton." | CINEMA COFFEE: "Where I Come From, Nobody Knows" | Film Therapy: Coping through Cinema | CINEMA COFFEE: Socks fall down | CINEMA COFFEE: "The moon's reaching for me" | CINEMA COFFEE: The Horne: Luso World Cinema Blogathon | CINEMA COFFEE: Aunt Bettye Lightsy | CINEMA COFFEE: I never lose | CINEMA COFFEE: "I have a mother!" | CINEMA COFFEE: THE SIGN OF GEMINI | CINEMA COFFEE: Venus Rising | CINEMA COFFEE: Stan vs Geek | CINEMA COFFEE: "Positively the same dame"