Hey, I like this movie. Many contemporary critics don't "get it" - but that's because they don't understand the appeal of the "screwball comedy" genre to the film audience of the 1930s. There are contemporary equivalents to screwball comedy (many Adam Sandler movies fall into this group), but screwball itself is truly a product of its Depression-era time.And, as a result, true screwball comedy from the 30s doesn't always translate well to a different era. True, Marx Brothers are perhaps the masters of the genre, but it is equally true that many Marx Brothers bits fall flat when seen today. Still, many Marx Brothers officianados and film snobs would never admit that anything in Duck Soup or A Night At The Opera might be anything less than comic genius. Heck, they were gags, and not all of those gags were quite as funny the second, third, or 100th time seen.
OK, The Perfect Specimen wasn't the best attempt, or even the most serious attempt made during the era. It was a quick attempt to cash in on the fad. Overall, it was a pretty good film, though. Errol is genuinely likeable. And Joan Blondell has an energy and great sense of comedic timing that carries the day. The Perfect Specimen is considered one of Joan Blondell's better movies from the 1930s. Here's the original 1937 New York Times movie review:
The Perfect Specimen (1937)
THE SCREEN; With Errol Flynn as Exhibit A, the Warners Present 'The Perfect Specimen' at the Strand Theatre
By FRANK S. NUGENT
Published: October 28, 1937
Although, strictly speaking, the Strand's "A Perfect Specimen" is somewhat less than that, it has most of the attributes of light and unaffected romantic comedy. A refreshing awareness of its own unimportance is a major asset; so are the cheery performances of Errol Flynn, Joan Blondell and such Warner inveterates as Allen Jenkins, Hugh Herbert and Edward Everett Horton. Under Michael Curtiz's agile direction and the tickling touch of a five-man script, it has become a reasonably diverting little show, juvenile and school-girlish to be sure, yet deft enough and daft enough to slip beneath the critical guard.
Stemming from a Samuel Hopkins Adams novel, it considers the case of Gerald Beresford Wicks, who some day must assume control of Wicks Utilities ($30,000,000 and 10,000 employes) and who has been dedicated from babyhood by his eccentric grandmother to a program of mental, moral and physical perfection. Gerald, we quickly discover, has never been beyond the gates of Wickstead, is engaged—to their mutual dissatisfaction—to a girl named Alicia, studies Newton while swinging from a tree and is equally gifted at taking a motor apart or settling a problem in international law. It should be vaguely upsetting to hear that Gerald adds up to Errol Flynn.
Into this masculine convent, into this posted temple of perfection comes Miss Blondell—a blonde serpent—to whisper about the great world outside, to suggest a Don Quixotic campaign of windmill-tilting and to accompany the truant upon a fairly eventful tour of the Pennsylvania hinterland. Among the windmills the new Quixote tilts at are, in approximate order, a pugnacious truck driver, a prize fighter, the G-men, Grandma Wicks and Miss Blondell herself. The fatality rate of the windmills is terrific; the Wicks perfection is irresistible.
Admitting that this is the sort of romantic balderdash dear to the hearts of misses in their 'teens, full of giggling situations (as when Hugh Herbert mistakes the errant couple for man and wife and lodges them in a bedroom), still the treatment has been genial and we prefer to regard it charitably. Two of the minor players deserving of special praise are Dennie Moore, for a pricelesly funny impersonation of Allen Jenkins's girl-friend, Clarabelle, and Harry Davenport, for his perfect portrayal of the absentminded professor.
THE PERFECT SPECIMEN, based on the novel by Samuel Hopkins Adams; screen play by Norman Reilly Raine, Lawrence Riley, Brewster Morse and Fritz Falkenstein; directed by Michael Curtiz; a Warner Brothers production. At the Strand.
Gerald Beresford Wicks . . . . . Errol Flynn
Mona Carter . . . . . Joan Blondell
Killigrew Shawe . . . . . Hugh Herbert
Mr. Grattan . . . . . Edward Everett Horton
Jink Carter . . . . . Dick Foran
Alicia . . . . . Beverly Roberts
Mrs. Leona Wicks . . . . . May Robson
Pinky . . . . . Allen Jenkins
Clarabelle . . . . . Dennie Moore
Hotel Clerk . . . . . Hugh O'Connell
Snodgrass . . . . . James Burke
Hooker . . . . . Granville Bates
Carl Carter . . . . . Harry Davenport
Briggs . . . . . Tim Henning
Final note - the reviewer for the 1937 NYT article is Frank Nugent. A Columbia University journalism graduate, he was the NYT film critic from 1936 to 1940. His highly positive review of The Wizard of Oz was seen as key to its success. He was eventually hired by Darryl F Zanuck as a screenwriter, which led to his eventual fame as the writer for John Ford and some of the best westerns ever made, including John Wayne classics The Searchers, Fort Apache, and 3 Godfathers, as well as The Quiet Man and Mr Roberts.Hey, the guy knew his stuff.
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