Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell

Lynn Belvedere, who considers himself a genius in every field, checks into a retirement home posing as an old man and settles in. His aim is to prove that age does not finish a person. Inside, everyone has grown used to waiting, nobody plans anything, and the management prefers it that way. Belvedere starts breaking the arrangement. The film is not interested in comic plotting. It is interested in the role assigned to old age: the home here was built not to make people comfortable but to keep them quiet. Belvedere's objection is exactly to that. The form is studio comedy: one location, a crowded supporting cast, fast lines and the moral resolution of the period. Henry Koster directed. This is the third film in which Clifton Webb played Belvedere; the character came out of Sitting Pretty and became a series on the strength of audience response. Clifton Webb plays Belvedere and Joanne Dru the woman at the home. Who it is for: viewers who like light fifties Hollywood comedy and Clifton Webb's haughty persona. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a film independent of the series. The character's manner leans on the earlier films and much of the humour repeats the same template.