Julia: Preparing happiness according to the recipe of Hollywood Greer Garson was a superstar of the MGM film company of the 1940s, the peak of her popularity fell on the Oscar-winning film 'Mrs. Miniver' Garson was a bright, charismatic actress with a sense of self-esteem in everything from gait to look, she long and hard to build her career, only closer to forty years becoming truly famous, which for the Hollywood studio system of those years is equivalent to an acting retirement. Usually ' stars ' made of young starlets, and used them until their beauty faded. That was not Garson - having traveled a long way from the University of London, where she studied literature and French through a failed marriage, a serious illness, a variety of London theaters, emigration, several years of futile searches in Hollywood, depression - to world fame, she knew the price of the illusion of the American dream. That is why, when on the film ' Julia behaves badly' she met a friend of her on-screen partner and married him, she became much less likely to act, and when her career began to decline, she accepted this fact philosophically and finally devoted herself to the family, having lived a long life.
Garson was considered an absolutely serious dramatic actress and when she was offered a role in the comedy 'Julia behaves badly' at first she was going to refuse, but agreed, because the previous films of the actress were not too successful, and it was necessary to give her career a new breath.
And so she bursts onto the screen, destroying someone's plans and making a mess of everything she touches - cocky, loud, crazy, rude. The 40s for Hollywood - a continuation of the 30s, the era of 'salon comedies' - that is, about love in a rich house with a good ending. These comedies are mostly hopelessly outdated. 'Julia misbehaves' - perhaps also unlikely to cause delight now.
This is a pleasant, funny, almost conflict-free film, where ' suddenly' come back, ' suddenly' fall in love, ' suddenly' everyone forgives and so on. We should not care where 18 years were found from the birth of her daughter and until her upcoming marriage the main character, we should not worry about ' poor rich girl' in the performance of a charming and beautiful in her youth, Elizabeth Taylor, who treats her mother as if she went to the store for gingerbread, and did not disappear for 18 years, and the relationship of the heroine Garson with the hero of Pidgeon for no reason, too, without further questions return to normal. The film does not ask questions or provide answers. It's not that bad or fake. It's just not very interesting.
But Garson improves the picture at times. She sparkles with charm and, although sometimes too comic, brings to the stage not only the heroine and her actions, but also herself. As if the failure of her previous film - long-suffering tape 'Wish me' spurred her, and as Julia the actress worked with doubled energy and charm. It fills the frame, it gives life to not very funny jokes and ridiculous situations.
Walter Pidgeon, who for many years was a regular film partner of Garson, is also not bad, as is the beautiful Liz Taylor, and Peter Lawford, and impeccably parodying Italian machoes Cisar Romero (by the way, the very first Joker). But still where there is no Julia, there is no film.
If you like the classic Hollywood style of comedies, then this nice black and white infantile tape & #39; about nothing & #39; will be cute and harmless entertainment. It’s worth watching if only because of the wonderful Greer Garson, who bathes in the role of a game changer in the rich house of ACTRISA. She enthusiastically dances, lifting her legs in semi-acrobatic pas, cheerfully sings stupid songs, fiercely fights off the cheeky gentleman, easily comes out dry (although in fact - literally wet) of all troubles and charms the audience.
Do not expect an enlightened or high ending. Everything will be so that not a single extra thought will slip through the viewer’s brain. After all, it was then that the very concept of ' Happy End' took root; in the most vulgar and annoying sense of the word.
The film was a great success and was the last in the career of director Jack Conway, an incredibly prolific director with MGM, who does not seem to feel too comfortable in comedy, but this absolutely ' Acting film' did very diligently and well. As a result, a light, stupid, rather cozy comedy with beautiful actors who have an inexhaustible charge of sweet optimism, which, however, in the difficult current time does not seem superfluous.
7 out of 10