Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell

I was expecting a mediocre little comedy and found myself completely entranced by this charming film. Clifton Webb, Zero Mostel and an enchanting group of elderly actors make this film irresistible.

Webb, repeating his role from "Sitting Pretty" enters an old folks' home to teach them how to be young again. And he succeeds. He also manages to bring a young couple together - also well played by Joanne Dru and Hugh Marlowe.

This one'll charm the socks off you.

The fact that Clifton Webb is posing as another character and they call him by that name throughout the entire picture makes him less Lynn Belvedere and more something (someone) else. I understand that the character is working undercover, but I think this is because they had used a stage play as the basis for this film, and in the play, the character is not Belvedere.

What I do like about this last sequel in the series is that it once again proves Mr. Webb is the best fish-out-of-water in movies. You can put him into any situation with any assortment of odd characters, and he stands out spectacularly. There were hundreds of other situations they could have thrown him into, and when you think about it, the Belvedere franchise could have gone on as long as Blondie.

Mr. Belvedere teaches the proprietor and residents of a senior citizens' home the power of positive thinking. The ensemble cast of seniors is superb. They are believable and never mawkish. Joanne Dru, who works for the (presumably Episcopal) priest in charge is very generic. It's a standard pretty, understanding, relatively helpful woman role of its time. But a pretty girl was doubtless deemed necessary for putting this across financially.

The residents make us sad when they are gloomy. And when they're happy, we smile. Doro Merande is especially charming -- to me, at least. She reminds me a great deal of my paternal grandmother.

Zero Mostel's comic talents are essentially wasted as Mr. Belvedere's agent. But he's always a pleasure to see. And Webb does very well. He's acerbic but somewhat less grating than in "Mr. Belvedere Goes To College." This was an extremely forward-looking approach to old age for 1951. It doesn't seem at all dated.

The wonderful Clifton Webb characterization of Mr. Belvedere that previously appeared in "Sitting Pretty," and "Mr. Belevedere Goes to College" suffers when it is transposed onto the plot of the Broadway play, "The Silver Whistle," by Robert McEnroe. It looks very much like a stage play, with most of the action taking place on a single set. It's a worthwhile play, but Belvedere is a poor fit. Belvedere is usually funny because he is an authentic genius; he is less so when he is acting like a con man. Pity there weren't more Clifton Webb "Belvedere" movies.

This last Belvedere film that Clifton Webb did is the answer to an interesting trivia question which is what role was played by both Jose Ferrer and Clifton Webb. No, that does not mean that Ferrer ever played the part of Belvedere.

Mr. Belvedere Rings The Bell is an adaption of a recent Broadway play, The Silver Whistle which Jose Ferrer starred in on Broadway for 219 performances during the 1948-49 season. Ferrer finds a birth certificate of a man who would have been 77 years old and through this gains entrance to a senior citizen home run by a church. He brings quite a bit of change to their lives while there.

Darryl F. Zanuck bought this for 20th Century Fox and adapted it to fit Mr. Belvedere. But instead of looking for some real lodging, Clifton Webb is doing this as a kind of sociological experiment, to test some theories he's written in a new bestseller about staying young. Webb interrupts his book tour much to the chagrin of Zero Mostel who is his agent and has some really good scenes in this film.

Frances Brandt, William Lynn, Kathleen Comegys, and Doro Merande all repeated their roles from Broadway as the senior citizen residents of this home. Hugh Marlowe and Joanne Dru play the reverend and the social worker who run the home and whom Webb helps to make realize they have more in common than the home.

One thing I will have to say that is completely ludicrous though. Clifton Webb was 62 when he made the film and looked it. The film says that he is 46 and trying to pass himself off to the seniors as a man who looks and feels young because of his way of living and looking at life with some ancient Tibetan medicine. That was just completely ridiculous and I think Clifton Webb knew it. Maybe that was why there were no more Belvedere films for him.

Still Webb left us with a priceless character on the screen for which he is most remembered and we can be grateful for the three films we do have.