Mr. Belvedere Goes to College

In this second installment of the Mr. Belvedere series, our brilliant hero has decided to go college! Apparently, he was entirely self-taught but after years of being an expert at practically EVERYTHING, he finally saw a need for a formal education. His plan is to complete all four years of school in only one--and considering his many, many talents you naturally assume he'll succeed.

Oddly, you never actually see Belvedere in a single classroom scene--none! Instead, the film focuses on his extracurricular and work activities. Through these, he's able to do a lot to help all those around him and even his most ardent opponents were thoroughly won over by him by the end of the film. Three cheers for Mr. Belvedere!!!

I might have scored this film even higher--after all, I really enjoyed the film and in particular the wonderful character of Mr. Belvedere (who I'd seen in his previous film, "Sitting Pretty"). Clifton Webb was simply marvelous in this title role. However, the film had one serious problem that impaired my enjoyment of the film--and my wife was so frustrated with the problem that she actually started yelling at the TV set!! Really...I am not kidding. The character played by Shirley Temple was simply annoying--badly written and petulant for absolutely no reason. She simply was not a character but a cliché--and roles like these may have contributed to her retiring from films shortly after this film. After all, with films like this and "That Hagan Girl", it was obvious that Hollywood had no idea what to do with the grown up Ms. Temple--and you have to feel sorry for her in such thankless roles. But fortunately, apart from this, it's a nice and enjoyable film from start to finish. And, I sure wish that Clifton Webb had made more than only three Belvedere films!