In 1936 London, veteran chorus girl and actress Greer Garson (as Julia) takes a bubble bath, then receives an invitation to the wedding of the teenage daughter she abandoned to pursue a career. For some reason, Ms. Garson never got around to divorcing wealthy Walter Pidgeon (as William Sylvester Packett), which should give you an idea where this is heading. Comments from his mother indicate Mr. Pidgeon had no subsequent interest in women. The daughter in question is sweet 16-year-old Elizabeth Taylor (as Susan), who is obviously matched-up with mural painter Peter Lawford (as Ritchie Lorgan)...Before reuniting with Pidgeon, Garson becomes a throaty singer, leggy dancer, and unlikely "flying acrobatic" performer with the troupe led by suave Cesar Romero (as Fred Ghenoccio), who wants to marry her himself. After witnessing the show, Mr. Pidgeon receives a kiss and spanking from a noisy seal, backstage in Paris. Deciding she wants to buy Ms. Taylor all the past Christmas gifts she's missed, Garson goes out to win some money gambling at a conveniently located casino...Winning no money at the roulette table, Garson next decides to become a prostitute, while having a smoke at the bar. She makes off with the cash, but leaves picked-up old Nigel Bruce (as Bruce "Bunny" Willowbrook) sexually unsatisfied. Later, Garson disrupts the wedding rehearsal with a superstitious story about the color pink, and then Garson does her seal impression. This, of course, recalls the earlier live seal scene with Pidgeon. None of this plays very well, or even makes much sense. A couple of the later scenes, with Garson and Pidgeon boating while Mr. Lawford gives Taylor a picnic kiss, are sweetly romantic.**** Julia Misbehaves (8/8/48) Jack Conway ~ Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lawford, Elizabeth Taylor

For their first film after World War II Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon were teamed for the fifth time in Julia Misbehaves. It is the story of an estranged married couple who meet for the first time in years for their daughter's wedding. From that meeting a whole lot changes in everyone's lives.Garson and Pidgeon did such classics as Blossoms In The Dust, Mrs. Miniver, Madame Curie and Mrs. Parkington. Julia Misbehaves while funny is just not in their league.It seems that Pidgeon in a moment of weakness married showgirl Greer Garson and they never quite divorced, but his harridan of a mother Lucille Watson did her best to split them up and she succeeded admirably. Watson wanted to present her granddaughter who grows up to be Elizabeth Taylor in proper society and she feels Greer's background is not fit. But now that she's getting married Taylor wants her mother at her wedding and when Garson comes she and Taylor hit it off. And Pidgeon is also rekindling some long burned out flames. However one problem Greer has is that she's kindled a flame or two in acrobat Cesar Romero. The best scenes in Julia Misbehaves involve Greer doing some singing very much like she did in Random Harvest and also a hilarious sequence with Romero's acrobatic family.Cesar Romero was a good and distinguished looking man, but he never sported a set of muscles as he's shown here. You never see him closeup during the acrobatic scenes and when he's dressed the padding in his shoulders is terribly obvious. Mary Boland plays his mother and she's her usual confused self.According to the Citadel series film book The Films Of Elizabeth Taylor, MGM was very concerned about Greer Garson after having come off two films that were not anything close to her work in the films I cited above. Adventure with Clark Gable did not ignite demand for a new screen team and Desire Me was one of the worst films MGM did during the Forties, maybe the worst in Garson's career. So they put her back with Walter Pidgeon and also deliberately cast an up and coming Elizabeth Taylor as the daughter to help boost box office. Peter Lawford appears opposite Taylor, but he's not the guy she's going to marry at that wedding she invites Garson to. Nevertheless he's a lot better than the society drip Watson has picked out for her.Julia Misbehaves is a pleasant enough film, but hardly up to the standards set by Garson and Pidgeon. Nor is it a great film for Elizabeth Taylor. But for fans of all three, they should be satisfied.

A a writer, i enjoy the spaciousness of this story. This is a sense-of-life portrait of an indomitable woman with a keen sense of Ionic humor, the ability to defend herself when verbally attacked and a very bright and honest mind. In her youth she had married a rich man's son and thought him strong enough to stand up to parental disapproval for the sake of his young actress wife. They had a child, a girl, then later he said he did not love her and called off the marriage. She has gotten by somehow for years; he raised the child. Only now the daughter, about to be married, wants her mother beside her at the wedding. Julia, a female in the United States where few people have any rights and females less, is cadging money off old philanderers who should know better for services not rendered; the latest is a friend of her husband's. She arrives at the house and charms everyone...from the first, the husband wonders why he had ever let her go. She finds her daughter's fiancée hopeless and makes sure she gets interested in a young painter instead. Somehow she gets involved on the way there with the Flying Ghenoccios, in whose balancing act she makes an hilarious debut atop a human pyramid, winning the eldest brother's heart. He shows up then too, complicating life for the husband. They end up nearly drowned and arguing vociferously before she finally accepts her husband's second proposal and his explanation that he had allowed his snobbish family to talk him out of love when he as young. All turns out well for all concerned; but not until after many enjoyable and sometimes farcical complications, and touching moments, occur including Julai's explanation of why "cylamen pink" would be a disaster as a color for bridesmaids' gowns. This film has luminous style in B/W and an expensive look about it, the MGM touch. The roster of those who contributed to this handsome and large-appearing production is a long and much-honored one: gowns by Irene, script adapted from Margery Sharp's "The Nutmeg Tree", direction by Jack Conway, music by Adolph Deutsch, set decorations by Edwin B. Willis, art direction by Daniel B. Cathcart and Cedric Gibbons, with cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg, script by Arthur Wimperis, Harry Riskin and William Ludwig, with adaptation by Monckton Hoffe and Gina Kaus. In the large cast Greer Garson and Walter Pigeon are the mature couple, and they are unarguably wonderful together, as always. Lucile Watson as his mother, Peter Lawford as the painter, Mary Boland as the mother of the Ghenoccios and Cesar Romero as her eldest Joe are all very good. Nigel Bruce, Elizabeth Taylor as the daughter, Reginald Owen, Ian Wolfe, Henry Stephenson, Veda Ann Borg and Phyliis Moore have less to do but all do what they are asked to do very well. This is a long, pleasant and occasionally brilliant satire of its own plot line--taking responsibility for one's own values. The rich and the deluded in this trenchant look at human errors and choices do not come off particularly well; virtues, though not exclusively, seem mostly to belong to those who deal with reality and not social-class expectations and conventions and appearances---in a nation that was not supposed to have any such folderol. Julia in the person of Greer Garson is a stiff breeze of fresh air; and in the brilliant and only modestly-stuffy person of Walter Pigeon we see a human edifice in exact need of that cleansing stir, motion and source of verbiage. She is obviously exactly the woman he should have married after all and should never have let go for any reason. Forget this is Greer Garson; the film would have been accepted by public and critics in 1938 as the beautifully-made gem it is; if it was made too late, it was not too late for its genial look at human honesties and foibles, but for a nation's folk no longer much interested in realities, as it s citizens had been during the late war. A true delight and a rare and major comedy appearance for the witty and delightful stars.

Greer long wanted to do a comedy and finally got her chance. This one misfires frequently, the jokes just don't quite hit and the ending is really lacking.But there are reasons to see this one. Greer doing the acrobat number is worth the price of admission; getting over on Nigel Bruce is lots of fun; some witty scenes with Ceasar Romero are probably the best in the film.Not her best, not her worst. But she looks beautiful in this one.