I have loved old movies ever since I was very small, and it means a lot to be able to share that love with all of you.
But sometimes, although there are movies that I’m excited to tell you about, I’m a little nervous, too. The thing is, I’m hard-of-hearing.
Whenever possible, I watch my movies with subtitles, but that’s not always an option. I will admit, sometimes it can be frustrating not being able to hear the dialogue or understand what’s going on, but for the most part, I don’t mind. I may not enjoy the movie in the same way other people do, but I’m still able to enjoy it in my own way.
When it comes to talking with you about the film, though, that’s when I get worried. Have you ever heard and liked a song, but were hesitant to share it with someone because you realized you didn’t actually know the words, and you didn’t want to accidentally shock your friend with a song that turned out to be very different from what you thought it was? It’s a little bit like that, except with movies.
I would still love to write about these films though, despite my interpretation of the plots being less than perfect. So I’ve decided to feature one movie a month and write about it from the perspective of your friendly neighborhood 90-percent-deaf-in-one-ear, 75-percent-deaf-in-the-other-ear, mostly-vintage-gal.
Fasten your seat belts and gear up for the first ever “Silent Talkie” review: The Perfect Specimen, starring Errol Flynn and Joan Blondell!
Warning: The following may contain spoilers. I’m not always able to pick up on when/if something is supposed to be a “plot twist” or a big reveal, so I may give something away without realizing it!
The Perfect Specimen (1937)
I’ve been on an Errol Flynn kick, and when I read about this romantic comedy that was described as a gender-swapped It Happened One Night (and written by the same man, Samuel Hopkins Adams!), I knew I had to see it. I finally tracked down a copy a few days ago, and I watched it yesterday. It didn’t have subtitles, but I figured, if it’s got Errol Flynn in it, who needs to hear?
Watching without subtitles can be like a game. It’s kind of fun to try and piece together what’s happening. But I do like to have a little bit of (spoiler-free) context as well. Plot summaries are always helpful—even just one key bit of information can help me understand what’s going on. There are so many movies in which I would be completely lost if I hadn’t known one little detail. It grounds me and gives me context for what I’m seeing.
What I Knew About the Plot Going In:
Errol Flynn plays Gerald Beresford Wicks, a man whose grandmother has raised him in isolation to be “the perfect specimen”: a mentally, physically, and morally ideal man. But then Gerald meets Joan Blondell (I didn’t know her character’s name at first), a woman from the “outside world.” They set off on an adventure, part of which involves Gerald in a boxing match! There’s also a scene where Joan’s character crashes her car through a fence just to get a glimpse of Gerald. (Mood, Joan.)
My Plot Review
I knew I wanted to write this from my perspective as a hard-of-hearing person, but I still found myself stressing over the fact that I couldn’t give a more detailed plot summary once I had seen the movie myself. Because honestly, I didn’t pick up on much more than what I already knew about it beforehand, and again, it may not even be accurate. But I’ll give it my best shot:
Gerald Beresford Wicks has spent his whole life in isolation, having never stepped foot outside his childhood estate that’s overseen by his cranky and controlling grandmother. She has been raising him to be the absolute ideal man: Accomplished, well built, and gentlemanly. But one day, the sister of the estate’s pipefitter, Mona, crashes through the fence to get a look at this “perfect specimen.” She likes what she sees and inspires him to run away, so he drives off in the middle of the night. He crashes through the fence of her house by way of greeting, and the two embark on a madcap journey. Meanwhile, Grandma Wicks is in hysterics, believing that Gerald has been kidnapped (because why on earth would he want to run away?!). The police are on the lookout, but Gerald doesn’t care. He’s having a ball, and their adventure includes a boxing match, an poetry-loving innkeeper, Gerald in some adorable pajamas (like I said: who needs to hear when the views are more than satisfactory??), and, of course, the possibility of romance.
Overall Comments
I really liked this movie! It didn’t have the magic of It Happened One Night, but it was still a fun one that I'll be returning to more than once. I believe this was Errol Flynn’s first comedy film, and I loved it, especially since I’m used to his roles in swashbucklers like The Seahawk and The Adventures of Robin Hood. I wish we got to see him in more movies like this. I definitely plan on tracking down all the romcoms and musicals (yes, musicals!) he was in.
Joan Blondell was so adorable and spunky as Mona, and I’m definitely going to be watching more of her movies. I only learned after scrolling through her filmography that she plays Vi, the waitress who comforts Frenchy right before the Beauty School Dropout number in Grease! I can definitely see it—she’s so sassy. I saw her in The Public Enemy just last week, but it’s in the lead role as Mona here that she really sparkles.
Edward Everett Horton was a delight. I enjoyed him in several Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies growing up, and he didn’t disappoint in The Perfect Specimen.
The Sound Booth:
More Specific Thoughts From a Hard-of-Hearing Perspective
What I Didn't Know Until Afterwards...
While I sometimes like to read reviews or full plot summaries afterwards to see what I missed, other times I prefer sticking with the “version” of the film I saw. Going back to that song analogy—it’s like listening to a song and liking the words you think you heard more than the actual lyrics. While this pretty much fell in the category of movies I wanted to leave “as is,” I couldn’t help but be a little curious. I haven’t looked up a ton about it, but here’s what I did learn:
I never picked up on the fact that Mona’s character was a journalist. That makes a lot of sense! I should have figured that out, given that, again, this is considered a gender-swapped It Happened One Night. No matter when you read this, you can probably bet that I’m still over here facepalming myself.
At some point, Gerald is trying to sleep in a rented room, but can’t get the windows open and passes out. I thought he passed out from the heat, but apparently it was because of the paint fumes in the room!
Joan’s character’s name is Mona, but I didn’t figure that out until about three quarters of the way through the movie. I kept hearing the name Tilly and the characters seemed to be referencing Mona when they used it. I thought she was using an alias to disguise her identity for some reason, and/or there was a “mistaken identity” plotline going on that I never picked up on. But it turned out to be much simpler than that: Mona explains that when she was a little girl, whenever she did something naughty, she blamed “Tilly,” an imaginary friend. So Mona was jokingly saying that it was Tilly who crashed through Gerald’s fence, and she continued referencing that throughout the film!
Some takeaways and other observations:
It’s been a while since I said “the heck with it” and watched a movie despite the lack of subtitles, and I forgot how tiring it is! It takes extra energy to pay attention to what’s going on—because I have to work harder to figure out information that a hearing audience is automatically granted. And I’m sure I miss other important details in the meantime.
The innkeeper who kept reciting poetry made all his sentences rhyme. I don’t actually know what he said, but I could hear the sounds of the words!
A funny thing about not being able to hear is that some moments seem especially random. For all I know, maybe they really are that random. But I can’t help but feel I missed something. For example, Gerald and Mona come across a couple on the road who wants to get married, but they don’t have any money. They’re on their way to a boxing match, and the guy is planning on entering so that he can win $150. Gerald takes his place since he’s deemed more physically fit.
So we’re at the boxing match. It’s been going on for a bit, when all of a sudden a guy in the audience starts playing an accordion. Then it turns out there’s a whole band! They’re playing music, and Gerald is trying to move the other guy in the ring into a sort of dance instead of throwing punches. The audience begins swaying to the rhythm. The referee starts dancing too! And as abruptly as that begins, the guys start throwing punches at each other and everyone’s behaving normally again. What just happened? Why? What did I miss??
I find myself asking that during a lot of movies: What did I miss? I know that sometimes, I don’t even know how much I’ve missed. Although I greatly enjoyed this movie, I’m sure there was even more great dialogue I didn’t pick up on. The movie may be even better than I realize! But at the end of the day, I remind myself that I still had a good time. I may have missed a lot, but I’m content with what I got!
I hope you enjoyed this review. If you’d like, you can head over to the LMV Caption Guide, a catalogue that describes what your subtitle options are (or aren’t) for various movie and TV show DVDs.
One more thing: When you need to hear the movie but you also need to have a perfect view of Errol Flynn at all times…
Even with my laptop volume all the way up, it was hard to hear. Normally when that happens, I just lean forward and put my ear to the speaker. (FaceTime calls get awkward sometimes when I have to subject my friends to closeups of my ear…) But then I’m leaning so far in that all I can see on the screen are a handful of pixels. And you know, it’s very important to have a solid view of Errol Flynn. So the only way to get close to the speaker and still see him properly was to lay on my back and hold the computer like a book, very close to my face. Optimal hearing and ultimate view. Bingo! It was an extremely awkward angle and I’m really glad no one was home at the time to see me. But it was well worth it.
(This explanation was originally way more technical than it needed to be. I decided to spare you, but let this be a message to all my fellow hard-of-hearing girlies: You too can see and hear Errol Flynn at the same time!)
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