Love in High Gear

Made ten years before the current Harrison Ford was even born. This mildly saucy preCode farce is of interest solely for providing posterity with a talkie record of the earlier Harrison Ford, whose last film this was.

The credits make no mention of it originally being a play, but it sure plays like one; and is directed like one too by Frank Strayer. The cast are almost always lined up as though on a stage, feet and all, as they talk and talk; even when filmed out of doors in the early scenes. It then relocates for the second act to a hotel in which people scurry about, hide in cupboards and slam doors; but leadenly paced rather than at the breakneck speed with which satisfactory farce needs to be staged.

Ford himself acquits himself well playing a "low, sneering, leering lothario" called Donald; of whom it's said "No woman's safe when he's around"!

This is a charming, Woodhouse-style comedy of manners, with quirky characters and lots of silliness. The print of the film that I watched was fine for such an old movie. Harrison Ford has top billing, but not really a starring role. Tyrell Davis and Alberta Vaughn were very cute as the loving couple trying to elope. But the people who carried the farce into the next dimension, in my opinion,were Fern Emmett and Jack Duffy as the hotel proprietors. I really don't understand why other reviewers didn't enjoy this the way my husband and I did!

Love in High Gear provides a nuanced and subtle treatment of gender in depression era Chicago. Centering around Donald Ransome, a former race car champion whose career is in decline, and Betty, the sassy female mechanic working on a revolutionary engine design that may revive Donald's career, the film openly criticizes many societal attitudes of the time as they related to women, homosexuality and affirmative action legislation. Harrison Ford shines in his last ever role, capping off a sparkling career for the silent era superstar.

Prospective viewers should note that this is a silent production, so it can be a bit uncomfortable always having to look at the screen to read the subtitles, and one feels this film could benefit from some color restoration (how long did it take for directors to work out that black and white film is BORING!), but at the same time this is a powerful film with a positive social outlook that we could all learn from today. The director was ahead of his time and if you liked this film then you should also check out Behind Stone Walls which tackles similar themes from a very different outlook.

Five out of six stars.

Silent screen star Harrison Ford bows out with the forgettable Love in High Gear, which proved to be his only talkie. He spends much of his time hiding in a cupboard, driven there perhaps by the broad overacting of his fellow cast members. The plot, in which a hapless detective (Fred Kelsey) investigates the theft of some valuable 'poyuls' that were lifted by Ford at a swanky party, is thin as paper and just as colourless, and the so-called comedy is laboured and unfunny.

"Love in High Gear" is a film that is out on DVD from Alpha Video. I have very mixed feelings about this distributor. On one hand, they often bring us various obscure older films you simply cannot find anywhere else. Plus, the DVDs are dirt cheap. On the other hand, the movies are never restored and many (including this one) have very, very ugly prints. While the sound is fair on this one, the print is washed out--and looks much like a film that is a copy of a copy of a copy (or worse).

If "Love in High Gear" would have been a good film, then watching the horrible print would have been worth it. Unfortunately, the film is terribly slow and uninteresting. In fact, I saw nothing that warranted my saying much more than it was pretty dated and lousy. Not worth your time, even if you love the films of the 1930s. Silly, inconsequential and dumb.