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Watched the beautifully restored print of this neglected Gloria Swanson film set amid the London/Cannes social set. Story/script by Miles Malleson and Michael Powell (uncredited) has Swanson marrying ritzy Laurence Olivier but only after they sign a contract, a "perfect understanding," that will ensure their marriage will not be conventional and doomed to failure. Of course they fail. Co-stars include John Halliday, Genevieve Tobin, Nora Swinburne, Miles Malleson (he announces the "cocktail regatta"), Nigel Playfair, and Michael Farmer.

After some striking Art Deco film credits, Swanson opens the film singing "I Love You Much That I Hate You," to Olivier in a hammock. We also meet the social set of bored and jaded people who spend their lives dressing up and drinking (Swanson met Noel Coward during her stay in England) when not looking for thrills. The "cocktail regatta" scene was filmed in Cannes and features Olivier and Farmer zooming about in speedboats from one floating cocktail stand to another. The race is a catalyst for what happens next.

Swanson finished off her United Artists contract with this film (which flopped in the US but did OK in England) and it was the last film she produced. Although Swanson wanted Ronald Colman, she "settled" for Olivier, and this proved an important early starring role for him.

Film is nicely photographed with lots of shadows and interesting lighting, sets are elaborate, the boat race is well done. The restored film is available on Amazon on disk or streaming.

I watched this last year and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This was my review here in this forum:
"Next I put in a rather recent release of a Cohen release print DVD, "Perfect Understanding" (1933), with Gloria Swanson, Laurence Olivier, Nora Swinburne, Genevieve Tobin, Michael Farmer, Nigel Playfair, and many others, a film made by the production company Gloria Swanson British Productions. This little comedy/romance/sorta drama seems to either be liked or disliked intensely - no in-betweens. I thought it was a fun little romp, and there are a couple of scenes that are delightful! Nevertheless, the beginning is boring and slow, and some of the other areas could have used a better editor. Still, by the end, when all ends up "swell", and that's the operative thirties word, it was a fun romp, and it's the first Gloria Swanson sound film outside of "Sunset Boulevard" that I've enjoyed. Just can't seem to get into the other soundies. Here we have a couple (Olivier and Swanson) getting married, but with an understanding: first of all, it's not marriage in the conventional manner according to the "contract". It doesn't allow extra play, but that's not exactly the way things occur in the end... There are all kinds of mis-allied marriages in this one, and that's the idea behind the film, but this still ends up quite conventionally for films of the Pre-Code era. Best thing in the film, by the way, is Genevieve Tobin. She's so natural that you'd almost think she was part of the scenery and not an added film star in the plot. Great actress! Fine film, too, if you're into the early sound features. Modern movie fans, though, may find this dated, and many consider it a bore. I don't, but I've been known to sit through - and enjoy - many things that others thought dribble...

On the last named DVD are also two short films with Walter Catlett. They're both ridiculous and wonderful! Both adjectives apply, and the first is NOT pejorative. The first short was "Dream Stuff" (1933) with Catlett, Joyce Compton, Emerson Treacy, Franklin Pangborn, Al Cooke, Harry Bowen, and Bobby Burns. Funny, indeed, as Treacy and Pangborn are suitors for Compton (who's longing for a proposal from Treacy). Absolutely surreal situations are the settings for all the happenings, from a William Tell shoot-off to an equestrian outing to a dance that has things going on that are insane. Absolutely hilarious from the get-go, it moves like greased lightning, too, which helps. Catlett is a mixture of Wheeler and Woolsey, W. C. Fields and Groucho Marx.

Next up was the second Catlett short on the DVD, this one called "Husband's Reunion" (1933). This one has Catlett, Nora Lane, Grady Sutton, Billy Bletcher, Richard Cramer, and others, and all are simply crazy. There's also an uncredited dog - a great dane - that deserves a major credit. Sutton and Lane are newly weds. Guess who turns up at their house? Yep, Lane's former husband, Catlett. You can guess the shenanigans that occur. It would take a very fine shrink to solve all this, but instead it goes to a court... Oops, that's even crazier. The ending is so zany - and full of prohibition humor, by the way - that you'll just shake your head when done - but you'll have enjoyed it, I promise!! Wonderful short films, these."

Catlett was a very good actor- a rarity among comedians.

I rather enjoyed PERFECT UNDERSTANDING, although it's by no means a favorite, so I'm one of those who falls in the middle -- I didn't love it and I didn't hate it but I can understand people who do either. It's probably time to watch it again (and the two shorts on the disc). Here's a reprint of the review I posted to NitrateVille's "Old Movies on HD" thread shortly after the Blu-ray release a few years ago...

PERFECT UNDERSTANDING (1933) 85m ** ½
Silent screen diva Gloria Swanson made only a half-dozen talking pictures through 1934, and one more in 1941, spending her time doing other projects. Then SUNSET BOULEVARD brought her back to moviegoers’ attention in 1950, after which she made a few more movies and did a fair amount of television in between her other activities. After a few boxoffice disappointments, Swanson produced PERFECT UNDERSTANDING herself, going to England in 1932 to do so and getting a young Laurence Olivier to co-star. Also in the cast are John Halliday, Nora Swinburne, Nigel Playfair, Michael Farmer (Swanson’s then-husband), and Genevieve Tobin. Screenwriter on the Miles Malleson-Garrett Graham story was future major director Michael Powell. The plot has Swanson and Olivier very much in love but resisting marriage until they agree never to argue about one another’s activities. Naturally this leads to temptations and misunderstandings, unfaithfulness, mistrust, and eventually a big divorce trial. Regardless of the promising tagline on the boxcover, it cannot really be described as a “romantic comedy.” Basically a British soap opera, the film is very much a Pre-code art deco romantic melodrama of the privileged classes, with periodic touches of comedy and satire but not enough to endear the film to popular audiences who may have been (and still be) less enthralled with the self-indulgent excesses and personal issues of the ultra-rich during the depths of the Depression, despite the film being more daring in its content than Hollywood could be even before the strict enforcement of the Code. Swanson may or may not be trying to play her actual age of 33 opposite the 25-year-old Olivier. The impression is that they are probably supposed to be roughly the same age in the story, perhaps about 30, but there are some strong overtones in Swanson’s characterization that seem to foreshadow scenes in SUNSET BOULEVARD. In fact, it would be interesting to screen one of Swanson’s late teens or twenties silent classics, followed by PERFECT UNDERSTANDING and SUNSET BOULEVARD, all back to back.

The direction by actor-turned-editor-turned-director Cyril Gardner is adequate but would have served the film better in the hands of an Ernst Lubitsch, Howard Hawks, or Leo McCarey. Apparently Rowland V. Lee had been signed to direct but was replaced by Gardner, who was originally just going to edit the film. Viewers who don’t expect a sparkling pre-code romantic comedy, but instead are looking for a handsomely produced artefact of early 1930s social attitudes and lavish Depression-era wish-fulfillment should find PERFECT UNDERSTANDING a reasonably satisfying and even moderately entertaining curiosity -- especially as it showcases a recent but fading screen icon of the previous generation and a rising future screen icon of the next generation, at awkward periods of their careers, acting opposite each other in the same film.

The Blu-ray from the Cohen Collection looks generally outstanding, with a mostly beautiful film-like HD transfer that captures the glistening, gauzy look of classic 1930s studio films, with deep rich blacks, bright whites, and a wide range of grays in between. Every so often, however, the extremely crisp image suddenly becomes a bit soft, more like a 16mm reduction or good 8mm print, but most of it is very sharp throughout. The disc’s audio, on the other hand, is different story, with a tinny sound that is barely more than mediocre. This may be due to the early sound recording equipment available in England, or to improper EQ in the re-recording, or both.

The only bonus features on the disc are two 1933 Mack Sennett comedy shorts for Paramount, both starring Walter Catlett and possibly as much a motivation to get this disc as the feature itself. Neither is a comedy classic, but both are entertaining and well-chosen to play with the feature. One is HUSBANDS’ REUNION, co-starring Grady Sutton, Nora Lane, and Billy Bletcher in a story that has Sutton on trial for shooting his wife’s ex-husband (Catlett) in the pants. The reason for the offending shotgun blast is revealed through a fitfully amusing flashback. The other short, DREAM STUFF, featuring Franklyn Pangborn and Joyce Compton, is a bit more fun, with Catlett ineptly trying to help a friend win a girl away from Pangborn. Both shorts appear to be clean HD transfers from 35mm prints, but both are a bit softer-looking than most of the main feature.

PERFECT UNDERSTANDING on Blu-ray –-
Movie: B-
Video: A-
Audio: B-
Extras: C+

I saw this one on tv well over thirty years ago and seem to recall not liking it. Of course I could well have been influenced by reading bad write-ups, and presumably this copy is a vast improvement. At least I watched it rather than relying on hearsay. Perhaps a re-assessment is in the air if I can find an odd gap...

earlytalkiebuffRob wrote:I saw this one on tv well over thirty years ago and seem to recall not liking it. Of course I could well have been influenced by reading bad write-ups, and presumably this copy is a vast improvement. At least I watched it rather than relying on hearsay. Perhaps a re-assessment is in the air if I can find an odd gap...

odd gap?

Christopher Jacobs wrote:I rather enjoyed PERFECT UNDERSTANDING...
The only bonus features on the disc are two 1933 Mack Sennett comedy shorts for RKO, both starring Walter Catlett...

Those shorts were actually released by Paramount, not RKO.

drednm wrote:

earlytalkiebuffRob wrote:I saw this one on tv well over thirty years ago and seem to recall not liking it. Of course I could well have been influenced by reading bad write-ups, and presumably this copy is a vast improvement. At least I watched it rather than relying on hearsay. Perhaps a re-assessment is in the air if I can find an odd gap...

odd gap?

A 'window' (horrid expression) if you prefer, not occupied by other activities, including catching up on the ever-expanding catalogue of films becoming available...

Richard Finegan wrote:

Christopher Jacobs wrote:I rather enjoyed PERFECT UNDERSTANDING...
The only bonus features on the disc are two 1933 Mack Sennett comedy shorts for RKO, both starring Walter Catlett...

Those shorts are actually released by Paramount, not RKO.

You're absolutely right! Thanks for pointing it out. The Paramount logo is missing, however, as the opening and closing titles on the prints transferred to Blu-ray both have the U. M. & M. TV logo just before the Sennett logo at the start and just after it at the end. I have no idea why I wrote "Paramount," when I knew that UM&M-TV is on a lot of Paramount product and that Sennett was releasing his sound shorts through Paramount and not RKO. It could be due to having just watched some RKO comedy shorts with some of the same cast members and/or George Marshall as director when I first wrote the review. In any case, I've corrected it now.