Julia Misbehaves (1948) - full review!
This last film directed by Jack Conway, co-adapted by Monckton Hoffe (The Lady Eve (1941)) and with a screenplay by William Ludwig, Harry Ruskin, and Arthur Wimperis (Mrs. Miniver (1942)), teams the successful dramatic pair, Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, in a comedy with Peter Lawford and Elizabeth Taylor, and comes out alright! The cast also includes Cesar Romero, Lucile Watson, Nigel Bruce, and Mary Boland. Reginald Owen, Henry Stephenson, Ian Wolfe, and Veda Ann Borg also play small roles. The plot is ridiculously improbable, and there are some misfires (the slapstick scenes), but that doesn't stop this film (which boasts Taylor's first on-screen kiss, from Lawford) from entertaining.
It's 1936, and Julia Packett (Garson) is a second company actress/singer who lives from hand to mouth in London, or tries to, receiving assistance from a friend Benny (Owen), whom she dubs her banker. Louise (Borg) has to summon Benny to rescue her from her creditors. Julia receives an invitation to her daughter's wedding in France, and Benny insists on paying her passage. The Packetts are quite wealthy, and have hired artist Ritchie Lorgan (Lawford) to paint caricatures on the walls of their den before the event. He has painted a picture of Susan (Taylor) as Lady Godiva, before he's made to alter it. When Julia's mother-in-law Mrs. Packett (Watson) receives Julia's RSVP telegram, she's horrified that an invitation was (accidentally?) sent and tells her son William (Pidgeon) to intercept her in Paris. Soldier William married Julia during World War I eighteen years earlier; their honeymoon lasted only 48 hours and their marriage only 14 months. The implication is that William's mother disapproved of Julia and her showbiz profession, and we learn later that William had told Julia that he no longer loved her. So, Julia gave up her infant daughter to be raised by the Packetts while she returned (?) to a life on tour with various acting companies.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Packetts ... on the cruise across the English channel, Julia assists the five acrobat Gheneccio brothers with reviving their mother (Boland), and then leaves her in her cabin with champagne without realizing that Mrs. Gheneccio is a lush. Meanwhile, she's met the big strong oldest brother Fred (Romero), to whom she's obviously physically attracted. When Mrs. Gheneccio is unable to perform in Paris, Julia takes her place. When a greedy messenger delivers a note to him that Julia will be unable to meet in Paris, William pays to find out where she is, and then witnesses the show (one of the low points in the film). But Julia's impromptu singing causes such applause that Fred proposes to her as he's put her on her train to her destination; she laughs as the train departs.
When Julia arrives at the Packett home (Wolfe plays the butler; Phyllis Morris the cook), she is confronted by Mrs. Packett and told she is not welcome. After some heated discussion (which fills in the picture already described above), Julia assents to leaving without attending the wedding, but insists on at least seeing her grown up daughter for the first time. When Julia meets Susan in her room, it doesn't take long before mother and daughter, who admits to having sent the invitation, have bonded. Julia gives Susan "something old", her baby cap, and Susan insists that Julia stay for the wedding. At the rehearsal that evening, Ritchie plays the piano while a groomsman stands in for the bridegroom who's having a bachelor party with his military unit. Stephenson plays Lord Pennystone; Aubrey Mather plays the Vicar. Julia wastes no time in asserting her ideas, dress color & music preferences, much to Mrs. Packett’s dismay, because they are contrary to her own. Julia witnesses Ritchie kissing the bride, an old tradition he'd just made up, and Susan's reaction to his other advances. In the meantime, William starts to court Julia.
There is a humorous scene in which Julia goes to a casino hoping to win enough money to buy Susan a present for each missed birthday (16 year old Taylor was actually playing a 21 year old), and ends up hoodwinking a lecherous man named Bunny (Bruce) out of his winnings instead. But this situation is made funnier still when Bunny turns out to be Colonel Bruce Willowbrook, an old friend of William's who, learning of his friend's misfortunes and suspecting the culprit, uses it to his advantage later. Several more humorous situations arise when Fred, with his mother in tow, arrive at the Packetts; Mrs. Packett is only to happy to make them house guests when she learns of Fred's matrimonial plans with Julia. The scenes at the lake (where Fritz Feld plays the caretaker), while necessary to move the two romances along, could have been done better; these are a few of the aforementioned slapstick routines which fall flat. Of course, the predicted endings are delivered.
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