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The Perfect Snob

1941 film by Ray McCarey

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ21527956
Source-derived summary

The Perfect Snob is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Ray McCarey and written by Lee Loeb and Harold Buchman. The film stars Charlie Ruggles, Charlotte Greenwood, Lynn Bari, Cornel Wilde, Anthony Quinn and Alan Mowbray. The film was released on December 19, 1941, by 20th Century Fox.

Plot

Small town veterinarian Edgar Mason (Charles Ruggles) discovers from a news-reporter that his just-graduated daughter, Chris (Lynn Bari), is set to marry much older and wealthy Freddie Browning (Alan Mowbray) under the guidance of his gold-digging wife, Martha (Charlotte Greenwood). Mason, disapproving of Browning, comes across young Mike Lord (Cornel Wilde) and bribes him to romance Chris in order to get her away from Browning. Although initially hesitant, Lord begins to genuinely pursue Chris and although she rebuffs him, his persistence manages to successfully break the engagement between Browning and Chris. Lord shows up the next day and reveals the scheme between him and Dr. Mason. Chris, who had begun to fall for Lord, is hurt by the revelation and assumes Lord's affections were all an act. In reality, Lord has genuinely fallen for Chris and, unbeknownst to the Mason family, is wealthy.

Editorial summary

“The Perfect Snob” enters the record as 1941 film by Ray McCarey. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Perfect, Snob and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1941—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1941. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Perfect, Snob and film.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Perfect Snob” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Perfect, Snob and film provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21527956. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Perfect Snob”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Perfect Snob primary sources, The Perfect Snob archive and Perfect research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Perfect Snob”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from The Perfect Snob” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.