Julia Misbehaves

1948 "It's daring! It's delicious! It's the gayest comedy-romance of the year!"
6.8| 1h39m| G| en
Details

Julia and William were married and soon separated by his snobbish family. They meet again many years later, when their daughter he has raised invites her mother to her wedding, with the disapproval of William's mother.

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Console best movie i've ever seen.
Cleveronix A different way of telling a story
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Portia Hilton Blistering performances.
wes-connors In 1936 London, veteran chorus girl and actress Greer Garson (as Julia) takes a bubble bath, then receives an invitation to the wedding of the teenage daughter she abandoned to pursue a career. For some reason, Ms. Garson never got around to divorcing wealthy Walter Pidgeon (as William Sylvester Packett), which should give you an idea where this is heading. Comments from his mother indicate Mr. Pidgeon had no subsequent interest in women. The daughter in question is sweet 16-year-old Elizabeth Taylor (as Susan), who is obviously matched-up with mural painter Peter Lawford (as Ritchie Lorgan)...Before reuniting with Pidgeon, Garson becomes a throaty singer, leggy dancer, and unlikely "flying acrobatic" performer with the troupe led by suave Cesar Romero (as Fred Ghenoccio), who wants to marry her himself. After witnessing the show, Mr. Pidgeon receives a kiss and spanking from a noisy seal, backstage in Paris. Deciding she wants to buy Ms. Taylor all the past Christmas gifts she's missed, Garson goes out to win some money gambling at a conveniently located casino...Winning no money at the roulette table, Garson next decides to become a prostitute, while having a smoke at the bar. She makes off with the cash, but leaves picked-up old Nigel Bruce (as Bruce "Bunny" Willowbrook) sexually unsatisfied. Later, Garson disrupts the wedding rehearsal with a superstitious story about the color pink, and then Garson does her seal impression. This, of course, recalls the earlier live seal scene with Pidgeon. None of this plays very well, or even makes much sense. A couple of the later scenes, with Garson and Pidgeon boating while Mr. Lawford gives Taylor a picnic kiss, are sweetly romantic.**** Julia Misbehaves (8/8/48) Jack Conway ~ Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford, Elizabeth Taylor
gkeith_1 Greer Garson had beautiful and long legs. I did not know any of this when viewing "Mrs. Miniver" or her other movies. In her typical movies, she is quite proper and above all, a remarkable image to look up to for women. In this movie, however, Greer is so much fun. She has to deal with her prim and proper husband, and in the meantime she cavorts with that all-fun-loving hottie Cesar Romero. My favorite part of any of Greer's movies is the dancehall scene in this movie, when she is dressed in a very short plaid pleated skirt with spike heels. Wonderful!!! Her singing is very good, too. Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Lawford are quite cute in this movie. Walter Pigeon is his usual adorable self with Greer Garson. I feel that they were a well matched pair. I did not like Greer's part in the movie "That Forsyte Woman". I know that she wanted to play against type, but the way that the character of her husband (Errol Flynn?) in that movie treated her I felt was so horrible. That was the movie with Robert Young (I think) as the second man. I feel that that was a horrid "Greer" movie, but "Julia Misbehaves" is my favorite. Go Greer!!! Wish she were still here with us. Perhaps she was not so prim and proper in her real life, either. Ever wonder how and why she got her MGM contract so fast (in one day?)? It has been said that Louis B. Mayer never gave anybody anything without their "earning" it first, LOL. Even Judy Garland, IMO. You figure it out.
silverscreen888 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.
guil fisher 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.