For a 1948 film dealing with the dawning era of suburbia, a concept that hadn't even existed 10 years earlier, this little charmer holds up remarkably well. The reason is Clifton Webb, who steals every scene he is in. And he's in just about every scene. This was Webb's first appearance as the fastidious Mr. Belvedere, an odd duck with a genius IQ -- and a hidden agenda. Here. he becomes a live-in babysitter for a suburban couple (Young and O'Hara) and their three boys. The one weak spot in the plot is that the three boys seem perfectly normal, but O'Hara apparently can't handle them. Much hilarity ensues once Mr. Belvedere arrives on the premises. In his off time, Mr. Belvedere is up to something in his attic room, but Young and O'Hara are hard-pressed to figure out what. A nosy neighbor (Haydn) causes no end of mischief, convinced that there must be hanky panky going on. The ending feels a bit rushed and the movie at times resembles a stage play more than a movie, but everything comes out just fine. And we finally find out Mr. Belvedere's secret. But you will have to watch the movie to find out what that secret is. A delight.

As the self-proclaimed genius, Mr. Belvedere, CLIFTON WEBB delivers every line of dialog with such crisp authority that you believe he IS the eccentric character who volunteers his services as a live-in babysitter for ROBERT YOUNG and MAUREEN O'HARA and their unruly brood.

Webb simply steals every scene with skillful ease, except when RICHARD HAYDN enters the film as a snobbish, adenoidal neighbor who is another kind of genius at snooping. Before you know it, Belvedere has all of these citizens under his thumb, exposing the hypocrisy of small-town gossip in his novel, much the way Grace Metalious did when she pried open the lid of PEYTON PLACE.

It's all for laughs and never fails to delight. This is the film that really established Webb's long career at Fox in roles that seemed tailor-made for his kind of pompous charm.