Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

A young upwardly mobile couple with three small children seek a live-in baby sitter. That couple, the Kings, are played by the fantastic Robert Young and Maureen O'Hara (I'm sold already). When they hire Lynn Belvedere as a nanny they get quite a surprise. Lynn Belvedere is a not the typical live-in sitter doing light house work, he's a man! And, Belvedere is a self- professed "GENIUS". Harry and Tracy King's first impression is to simply relieve Belvedere by a feigning it's a misunderstanding as they fully expected a female. This comes to exactly nothing as Belvedere is in the house and he's staying.So, we have a screw-ball comedy complete with eccentric overly nosy (confirmed spinster bachelor) neighbor Mr. Clifton Appleton who, between his cross-pollinated iris breeding and subservient bowing to his mother, adds extra color. Appleton is played by the consummate nasally voiced actor Richard Haydn. This amalgam of characters, along with the mischievous King brood of 3 young sons and a wayward Great Dane Henry, provide great angst from which countless situations spring.Belvedere is eccentrically wonderful as brought to the screen by the British actor Clifton Webb. Straight-laced and extremely proper the presence of Belvedere seems wholly out of place, but is just what the doctor ordered to bring order to the unruly King household. As a self-described genius everything is within his wheelhouse he boastfully might say. That would include authoring a tome' that exposes all the dirty laundry of the supposedly straight-laced locals. The book by Belvedere rockets to top of the best-seller list and what results is a hilarity filled up-commence of the supposed bulwarks of the stodgy "Hummingbird Lane" enclave. Wonderfully entertaining with a blue-chip cast delightfully up-staged by Clifton Webb as Belvedere. A 40's comedy classic that lives on yet today and is highly recommended.

This mildly amusing and inoffensive comedy was so popular in its time that it spawned two sequels with the now rather dated character of Mr Belvedere in them. Those new to it now will probably wonder why. I actually found the opening scenes before Belvedere arrives the best part. A delightful introduction of the nosey neighbours, a gossipy mother and effete flower breeding son, made me expectant that this would be a classic. Alas, the appearance of Belvedere, like the appearance of the title character in Beetlejuice, changes that. The Belvedere character is one familiar to American comedy, basically the snotty and detached butler that has become a staple of comedies from the fresh prince of Bel Air to Arthur. Belvedere adds one ingredient, however, in that he's a genius. I must confess to finding his shtick somewhat wearisome and the storyline in no way accounts for why the children take to him so much. They take to him simply because the plot demands they should take to him. Perhaps we should not expect too much from what was meant to be a light hearted comedy. The plot, such as it is, soon founders, but it is basically a series of contrivances anyway. This is not to say that there is not a certain amount of charming comedy to be had; I found the scene where Belvedere is discovered in his dressing gown apparently drinking gin with Maureen O'Hara, very skillfully done. But a lot depends on how one warms to Belvedere which I failed to do.However the plot turns messy when Belvedere is revealed to have written a successful novel. Why would such a genius engage in writing such a trashy piece of gossip? And why wouldn't the towns folk be rather put out to have their peccadilloes so publicly aired? The final scene where Belvedere passes the blame to the nosey flower breeder fails to convince for a number of reasons and leaves a bitter aftertaste in the mouth.

This is really a very funny movie indeed.It is conventional in that the setting is an aptly-named picture-box small, white-painted, though gossipy, town, full of middle ranking executives and professionals bringing up their families and providing competently for their spouses (well, wives, really). Unconventional in that absolutely the most extraordinary character suddenly implants himself into the situation with immediate and transforming effect. Something like this happens in reverse when Sheridan Whiteside lands the wrong way up on the doorstep of Mr and Mrs Ernest Stanley in "The Man who came to Dinner". The direction wisely delays the principal character's entry for some time and it takes at least some nerve to do this but it works brilliantly here.Clifton Webb manages to be both seriously comic and comically serious at the same time and there is genius in that ability. It is entirely credible that the quite sparky children rapidly take to Lynn Belvedere, no matter how often they are reproved by him.Other reviewers have set out the story well enough that it need not be rehashed here, but what stands out in Clifton Webb's brilliantly iconoclastic performance (I mean that the class of personages known usually as babysitters does, apparently, contain a subset marked "other") is the way in which he simply makes himself fit in, not only to Robert Young's noisy family, but into this movie itself in an artistic sense. Webb's character is more than outrageous, but not for a moment do the other characters in the film, nor we, actually draw the line and (r)eject him. It's a great achievement, indeed.He does have the able assistance of the British actor Richard Haydn, as the snoopy adenoidal neighbour, who is also tremendously entertaining on screen, both vocally and with several excellent visual gags at the ready. Haydn and Webb do use the movie to prove that the screen is too small for the both of 'em and the rest of the cast thus bounce off them gleefully whenever either or both are playing a scene.The Mr Belvedere character was subtly used in two sequels to "Sitting Pretty" which both explore its creative and dramatic valency in quite satisfyingly different ways.Nothing wrong with "Sitting Pretty" at all, and everything right: one is left on something of a high for several days.

This first "Mr. Belvedere" film is a film with very modest goals and it achieves them quite well. It is a family comedy about an incredibly stuffy know-it-all named Belvedere who comes to live with a couple whose kids and dog are extremely difficult, to say the least. Mr. Belvedere isn't exactly a nanny or housekeeper, but sort of like a boarder who also helps out with the kids but doesn't do the cooking. Miraculously, the kids and dog shape up very quickly (though I really couldn't see why) but although the arrangement seems ideal, nosy neighbors (especially the one played by Richard Hayden) try to undo this by spreading rumors that Belvedere and the lady of the house were having an affair! All this is handled very cutely and much of the credit needs to go the the writers as well as the great performance of Clifton Webb as Belvedere. While Maureen O'Hara and Robert Young are just fine as the husband and wife, Webb truly steals the show with his charming performance that seems highly reminiscent of the later cartoon character, Mr. Peabody (who is rumored to be modeled after Webb). An excellent family movie that deliberately avoids sappiness or extreme sentimentality.