Critics reviews

It was the final feature Lubitsch completed before his untimely demise, and though it wasn’t embraced by audiences at the time, it is one of his most sublimely romantic films.

Lubitsch's last film, Cluny Brown (1946), a wet raspberry blown at the English class system that paired Charles Boyer and Jennifer Jones, the latter an exceptionally comely plumber, ranks among his very finest, though at the time of its release his output had already been slowed by his declining health.

Their cultured and freethinking ways inspired stopped-up England—and, as things turn out, the United States, too—to unblock itself and take up the fight against Hitler and for sex, not least by producing effervescently ribald entertainments, such as this one, for the benefit of spirited yet constrained young women.

The game of "pick your favorite Lubitsch" is perhaps more challenging than it sounds. As with many of the all-time great directors, the answer may change by the day or the hour. But this sparkling comedy of manners... consistently tops the list for many (at least of his later works)—yet it remains one of the hardest to find.

It's an interesting combination of some of the best elements from Lubitsch's earlier and later films; Belinski's knowing playfulness is reminiscent of Maurice Chevalier and Herbert Marshall's Lubitsch characters, and the chemist whom Cluny initially falls in love with is reminiscent of Lubitsch regular Edward Everett Horton's performances.