Julia Misbehaves

Both Greer Garson and Walter Pigeon, having made several dramas together, have done a remarkable switch to comedy. Both are charming and classy in their romp of delight. Along the way with the help of the likes of Caesar Romero, as the head of a family of acrobats, the zany Mary Boland, his alcoholic mother [loved her hanging from the smoke stack of a liner], Nigel Bruce, a woman chaser, attempting to pick up Greer in a lady's clothing shop, Elizabeth Taylor, all of 16 years old and gorgeous, Peter Lawford, also young and gorgeous and Lucille Watson, the wealthy grand dame of the family, Greer and Walter go through the antics of falling into mud puddles, sinking into the water in a beaten up old row boat, being forced to go through a high flying acrobatic act, being slapped on the rear by a trained seal and generally having a grand time of it. Hats off to a slick and silly script and a cast of performers who don't take it seriously at all.

Greer Garson is again teamed up with Walter Pidgeon in the delightful comedy, "Julia Misbehaves," which also stars 16-year-old Elizabeth Taylor and a very adorable Peter Lawford. Taylor and Lawford are a subplot in this film, which mainly concerns Garson as Julia, an entertainer, showing up to attend the wedding of the daughter she hasn't seen since infancy. Because of the breakup of her marriage and her transient lifestyle, she left the child with her husband's family.

This is a fun movie with some great scenes, the best of which is an acrobatic act featuring Julia. It is hilarious. Cesar Romero makes a game attempt at a Cockney accent, and is very good as Nicky, the head of the act who is interested in marrying Julia. Nigel Bruce is a man conned out of 6950 francs by Julia, and Lucile Watson is Julia's disapproving mother-in-law. Pidgeon plays Julia's husband, who hasn't seen her in years, but on encountering her again, realizes what he's been missing.

Wedding plans don't go as expected once Julia is in the house. A very pretty Elizabeth Taylor gets her first screen kiss from Lawford, and they make a charming couple. But this isn't their film, it's Garson's, in a different type of role for her. She is up to the task. Over the years, perhaps due to some of the sentimental movies she made and being raked over the coals by Pauline Kael, Garson's reputation has suffered. However, she is terrific in "Julia Misbehaves," and this entertaining film is well worth seeing.

This is a slight story and it's obvious where it's going but the fun of it is the journey getting there as we follow the exploits and misadventures of the titular Julia, wittily and intelligently played by Greer Garson. She has good chemistry with Walter Pidgeon's masculine everyman type and the young pairing of Peter Lawford and Elizabeth Taylor are appealing enough, but what really makes this film is an embarrassment of riches in the ranks of the character actors present here. Lucile Watson and Mary Boland are shown to good effect as very different types of matriarch, Henry Stephenson and Aubrey Mather are fun as a twinkly Lord and a endearing vicar respectively and Reginald Owen, Edmund Breon and Fritz Field all have nice moments as a put upon pawnbroker, a cheery Scots ghillie and a money grabbing informant. But leading the field in this illustrious company are an amusing Cesar Romeo as a muscle bound, love-lorn acrobat and Nigel Bruce as a lecherous but still loveable old roue. Arguably the highlight of the film are the music hall scenes that include the acrobatic troupe, a cheeky contortionist and even a performing seal. Great fun.

A a writer, i enjoy the spaciousness of this story. This is a sense-of-life portrait of an indomitable woman with a keen sense of Ionic humor, the ability to defend herself when verbally attacked and a very bright and honest mind. In her youth she had married a rich man's son and thought him strong enough to stand up to parental disapproval for the sake of his young actress wife. They had a child, a girl, then later he said he did not love her and called off the marriage. She has gotten by somehow for years; he raised the child. Only now the daughter, about to be married, wants her mother beside her at the wedding. Julia, a female in the United States where few people have any rights and females less, is cadging money off old philanderers who should know better for services not rendered; the latest is a friend of her husband's. She arrives at the house and charms everyone...from the first, the husband wonders why he had ever let her go. She finds her daughter's fiancée hopeless and makes sure she gets interested in a young painter instead. Somehow she gets involved on the way there with the Flying Ghenoccios, in whose balancing act she makes an hilarious debut atop a human pyramid, winning the eldest brother's heart. He shows up then too, complicating life for the husband. They end up nearly drowned and arguing vociferously before she finally accepts her husband's second proposal and his explanation that he had allowed his snobbish family to talk him out of love when he as young. All turns out well for all concerned; but not until after many enjoyable and sometimes farcical complications, and touching moments, occur including Julai's explanation of why "cylamen pink" would be a disaster as a color for bridesmaids' gowns. This film has luminous style in B/W and an expensive look about it, the MGM touch. The roster of those who contributed to this handsome and large-appearing production is a long and much-honored one: gowns by Irene, script adapted from Margery Sharp's "The Nutmeg Tree", direction by Jack Conway, music by Adolph Deutsch, set decorations by Edwin B. Willis, art direction by Daniel B. Cathcart and Cedric Gibbons, with cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg, script by Arthur Wimperis, Harry Riskin and William Ludwig, with adaptation by Monckton Hoffe and Gina Kaus. In the large cast Greer Garson and Walter Pigeon are the mature couple, and they are unarguably wonderful together, as always. Lucile Watson as his mother, Peter Lawford as the painter, Mary Boland as the mother of the Ghenoccios and Cesar Romero as her eldest Joe are all very good. Nigel Bruce, Elizabeth Taylor as the daughter, Reginald Owen, Ian Wolfe, Henry Stephenson, Veda Ann Borg and Phyliis Moore have less to do but all do what they are asked to do very well. This is a long, pleasant and occasionally brilliant satire of its own plot line--taking responsibility for one's own values. The rich and the deluded in this trenchant look at human errors and choices do not come off particularly well; virtues, though not exclusively, seem mostly to belong to those who deal with reality and not social-class expectations and conventions and appearances---in a nation that was not supposed to have any such folderol. Julia in the person of Greer Garson is a stiff breeze of fresh air; and in the brilliant and only modestly-stuffy person of Walter Pigeon we see a human edifice in exact need of that cleansing stir, motion and source of verbiage. She is obviously exactly the woman he should have married after all and should never have let go for any reason. Forget this is Greer Garson; the film would have been accepted by public and critics in 1938 as the beautifully-made gem it is; if it was made too late, it was not too late for its genial look at human honesties and foibles, but for a nation's folk no longer much interested in realities, as it s citizens had been during the late war. A true delight and a rare and major comedy appearance for the witty and delightful stars.

Greer Garson, soaking in her tub and locked in her room, pretends she's about to end it all. All this is a ruse in order to get her good friend Reginald Owen to pay her creditors, who are at her door. Ms. Garson's carefree, gay, and a delicious tease in this fun-filled romp that is sure to please even the crankiest of viewers. This shows Ms. Garson in a new light from her usual fare of melodrama, as she lets her hair down and has all the men around her on a string and using them to her advantage. It happens that she gets an invitation to her daughter's impending wedding. She had left her years ago, with her husband, of whom she never divorced (played by Walter Pidgeon,) because she is an stage actress and travels a lot. When she arrives, we see that most of them are not glad to see her, after all this time. But what happens next is a riot. Cesar Romero is great as part of an acrobatic act and as a suitor vying for Greer, giving the debonair Walter Pidgeon a run for his money. "What muscles am I using now?" If you've never seen this, you're in for a real treat, the cheery side of Miss Greer.