Julia Misbehaves *** (1948, Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Lawford, Cesar Romero, Lucile Watson, Nigel Bruce) – Classic Movie Review 12,612

MGM’s 1948 romantic comedy film Julia Misbehaves stars Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon in the sixth of their nine films. Elizabeth Taylor turned 16 during filming and gets her first onscreen kiss, from Peter Lawford, whom she pursued romantically.

Director Jack Conway’s 1948 American MGM black and white romantic comedy film Julia Misbehaves stars Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Lawford, Cesar Romero, Lucile Watson, Nigel Bruce, Mary Boland, and Reginald Owen. It is the sixth of nine films with Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson.

A tremendous cast are spot on for this bright and bubbly comedy about glamorous actress Julia Packett (Garson) separated by the snobbish family of her stolid husband William (Pidgeon) but going back to him  when their daughter Susan (Taylor) gets set to walk up the aisle.

Julia Misbehaves is perhaps not uproarious, maybe, but the players are highly watchable (especially Romero as acrobat Fred Ghenoccio). The idiosyncratic script (from the 1937 novel The Nutmeg Tree by Margery Sharp) is never dull. Jerry Seelen’s song ‘When You’re Playing with Fire’ is a highlight.

It is director Jack Conway’s final film. He retired and died four years later at his California home from pulmonary disease on October 11, 1952, aged 66.

The Nutmeg Tree was also adapted as the 1940 Broadway play Lady in Waiting.

Garson and Pidgeon appeared in nine movie collaborations: Blossoms In the Dust (1941), Mrs Miniver (1942), Madame Curie (1943), The Youngest Profession (1943) in cameos, Mrs Parkington (1944), Julia Misbehaves (1948), That Forsyte Woman (1949), The Miniver Story (1950), and Scandal at Scourie (1953).

The cast are Greer Garson as Julia Packett, Walter Pidgeon as William Sylvester Packett, Peter Lawford as Ritchie Lorgan, Elizabeth Taylor as Susan Packett, Cesar Romero as Fred Ghenoccio, Lucile Watson as Mrs Packett, Nigel Bruce as Colonel Bruce “Bunny” Willowbrook, Mary Boland as Ma Gheneccio, Reginald Owen as Julia’s friend Benjamin Hawkins, Henry Stephenson as Susan’s future father-in-law Lord Pennystone,  Aubrey Mather as the Vicar, Ian Wolfe as the butler Hobson, Fritz Feld as Pepito, Phyllis Morris as Daisy, Veda Ann Borg as Louise, Harry Allen as bill collector, Edmund Breon as Jaime, Lola Albright, Marcelle Corday, André Charlot, Nan Boardman, James Finlayson, Elspeth Dudgeon, Jean Del Val, Winifred Haddis, James Logan, Alphonse Martell, Mitchell Lewis, Joanee Wayne, William E Snyder, Ottola Nesmith, Torben Meyer, George Volk, Henry Monzello, and Kay Norton.

Elizabeth Taylor turned 16 during filming and receives her first onscreen kiss, from Peter Lawford. Taylor pursued Lawford romantically, but he had been warned that she was off-limits. She stayed in bed for days until Lawford visited her to clear the air, and they stayed friends. Lawford introduced Greer Garson to Texas oil and cattle millionaire Buddy Fogelson during filming and they married the next year.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,612

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