Travessuras de Julia

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.

"Julia Misbehaves" is a charming comedy filled with romance and touching moments. Greer Garson sparkles as Julia, a penniless showgirl who has been invited to attend the very formal wedding of her daughter, Elizabeth Taylor, whom she hasn't seen since she was a baby. Along the way, she encounters acrobat Cesar Romero and his wacky family, rich aristocrat Nigel Bruce with an eye for pretty girls, and estranged husband Walter Pidgeon who begins to wonder how he ever let her go in the first place. All of the interactions lead into one humorous complication after another and show off Ms. Garson's comedic timing that was rarely seen in her usual dramatic roles.

I adore this nutty little film. I love Garson, Pidgeon, Taylor, and Lawford in almost any movie and particularly teamed together. Cesar Romero also adds flavor in a comedic supporting role. I enjoy classic and screwball comedies and have a long list made of those (this one is on it). Is this the best of the best? No, but it's fun and well made. That's a prerequisite for my list. I own it and still watch it each time it comes on TCM.

Elizabeth Taylor, as the mutual daughter and young bride, is so young and lovely. She still has an innocence to her performance at this stage that I enjoy. Peter Lawford is young, suave, and cocky. Walter Pidgeon is typical Walter Pidgeon. But it's Greer Garson's movie and in it she shines. She produces screwball romantic comedy antics worthy of Irene Dunne or Jean Arthur.

This is a must see for Garson fans. I highly recommend it to fans of any of the cast or of the genre. It's not perfect, but it sure entertains. And isn't that the point?

and do a very good job at it. If you've always wanted to see Greer Garson scantily clad and singing while being tossed about by acrobats and cheered on by sailors on leave, or if Walter Pidgeon being roughed up by a trained vaudevillian seal appeals to you, this is your movie. Garson and Pidgeon, a very popular MGM screen team of the 40's, this time are a long-estranged married couple. Pidgeon plays a real scoundrel in this one, but fortunately the scoundrel part is something we're largely told about, not something that we see much of. Pidgeon's character, William Sylvester Packett, is to the manor born and meets chorus girl Julia (Greer Garson) while in the service during World War I. They are hastily married, and a daughter Susan (Elizabeth Taylor) is born during the following year. War is often the great equalizer - it makes everyone involved forget their peacetime stations in life. Thus, when the war ends, it only takes a few months in familiar settings for William to decide he doesn't love Julia anymore and send her packing. However, William never divorces Julia, a symptom of his split feelings towards her. He does keep the baby for himself, though. Once you get familiar with the characters you feel that maybe William's mom had a hand in the break-up since she obviously thinks Julia is not good enough for her son.

The two are thrown back into each other's lives when Julia receives an invitation to her daughter's wedding. The problem is, nobody seems to know who sent that mysterious invitation. Before anyone can get in touch with her to "disinvite" her, free spirit Julia appears at the Packett estate a few days before the wedding. With estranged hubby and his mother so cool to her presence, the servants so happy to see her after all of these years, and her daughter a perfect stranger, how will this whole thing work out? I know this sounds like it has all the potential for Madame X style melodrama, but believe me it is good fun all the way. I highly recommend it. As an aside, don't be too confused by the fact that the time factor doesn't make much sense. This movie was made in 1948 but set in 1938 so the whole issue of World War II doesn't enter into the plot at all.

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.