Alternate Best Actor 1946: Charles Boyer in Cluny Brown

Charles Boyer did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Adam Belinski in Cluny Brown.

Cluny Brown is a wonderful romantic satire of a European professor and the niece of a plumber who together don’t quite fit into the rigid expectations of English society. 

We return to Charles Boyer quite swiftly after his long absence to another un-nominated turn of his. Boyer in this instance plays the atypical lead as a European professor and writer escaping from the Nazi’s for his expressly anti-Nazi views. Although that may sound very dramatic, we actually begin with Adam Belinski just arriving to some random party in England early and in fact being mistaken for a plumber. Boyer is really taking upon two challenges of this role that I would necessarily have pegged him as being ideal for before watching this film yet he absolutely is. The first challenge really is the dialogue itself which is fairly rapid fire for Belinski specifically as he talks circles around everyone, and while Boyer frequently has a more deliberate delivery in most films, in this film he thrives with the far greater tempo. Boyer has an ease with his dialogue and it really just so naturally flows throughout where Boyer through this exudes the intelligence of his Belinski with such considerable ease. There’s the next challenge though is that all this superior intelligence could easily come off as pompous, but Boyer is damn charming here. Boyer’s magnificent in the way he’s able to articulate the nature of Belinski who is smarter than everyone, knows this fact, yet I think he manages to find the tricky high wire of owning but still making Belinski so likable. I think Boyer knows how to emphasize the fun of it all and only brings a more admonishing quality in his quick asides when Belinski is being more corrective against societal foolishness. We even have the opening meeting where he basically gets the host to let him sleep somewhere through this word juggling that Boyer makes so easy to in a way talking down to the man’s manner yet doing so in a way in which he seems the most gracious of teachers. 

The party though leads to two different meetings, one is meeting a young man of wealthy family Andrew (Peter Lawford) who is currently struggling to confirm his romantic relationship Betty Cream (Helen Walker) who is purposefully playing a love triangle between him and another man. Andrew knows of Belinski and offers him a place to stay at his parent’s mansion. I love Boyer’s reactions to the young man’s earnest but also political posturing, where he so naturally manages to bring a graciousness while wholly sarcastically appreciating the young man’s act of writing letters to a newspaper as his great act. Regardless Belinski takes up the offer, and I think what Boyer manages to do though is create in even his sarcasm this genuine glint of appreciation of any passion for his cause even if perhaps the safest. The even more important meeting though comes from the titular Cluny Brown (Jennifer Jones) who acts on her uncle’s behalf, though not with his knowledge, to fix the man’s plumbing issues. Cluny, who loves to plumb, is a ball of fire of enthusiasm though too she ignores the expectations of society though more so in being exactly who she is than coming at Belinski’s intellectual superiority. Either way Boyer’s great in being as impressed with the young woman’s candor, as frankly we the audience are. Boyer’s wonderful in presenting this utter fascination towards Cluny as someone far above and beyond the norm, while offering even this minor self-depication as a non-romantic pact to support each other in their ill-fitting ways. 

Belinski becomes a guest at the house of Andrew’s family which by chance, at the same time Cluny is hired as their new maid, in an attempt by her uncle to set her on the "right path". Although she is almost immediately fired for speaking freely at meals by earnestly suggesting the best food, only saved by Belinski’s intercession pointing out that the host indeed took the piece she suggested. Boyer’s great in just his work of his eyes of admiration but also kind of taking in each scene with the sense of criticism being prepared before he says them, though delivered again in that fantastic way of confronting without confrontation that Boyer makes feel so natural each time. Belinski’s indirect methods get the best of him when he learns Cluny is seeing a local chemist as a romantic partner just as he realizes his own interest in her as such. Something I think Boyer again thrives in his way of cultivating the sense of true admiration that goes beyond just enjoying her rejection of norms but loving everything she does. Boyer’s fantastic in showing this as even something that knocks Belinski back in the moments where he gives his hand away particularly in the almost childlike enthusiasm he brings as Belinski questions Betty if the talkative Cluny ever mentions him. Meanwhile Belinski is still plying his methods beyond that such as directly trying to resolve the Betty, Arthur issue by simply asking her what’s the deal. Where I do love Boyer is just playing the directness of it so well but with his natural humorous touches. Even the moment of commenting on the need to press on in his Anti-Nazi effort, Boyer I think beautifully hits that passionate note with a quiet conviction that reveals the real heart of Belinski. Speaking of my favorite moment of his performance actually isn’t the wit, as much as I’ve enjoyed that, it is a moment of certain earnestness. That is when he’s leaving, thinking Cluny will be married off, she rushes to meet him before he leaves. Where we do get the key chemistry between Jones, where it is less of lusty eyes but rather the combination of Cluny getting to be herself while Boyer projecting nothing but the purest appreciation where both honestly glow as one. I love the pivotal moment where Boyer shows Belinski taking his usual appreciation of Cluny’s one of a kind qualities, until she notes that she was coldly dismissed by the chemist, his mother and other guests for daring to do some needed plumbing. There’s a surprising power in the humor completely lifting from Boyer’s face and there being nothing but deep concern for this horrible treatment of Cluny. Boyer unlocks the key of the moment so naturally in seeing as much as he adores the idiosyncrasy of her, he also hates the rejection of her. A relatively swift wrap up to the film, however honestly it wholly worked for me greatly because I feel both Boyer and Jones deliver the moment so honestly you can’t help but feel they should be together.