An attempt at screwball comedy by a director and star not exactly well versed in the genre, The Perfect Specimen is basically It Happened One Night in reverse, and was indeed based on a novel by the same author, Samuel Hopkins Adams. Despite his unfamiliarity with comedy, Errol Flynn does surprisingly well in the Claudette Colbert part, but the situations conjured up by screenwriter Norman Reilly Raine seem overly contrived and director Michael Curtiz's timing is slightly off. Happily, Warner Bros. threw in Edward Everett Horton, May Robson, and the wonderful and underrated Dennie Moore to liven things up at crucial moments, the latter reportedly a last-minute replacement for Warner's dumb-blonde specialist Marie Wilson.
The Perfect Specimen (1937)
Directed by Michael Curtiz / Joshua Shelley / Leonard
Genres - Comedy |
Release Date - Oct 23, 1937 (USA - Unknown), Oct 23, 1937 (USA) |
Run Time - 97 min. |
Countries - United States |
MPAA Rating - NR
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