SITTING PRETTY was a smash comedy hit in 1948 and it made an unlikely star out of waspish 58-year-old Clifton Webb, scoring him an Oscar nomination as Best Actor; he’d been up as Supporting Actor twice, for the mystery Laura and the search-for-meaning drama The Razor’s Edge. This time his precise, clipped diction and imperious mien were deployed for lightweight material. The success of the movie—9th place and $9,500,000 gross against a $1,300,000 tab—ensured two followups, Mr. Belvedere Goes To College and Mr. Belvedere Rings The Bell. *

BELVEDERE:  “For my work I require an atmosphere of spartan simplicity.”   TACEY: “And may I ask what your profession is?”  BELVEDERE: “Certainly. I am a genius.”

Suburban couple ‘Harry & Tacey King’ (Robert Young, 40, & Maureen O’Hara, 27) can’t keep babysitters for their three unruly little boys (and excitable Great Dane). Pleased when an advertisement for nanny is answered by ‘Lynn Belvedere’, they’re surprised when Lynn, whom they expect is a she, turns out to be a he (Webb), who immediately takes effortless and firm command. Initial misgivings are allayed when the cosmically confident (and acerbic) gentleman has a calming effect on the kids and even the huge critter. The wormish neighborhood snoop eventually turns the situation inside out by prying, surmising and spreading malicious rumors that spin the whole town of ‘Hummingbird Hills’ into a tizzy. What is it with this Belvedere snob? He seems to know how to do nearly everything and isn’t shy about letting others know they’re his inferiors.

“Mrs. King, as I told you last night, I dislike children intensely and yours, if I may say so, have peculiarly repulsive habits and manners.”

Directed by Walter Lang (State Fair, Cheaper By The Dozen, The King And I), the script from F. Hugh Herbert (Margie, The Moon Is Blue) was based on Gwen Davenport’s 247-page novel “Belvedere”. Direction and script are both perfunctory; the confection glides by on the strength of the three leads; Young’s geniality, O’Hara’s charm and the challenging disdain dispenses of Webb, with audiences of the day tickled by his skill with icy putdowns. Supporting pro Richard Haydn does the grown mama’s boy pesterer ‘Clarence Appleton’ as such a priss that he makes Webb come off as masculine as Sean Connery.

The three kids were played by Larry Olsen, Anthony Sydes and 18-month-old Roddy McCaskill (recipient of the famous oatmeal shampoo). With Louise Allbritton, Ed Begley, John Russell, Betty Ann Lynn (21, debut, cute and funny as a teenage babysitter who has a crush on Harry), Randy Stuart (later the wife of The Incredible Shrinking Man), Grayce Hampton, Minerva Urecal and Cara Williams. 83 minutes.

Betty Ann Lynn, 1926-2021

* Webb went on to hits Mr. Belvedere Goes To College, Cheaper By The Dozen, Stars And Stripes Forever, Dreamboat, Titanic, Woman’s World and Three Coins In The Fountain. He would later offer that Sitting Pretty was “the most pleasant engagement I have ever had, either in the theatre or on the screen.”

Clifton is always amusing, though the Belvedere character is such a jerk it’s hard to warm up to him. The Oscar nomination seems like a reflex nod because the supercilious actor was so ‘out there’ (yet not out)—-they should have saved nominating him for later and Titanic. Bowing to Shakespeare and ‘respectability they gave that year’s statue to Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet. They ignored the best male lead that year, Humphrey Bogart in The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre.  John Wayne for Red River. Anton Walbrook for The Red Shoes.