My Romance with Movies: From the 1940's: Sitting Pretty

1948 Comedy
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Walter Lang

Starring
Robert Young
Maureen O'Hara
Clifton Webb
Louise Albritton
Richard Haydn
John Russell
Ed Begley
Randy Stuart
Betty Lynn

When Clifton Webb was brought to work at 20th Century Fox in 1943, studio head Darryl F. Zanuck was not pleased. The macho, cigar-chomping, polo-playing, skirt-chasing Zanuck had no use for the likes of Webb and was quite sure he'd never fit in with the family at the studio.

Webb was hired to play the effete radio actor Waldo Lydecker in Otto Preminger's superb film noir, Laura (1944), who turns out to be a vicious killer. I still consider it to be the best thing Webb ever did. He followed it up in 1946 with another noir, The Dark Corner, and the same year in the all-star romance-drama, The Razor's Edge.

The first and last of those three were huge successes for the studio and for Webb personally. Interestingly he was not the top-billed star in any of them but his characters were unforgettable because there was something about this man's haughty manner that was simply irresistible. If a romantic leading man of the day had acted as gay as Webb did, that actor would have been seeking work elsewhere. The only ones of the movie-going public who didn't realize he was gay must have been napping under a boulder. Webb brought to his roles exactly who he was in real life and much of the public cherished him.

Despite the three dramas he had completed, he'd never done much dramatic work in his earlier career. He was primarily in light-hearted fare on Broadway as a song and dance man. By the 40s he had pushed singing and dancing aside and while he liked the dramas he did, he thought comedy was his forte and he longed to do some.

Around that same time Webb got a call from a New York literary friend who said he'd just read the galleys of a new book called Mr. Belvedere. It was the comic story of a snooty author who hires himself out as a live-in babysitter, despite his sincere dislike of children, so that he may gather resource material for a book he intends to write. Webb dashed into Zanuck's office to sell his soul if he had to to get his boss to buy the film rights to the property.

Webb was flummoxed to learn that Zanuck also wanted to talk to him about a property they'd bought which they thought would be perfect for him. Yes, Mr. Belvedere. Zanuck had $tar$ in his eyes... he knew this would be a big money-maker for the studio, especially given that it could be filmed on the lot for not a lot of money.

The movie would be retitled Sitting Pretty. Webb would oddly be third-billed but he was unquestionably the star. The couple at the center of the action would be played by Maureen O'Hara and John Payne. They were a proven commodity for the studio having costarred together in To the Shores of Tripoli, Sentimental Journey and Miracle on 34th Street. Oh, what a joy that would have been to have them together again is this particular story, working their irresistible magic.

Payne had costarred with Webb in The Razor's Edge and the two men got on well. Whatever happened, it was Robert Young who took over the part and is good in it. Webb was concerned about working with O'Hara whom he'd not met despite both being under contract to Fox because she had a reputation of being difficult to work with. In the end, however, they got on well. And despite Webb really not liking kids, he said working on Sitting Pretty was the happiest working experience he ever had.

O'Hara and Young have a difficult time keeping a babysitter because their three sons are a handful. Lynn Belvedere responds to O'Hara's ad. She gussies up his room with frilly things and then, of course, is aghast he is a man. She tells him it just couldn't work out but he assures her she is mistaken. Young meets him later in the day and he is positive Mr. Belvedere is not staying.

Before anyone can say nice knowin' ya, Belvedere has, with just a short sentence, tamed the children. The camera catches the parents' astonished faces. Well, hmmm, let's not be too hasty here. Maybe he can stay on a temporary, let's-see basis. Belvedere, of course, tells them they have made a very fine decision. He promises them things that they only previously dreamed of. Soon we see that there isn't anything Belvedere hasn't done or doesn't know most everything about. He lets them in on a little secret. He is a genius. The film gives him ample, funny ways to prove it.

Then, of course, there are those three kids... those we're lead to believe are unruly. Well, ok, there is that cereal scene, but otherwise, they seem like good boys to me. Had they been the rambunctious ones we'd been promised, there would have been even more laughs and good stuff for Webb to deliver.

As it is... trust me on this because I am not given to easy laughter at the flickers... there's some genuinely funny stuff here. I was practically slapping my knee at the situations this imperious, supercilious character (Webb must have had to stifle a yawn) would get into. Of course, his tone is so sharp and uncompromising and it's one thing to deliver such to an adult... but to children? Their reactions cannot be predicted which puts Belvedere in an unusual bind and give us a chance to feel good over the laughs.

Yes, that cereal scene. Picture it... Hummingbird Hill subdivision, 1948. There they are, Belvedere and the kids around the dining room table, eating breakfast as the fussy babysitter is lecturing on some rule to be obeyed when bam, camera on him only, he is blasted in the face and on his suit with cereal. We know the baby was in the highchair next to him, but since we don't see him do it, we are as surprised as Belvedere is. It happens twice and Webb simply couldn't have been better in his imposing retort that I believe started with Little Boy.... The scene then cuts to this kid with a bowl of cereal over the top of his head, some of which is cascading down his cheek.

What the story ends up centering on is the (preposterous) idea that Belvedere and his lady boss are having an affair and it spreads through the town in a couple of scenes which, again, are largely played for laughs.

Character actor Richard Haydn, as a nosy, gossipy, one of those neighbors who lives with his nosy, gossipy mother provides some giggles as well. I found it audacious to put Haydn and Webb in the same movie. They are the same person... either could easily play the other's roles. Haydn does it with humor and is often over-the-top while Webb gets his laughs playing characters who are almost always humorless. Haydn you may recall as Uncle Max in The Sound of Music.

(In real life, it was Webb who lived with his mother all his life. One just has to wonder if some writer was poking a little fun at Webb. Or not.)

Handsome Hollywood cowboy John Russell is for a change in a modern-day story. He plays Young's friend and coworker at a law firm. Russell's wife is played by the little-known Louise Albritton (she would go on to marry reporter Charles Collingwood). They turn in good work as does Ed Begley who plays the curmudgeon boss.

When Belvedere's book is published, it's discovered that it's an exposé on the gossipy town. He calls it a satire on a community's manners and morals and of course it turns into comical mayhem and takes us right into the satisfying finale... as you knew it would.

As directed by one of Fox's favorite and most in-demand contractees, Walter Lang, Sitting Pretty was the big financial success that Zanuck predicted, it was #1 for Fox at the box office. It wears well even today if you can wrap your brain around 1940. Everyone in the film does a good job but it belongs to Clifton Webb all the way.

It did open up the world of comedy for him. For the remainder of his career Webb would do mainly comedies, most of them silly, frothy things that were not his best work although they were popular. Belvedere was so popular that, of course, those greedy little Fox folks had an idea to flood the market with Belvedere movies but unlike Sitting Pretty, they would all have Mr. Belvedere in the title. I imagined something like Mr. Belvedere Goes to Paris, Mr. Belvedere Runs Out of Gas, Mr. Belvedere Passes Gas.

Oh, I kid my dear and faithful readers. Actually, two more Belvederes were made... none other than Shirley Temple joined Webb for Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949) and Joanne Dru was the leading lady in Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951). Both were B-O-M-B-S and Mr. Belvedere passed on.

Oh listen, click on Miss O'Hara... Mr. Webb has something he wants to say to you: