Speed

If one is asked to name the top 10 actors of the classic era, certain names always show up: Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and James Stewart. Before Stewart became a megastar, though, he acted his way through small roles in big films - Rose-Marie, Born to Dance, Small Town Girl, Wife vs. Secretary, and a big role in a B film, Speed (1936). At 70 minutes, one wouldn't think it would be too long, but it is.

Speed is the story of a young man, Terry Martin (Stewart) who is the chief car tester for an automobile company. He has invented a carburetor which has not been refined or tested yet, but he has high hopes for it.

A young woman, Jane Mitchell (Wendie Barrie), arrives there to work in publicity, and both Terry and an engineer in the company, Frank (Weldon Heyburn) are interested in her. When Frank is assigned to work on the carburetor with Terry, Terry isn't happy about it.

And when he asks Jane to a dance and she refuses, saying she has too much work to do, and shows up with Frank (she's doing him a favor), then Terry is really unhappy and resentful.

Ultimately the company decides to enter the finished carburetor in the Indianapolis 500 race, even though Terry isn't satisfied that it's ready.

Lots and lots of racetrack footage, with Stewart playing a guy with a chip on his shoulder about his background.

Una Merkel has the role of a secretary who has become an executive and is in love with Frank. "I wonder," she says with a sigh, "if a woman should rise too high." Yeah, it's the '30s all right.

I love James Stewart and I really believed I could watch him in anything. This film is certainly of interest to see how he was brought along in his career, but that's about it.

That honor goes to Next Time We Love with Margaret Sullavan. Indeed, she specifically chose Stewart to play opposite her. What stands out here is how even in his early raw period, his naturalness before the camera stands out.

Most everyone's style of acting is rather dated, but not Stewart's. This is so even in the musical he did with Eleanor Powell, Born to Dance. Not even in those early roles where he was honing his skills. He even stands out against Powell and Loy and Company in After the Thin Man, where he shows an early surprising edge. Speed demonstrates that Stewart did drunk well--see The Philadelphia Story for later confirmation of this.

He's also quite sexy in some of that early stuff.

The point of interest in this movie is that it is the first starring role for James Stewart. Being a Three Stooges fan, as well as a fan of Mr. Stewart, I enjoyed Ted Healy's fairly substantial supporting role. If you don't know, Ted Healy started the Stooges act - they were HIS Stooges, at first - with first Moe Howard, then adding Shemp Howard, Moe's older brother, and finally adding Larry Fine in 1925. Ted was their boss; they basically responded to him as the central figure in their stage act. They signed with MGM in 1933, with Jerome Howard (Curley) as the third Stooge instead of Shemp (who quit), did a few shorts and had some minor roles in some features, then separated over money (mainly) in 1934. Ted went on to appear in a number of MGM films before his untimely death in 1937. In "Speed", he plays Gadget, Terry Martin's (Stewart) comic sidekick. Ted does a few things reminiscent of the Three Stooges, like having three incompetent assistants in one scene, letting out a "woo-woo" like Curley in another, and pulling the old "Gentlemen" gag (looking behind him when someone addresses them, as if he doesn't know who he's talking to). Not a great movie, but enjoyable enough. Also look for the underrated Una Merkel as "Jo".

Jimmy Stewart may be only an automobile tester right now, but he's got plans: "I'm not always gonna be a mug with cylinder oil in my hair," he vows.

While he spends his working days racing, flipping and crashing test cars, he is also working on a new carburetor design that he is sure will make his mark. Unfortunately, he's having trouble perfecting the carburetor…will the company bigwigs force him to take on help from the snooty engineering department?

Stewart's ambitions and frustrations make up one part of the plot; the other half of the story is a romantic drama involving publicity agent Wendy Barrie, newly promoted auto executive Una Merkel, and bland auto engineer Weldon Heyburn, whom Stewart considers a rival both professionally and romantically but who is really not a bad guy after all.

The first fifteen minutes of the picture offer a great tour of the automobile factory where these characters all work. It's basically a commercial for the auto industry, and a pretty neat look at the inside of a production plant, circa 1936.

With this cast, you would expect some good laughs or at least plenty of snappy dialog delivery; unfortunately, the tone is fairly grim and the screenplay pretty dry. We do get a bit of comic relief from Ted Healy as Stewart's friend and sidekick; but it sure seems a shame to have both Barrie and Merkel—two really excellent comic talents—go practically a whole movie with no wisecracks!

The production is slick and includes some impressive footage from testing grounds and racetracks. And Stewart definitely shows some charisma, even though his character is so stubborn and self-pitying that it's hard to root for him completely.

Overall, it's easy to watch but probably should have been better.

Speed (1936)

This movie has a small bit of historic interest for reasons that don't make it a very good movie. First of all this is James Stewart's first official leading role. As he commented once, he got lots of small parts in big movies, and in this on he got a big part in a small movie. The movie is small because it's low budget and rather poorly written (both in its plot and its dialog).

Secondly, there are scenes of early (1935) Indy 500 racing. The most surprising part of this is having two people in each car, a driver and a mechanic who kept the systems going at their peak (or just keep them going at all in some cases). This allows for some pretty corny scenes where one of the people in one car will make faces or gestures to someone in another car (as they are cruising at 140 mph).

If you like Stewart you'll like him here despite the various limitations. He plays Terry Martin, whose love of racing at a track leads eventually to his going after a land speed record in a bizarre car with a giant fin for stabilization. (This was a special vehicle supplied by Chrysler for the shoot, not quite the real deal.) Of course this leads to a crisis and then the woman of the story, played with lackluster but reasonable ease by Una Merkel, gets her chance to win the hero's heart. This gives nothing away, believe me. It's all in lights from the get go.

A better movie, if still not even slightly brilliant, is certainly the 1950 Clark Cable movie with Barbara Stanwyck in the leading female role (and with a far more empowering part for a woman) , "To Please a Lady." And if you really want to round this out, the Paul Newman movie from 1969 called "Winning" is another faltering attempt at making this scene work on screen. Maybe if all three were played simultaneously on three screens you could get the roar and some interesting plots mixing together well. Individually they make for some fun moments and lots of stalling and pits stops. The actors, at least, are stars that hold their own in each case.

"Speed" is never slow, but that's not the same thing as getting any kind of checkered flag. Watch as filler.