The Perfect Snob

Dr. Mason (Charlie Ruggles) is a down to earth guy who loves dogs. His wife, Martha (Charlotte Greenwood) and daughter, Chris (Lynn Bari), on the other hand are snobs. They think Chris' path to happiness is marrying some rich guy and she soon becomes engages with a very old stick-in-the-mud (Alan Mowbray). Dr. Mason is not surprisingly upset and soon hires what he thinks is a gigolo (Cornel Wilde) to sweep Chris off her feet...and destroy her marriage plans to the rich sap. But what happens next is a bit of a surprise!

While I liked Wilde's character, I had a hard time believing a nice guy like him falling for Chris...a woman who is pretty awful considering her values. This is a bit of a weakness with the plot, as a snob doesn't make the best love interest in a movie. Fortunately, through the course of the story, Chris does seem to grow a bit and wasn't completely awful! Well worth seeing...mostly because the acting is so very good.

Charles Ruggles (Dr Mason) is a vet whose passion for dogs is a bit weird. He fills his house with recovering animals and they find themselves into the marital bed that he shares with his wife Charlotte Greenwood (Martha). Not surprisingly, Greenwood finds this a nuisance. Which it is. She takes her daughter Lynn Bari (Chris) on a trip to Honolulu so that she can marry her off to a wealthy man and set her up for life. Ruggles has plans that are outside this snobbery and joins them where he hires Cornel Wilde (Mike) to pose as a playboy to sabotage Greenwood's plans. However, Wilde is also a wealthy playboy after all.......

The film has some occasionally funny moments, mostly provided by Cornel Wilde as he wrecks the chances of Bari's potential suitor Alan Mowbray (Freddie). Charlotte Greenwood is also occasionally funny but the film is ultimately let down by Lynn Bari. She has no redeeming features - she's just awful throughout making it impossible to sympathize for her or support her in any of her decisions. The ending where she suddenly falls for Wilde comes like a bolt out of heaven. Where on earth did that come from? She can't stand him throughout the film. There has never been any dialogue between these 2 characters to indicate she has any romantic feelings towards him. There is also an awkwardly contrived plot involving Wilde and Anthony Quinn (Moreno) as they chase after the affections of Bari. It's made into a further nonsense by Bari herself who is so completely undesirable. She's not good looking and she has a nasty personality. No-one would bother. If the truth be told, the film ain't that good.

Lynn Bari graduates from a fancy girl's school, and mother Charlotte Greenwood takes her on a vacation to Hawaii, despite father Charlies Ruggles' objections. Ruggles is a successful veterinarian, but Miss Greenwood is somewhat ashamed of that, telling everyone he is a brain specialist. Ruggles shrugs and goes back to work, only to discover Miss Bari has gotten engaged to Alan Mowbray. Considering him unsuitable, he offers beach comber Cornell Wilde a hundred bucks to steal her away, unaware he is actually fabulously wealthy.

The excellent farceurs are joined by Anthony Quinn Chester Clute, and an incoherent LeRoy Mason under the direction of Ray McCarey. McCarey may not have been the genius his brother Leo occasionally was, but he knew how to run a B comedy, and there are plenty of smiles here. If Miss Bari seems a bit mature looking, it should be remembered she was only 22 when this was made, about to be dubbed "the woo-woo girl" by discerning publicists. She retired about 1969 and died 20 years later, a month shy of her 70th birthday.