Film

Mr. Belvedere Goes to College

Name: Mr. Belvedere Goes to College
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1949
Cast: Clifton Webb, Shirley Temple, Tom Drake, Alan Young, Jessie Royce Landis

Comedy
Light-hearted

A stuffy English gentleman of impeccable taste and infinite capability enrolls at a midwestern college in this 1949 comedy, with Clifton Webb's deadpan precision as the outsider navigating fraternity life and campus chaos. It's a fish-out-of-water farce that mines humour from propriety colliding with youthful excess, affectionate rather than cutting. For anyone who enjoys old Hollywood's particular brand of elegant comic timing.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy prim, deadpan comedy where a superior character's dry disdain for everyday life does the heavy lifting, and you like campus romps of the studio era.

Skip it if you want a fast-moving plot or modern collegiate energy, since this is a gentle, talky comedy of manners whose laughs depend on Webb's sour one-liners and a thin story.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a brisk 83 minutes of mostly verbal comedy, with a leisurely setup, little physical slapstick, and attention to small exchanges between characters.

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