Very well executed

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The Baroness and the Butler" is a film set in Hungary. However, the accents by the various actors are confusing to say the least! None of the cast was Hungarian and most of the actors sounded like Americans--with the exception of Joseph Schildkraut (an Austrian) and Annabella (A Frenchwoman, though her accent is bizarre and difficult to understand). I really wish the film was close captioned...it needed it! I also wish the director had re-shot many of Annabella's scenes as she needed to be clearer and easier to understand. She might have been a lovely person in real life--but she was a terrible actress in English language films.The story is utterly ridiculous--so just be prepared to suspend disbelief and watch. The story is set in the home of the Baron (who is also the Prime Minister) and his privileged family. Their head butler is perfect and efficient (William Powell) and this sense of perfection is thrown for a loop when they learn that this butler was just elected to Parliament--as the opposition leader! How could the butler run for Parliament and NO ONE realize it until he's elected?! Again...you must turn off your brain and just accept this. What you also must not question is the notion that the butler will CONTINUE to be the butler AND lead the opposition at the same time!! It's all completely ludicrous and the only aspect of this silly plot I liked is how it showed just how completely clueless these nobles and their families were. After all, they act as if the butler and all their staff were 100% happy robots! What follows is a strange and even more unbelievable romance that blossoms from out of nowhere-- nowhere except the strange mind of the writer.So we have a ridiculous story and a leading lady who needs closed captioning. What did I like about the film? Well, as usual, William Powell is impressive even if the script isn't. As usual, he's polished, likable and makes his acting seem natural. He manages to make a crappy script work...kind of.So how could this have worked well? The butler could have instead come forward about running for office and then the fireworks could have exploded. Then, after winning, the film could have worked just fine. This would have at least taken care of that problem with the script. As for the romance....well, it was simply doomed and shouldn't have been in the film at all.

It is rare that I come upon a classic film I like this much. Comedy, drama, a charming story, all well produced and satisfying. I am not a fan of screwball comedies or slapstick, and a lot of times that's what people think of when they think of classic comedy, which is a shame. Much of the comedy in this film could be used today. William Powell is brilliant as ever. Annabella is stunning. Henry Stephenson is charming. He reminds me of a friendly C. Aubrey Smith. And they were in fact cast together in Little Lord Fountleroy (which, if you haven't seen, is an excellent forgotten classic). I can't recommend this film highly enough. Someone has uploaded it to youtube recently, which is where I watched it.

This 1938 film, set in an area soon to come under the sway of the Nazi blitzkrieg, perpetuates a dangerous myth which threatens the survival of humanity even today: that the working class can get along with (and even marry into!) the castle owning ilk. Maybe in some alternate universe Adolf Hitler could have settled down with a nice Jewish girl and raised 8 kids; maybe there Donald Trump would hire more people than he fired; maybe there Michigan would have double the number of auto builders today compared to 35 years ago (in reality, there are 90% fewer people on the line now); maybe there the wealthy officers would perform the trench warfare as peasants looked on from distant bunkers with binoculars; maybe there guys in neck ties would not be sitting at desks scheming so hard to "privatize" the streets we travel, the water we drink, and the air we breathe; maybe there the top 1% who owned one-third of everything would not be so envied by the next 9% who had to split another third of everything among themselves that these bitter greed-heads would not feel so compelled to take away more of the final third from the 90% of us who make up the working class, but WE have to live in the universe of here and now.Go ahead, watch THE BARONESS AND THE BUTLER as pure entertainment, rather than as the actual subversive opiate for the masses that Hollywood has churned out for more than a century. (If movies were "green lit" by real Americans from the working folk, flicks such as THE BARONESS AND THE BUTLER or PRETTY WOMAN would never be made!) Why won't Hollywood tell the truth about the likelihood of a working class lamb lying down peacefully with a top 1% lion? Well, to quote Jack Nicholson, it's because YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH.

William Powell was always suave and charming. He starred in numerous fine and well-known movies. I have a fondness for "I Love You Again" and surely everyone is fond of the Thing Man series.Here he is challenged by a very peculiar mix in his costars. Annabella's French accent is a little hard to penetrate and strangely not very appealing (to me.) She's pretty, though those board shoulders and muscular arms should not have been showcased in sleeveless gowns. And why is this woman with a French accent Hungarian? And if she is Hungarian, why are her parents an American (Helen Westley) and a Brit? (Her father is played with great charm by Henry Stephenson.) The plot is intriguing -- potentially. Powell is the family butler. Yet he runs for office in opposition to his (slightly improbably approving) master. I didn't notice the opening credits and thought it must be based on a Molnar play. It's not.The movie is easy to watch. It's far from the worst of its romantic comedy ilk in the 1930s. But it's far from good, as well.