Product Details

• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000EHM390
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #297,553 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars correct movie description, November 11, 2008

By 

Amber Dillon "Everyone Needs Culture" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cluny Brown [Region 2] (DVD)

The only review on this page is incorrect when describing the storyline of this film. I've actually watched the film and it is about a plumber's niece (Jennifer Jones) who takes matters into her own hands when her uncle cannot take a call. She meets the very poor but fascinating author (Charles Boyer) who has escaped capture by the Nazis who have marched upon his native country. Cluny's uncle thinks she is influenced by too many social desires and, in an effort to keep her in her place, sends her to serve a wealthy family outside of London. Once there, she meets the author again as he is a houseguest. Cluny also meets a fairly well-to-do chemist in the nearest town who woos her but is subject to his aging mother's opinion. Needless to say, because this is a comedy, Cluny and the professor/author fall in love and form a new life in America. The story is incredibly sweet and endearing. I have introduced this movie to as many people as I possibly could. I hope this helps coming from someone who knows the movie by heart.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FUNNY, CLASSIC MOVIE WITH A MESSAGE......N E E D S....R E G I O N ....O N E.....D V D.....B A D L Y...!., March 30, 2011

By 

Patricia "A Reader" (Queens, New York, and Denver, Co, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Cluny Brown [Region 2] (DVD)

I saw "Cluny Brown" years ago, on broadcast TV in NYC. Recently, I rhought of this wonderful, charming, funny, well-written movie, (a comedy with a subtle, but very important message), again. I searched for a DVD of it I might buy on Amazon....but could find only "Region 2" DVDs, which are NOR playable on most North American DVD players. I was, however, happily able to see it on one of the "broadast yourself" sites on the net. It was a very sharp, clear copy -- but the fact that it was in ten parts did make it more than a bit inconvenient to view.

However, it was more than worth the inconvenience to again see this truly classic film! It stars JENNIFER JONES as a young orphan, living with her uncle, a plumber. Bright, eager for happiness in her life, and also having inherited a (very unfeminine?) interest in, and talent for, plumbing, beautiful Cluny Brown goes out on a plumbing job when her uncle can't make it. Lady (or is that 'woman'?) plumbers are still relatively rare in 2011 -- so imagine how surprised the person expecting plumbing help is, (in this 1938 movie), when a pretty young girl comes to help with his plumbing problems! A guest of this man, (male lead CHARLES BOYER), is in this home as well. He is "Professor Bolinsky", a famous but poor refugee writer from the Nazi invasion of his European homeland.
Cluny is successful at the job -- but when she comes home, her uncle -- exasperate4d by her high spirits, and her refusal to "know her place", decides to send her "into service" ....as a maid of a wealthy, titled couple. (Their son,
played by PETER LAWFORD -- himself of REAL English nobility in real life -- is also present.)

Cluny is welcomed warmly into this aristocratic household. The Lord and Lady of the home are very kind, and offer her tea and crumpets. However, their mood changes when they realize that Cluny is to be the new maid ....and that their thinking she was the aristocratic young lady they were expecring was merely a case
of mistaken identity. She is sent forthwith to the servants' quarters, under the stern gaze of the butler and the housekeeper.

A guest at the home of the Lord and Lady is Professor Bolinsky. He is perceived as a very romantic and brave figure, by Lord, Lady and son. Professor Bolinsky and Cluny are surprised, but happy to see each other again. At dinner, Cluny, serving the meal, whispers to his Lordship to take one piece of meat, rather than another, because the first is a bit fatty. After dinner, it is decided that Cluny should soon be dismissed.....because she spoke to the master of the house as an Equal!

There is a possibility that Cluny could leave her servant's status by marriage. But the man picked out for her is a rather super-proud middle-class chemist. This apothecary makes his customers wait for him to come to them, plays the piano as if it was an organ at a funeral, and has a mother who has interest in very little, constantly clears her throat, and snores a great deal. At a b5th birthday birthday partt for the apothecary's mother, some pipes go bad in the bathroom. Cluny -- with the aid of a young boy, (the only person, other than Cluny, who actually seems to have some spark of liveliness in him), fixes the pipes. But the apothecary is horrendously embarrassed that Cluny has shown a side of her other than being an obedient and compliant fiancee and wife-to-be. Cluny promises to be more careful not to do such things in the future, and leaves.

She meets with Professor Bolinsky in the park. They throw nuts to the squirrels,
but Bolinsky prefers the (very telling) phrase, "Squirrels To The Nuts"!

.............................................................................

It is very telling in this movie that those with power in it -- be they landed aristocrats or middle-class apothecaries -- treat those they do not consider their equals, (servants, customers), with disdain. A disdain almost, (but not completely), approaching the Nazi attitude towardes "inferiour" (races.) It is also very telling of the lessons of World War II, that things have changed, (however slightly), in many areas of life, since then. Prejudices -- though they haven't completely disappeared -- have greatly diminished, and servants are far better treated than they were before the war. Today, the master of the house would, in all probablity, thank the maid who served him dinner and steered him to the better piece of meat.

These lessons are humourusly, and delightfully taught in "Cluny Brown". No facts and figures of how the rich are getting outlandlishly richer, and how they gouge their employees and customers. No hitting people over the head with scenes of want and starvation. Just an entrancing story, so well-told, with humour, just a little pathos, and great acting, directing, writing, music, and other production values.

In 2011, it was announced that Prince William and Catherine Middleton have decided NOT to have ANY servants during the first years of their marriage. (He cooks!)
Although "lesse majesty" will, I think, be avoided, Prince William and his very soon bride-to-be herald, I think, no less than a new chapter in human history -- where the worth and contributions of EVERY individual will be seen as worthwhile,
as we continue to look to leaders, (leaders who, whether born to, or elected to their positions, have totally EARNED their followers respect), to guide us with their wisdom and knowledge, "Moses"-style. (It is told that Moses was put into the palace so that he COULD become a leader -- and not grow up with the bitterness, anger, and frustration that "ordinary" people too often have. There truly IS something to be said for having rich people -- with compassion and empathy -- to look up to as leaders....

CLUNY BROWN is a tale of humankind's basic equality....wrapped in a romantic comedy of manners. It is a movie to watch, over and over again. As the song says, "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down....in the most delightful way!"

P L E A S E....have this wonderful film in Region One DVD format -- and soon!

3.0 out of 5 stars cluny brown - the question of accent, November 11, 2009

By 

M. J. Walker "parolles" (France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cluny Brown [Region 2] (DVD)

A charming film in some ways, with some characteristic cameos & subordinate roles. But oh dear, what is the explanation of the heroine's American accent, when her uncle is a cockney plumber? Jennifer Jones makes almost no effort to conceal her country of origin (or the fancy makeup she claims she's not wearing). Helen Walker is excellent (good accent) as the blasé aristocrat, Richard Haydn ditto as the prune-faced chemist, but I spent the film wondering about the problem alluded to above and whether, if Cluny Brown had had a London twang, the donnée of the script would have been possible at all, since the misunderstandings at the beginning about her class status could not have occurred. In the novel, I believe, her social class is evident, and the implicit problem more her sexual attractiveness, very underplayed in the film except at the beginning when she is drunk. The film's play on "displacement" is thus somewhat awkwardly exemplified by this gap in credibility - when we see her at the end strolling on 5th Ave. she seems like a fish finally back in the water...I love Charles Boyer's performance - if only he had ended up with the more convincing character of Betty Cream.