Sitting Pretty (1948)

Director:

Walter Lang

Writers:

Gwen Davenport (novel)
F. Hugh Herbert (screenplay)

Release Date:

April 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Tacey and Harry King are a suburban couple with three sons and a serious need of a babysitter. Tacey puts an ad in the paper for a live-in babysitter...

Plot Keywords:

Town | Writing | Employer Employee Relationship | Expert | Child

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins

Cast

Robert Young	...	Harry King
Maureen O'Hara	...	Tacey King
Clifton Webb	...	Lynn Belvedere
Richard Haydn	...	Mr. Clarence Appleton
Louise Allbritton	...	Edna Philby
Randy Stuart	...	Peggy
Ed Begley	...	Horatio J. Hammond
Larry Olsen	...	Larry King
John Russell	...	Bill Philby
Betty Lynn	...	Ginger (as Betty Ann Lynn)
Willard Robertson	...	Mr. Ashcroft
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dorothy Adams	...	Mrs. Goul (scenes deleted)

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Quotes:

Lynn Belvedere: Mrs. King, I happen to dislike all children intensely. But I can assure you that I can readily attend to their necessary though unpleasant wants.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dreamboat (1952)

Soundtrack:

Brazil (Aquarela do Brasil)

Refreshing and bolstering comic concoction.

A very pleasant, agreeable little effort, dominated by the magnificent Clifton Webb - as sanguine and savourably sour a figure as rarely seen in Hollywood...

His character, Lynn Belvedere, is absolutely wonderful; wry, serene, roundly honest and arrogant; he is the focal point of the majority of the humour. The other actors are fine, with Maureen O'Hara, Richard Haydn and Robert Young more than capable supports. Yet... Belvedere's superiority is never in question: when asked at *what* he works, he simply and unequivocally states, "I am a genius".

Says it all really! There are so many witty one-liners, and amusing touches in comparison to many modern films on the same themes of babysitting and American suburbia. This is one of the most enjoyable films of its era; propelled to lofty heights by Clifton Webb's indomitable prescence. A touch of waspish, queer old England thrust into the picket-fence garden of American suburbia.