Her New Chauffeur: A Gentle Ride Worth Taking (Maybe)

Okay, so Her New Chauffeur? Yeah, it's probably worth a look if you're stuck on a rainy afternoon and fancy something really gentle. People who miss those old, slightly predictable romances where everything gets sorted by the end will probably enjoy it.

If you need explosions or even just a quick pace, you're gonna hate this. You'll be tapping your foot before the opening credits even finish, I swear. 😩

Averell Harris, as the titular chauffeur, Mr. Perkins, has this wonderful way of looking completely out of place. His uniform never quite seems to fit, like it was borrowed from someone else. There's this one scene where he tries to open the car door for Mrs. Sterling, played by Verree Teasdale, and he fumbles the handle for a good five seconds. It's not played for laughs, really, but it is funny. 😂

Teasdale, she's great at being snooty without being totally unlikable. She floats through her mansion, barely touching the ground. You get the feeling she hasn't tied her own shoes in decades. There's a moment, after the big garden party disaster – you know the one – where she just sighs, so deep and long, you can almost feel the weight of her societal expectations.

Louis Simon, who also wrote this, plays a sort of meddling cousin, I think. Or a family lawyer? It's a bit hazy. He keeps popping up to deliver these stern warnings about propriety. His eyebrows do most of the acting, honestly. They have a life of their own. 🤨

The movie spends a lot of time in the car, just driving around. You see a lot of the same tree-lined streets. It's calming, in a way. Like a slow, old train journey. But sometimes you wish they'd just get somewhere already.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Her New Chauffeur (1929) through its definitive frames.

There's this one dinner party scene, the one with the very loud parrot? That whole bit goes on for ages. The parrot squawking "Oh, darling, you're so dreadful!" over and over. It was meant to be cute, maybe? But after the fifth time, it just felt a little… much. 🦜 You can almost feel the director thinking, "This is gold! Keep rolling!"

Perkins, the chauffeur, has a moment where he polishes the car's chrome with such intense focus. Like, *really* intense. It’s a quiet scene, just him and the car, and it gives you a tiny peek into his world. A small detail, but it stuck with me.

The dialogue is a little stiff sometimes. Very formal, very "proper." It's like everyone's reading from a manual on how to be polite. Except when Mrs. Sterling gets flustered, then she just blurts things out. That was refreshing.

It’s not quite the breezy fun of something like The Wishing Ring Man, but it has its own quiet charm. More about the unspoken things.

The ending isn't a huge surprise. It ties everything up neatly, as these sorts of films tend to do. No big shocks, no loose ends. Just a gentle resolution, like a warm blanket. It's not gonna change your life, but it won't ruin your evening either. A pleasant diversion, mostly.

One thing I kept thinking about was the hats. Everyone had such amazing hats. Especially Teasdale. Each one a work of art. I wonder if they had a whole separate budget just for the hats? 🎩