Love Affair

Socialite (Dorothy Mackaill) takes flying lessons from a pilot (Humphrey Bogart) who has invented a new kind of plane motor. The two begin a romance but, despite caring for him, she proves to be a bad influence and his career suffers. When she suddenly finds herself broke, she decides to marry a man with more money so she can help Bogie with his dreams.

Lackluster pre-Code drama of interest only for an early starring role for a fresh-faced Bogart. He does a decent job here but doesn't give any indication of his future superstardom. There are some scenes where he plays awkward and a little shy. That's not something you saw much of later in his career. Dorothy Mackaill is lively and less stagy than the normal style of the time. The supporting cast is adequate with no standouts. Best parts of the movie are the flying scenes and one scene where Mackaill is speeding in a car. Also some pre-Code elements some viewers might get a kick out of, such as suggested premarital sex. The story and romance are flat, even by 1932 standards. For Bogie completists and airplane enthusiasts only.

An engaging and fast paced enough Bogie movie, which is surprisingly not boring at all. It's actually a lot of fun! That I'll say: no woman is good enough for my Bogie! If it isn't Lauren, then it needs to be Ingrid. However, this one wasn't annoying at all, so we'll give her a pass. (And who wouldn't want Bogart for a brother?!)

I've finally seen Bogie's first film. WOW! He wasn't bad at all. We get Bogie in an aviator cap. Not his best look, okay? But that's because they didn't put the goggles on top: that's where it's all at! Googles top of your head. Okay?

It's a fun little hour to pass, Bogart looks good young, well dressed, nice set decor and the rest is mayo and pickles on a Bogie sandwich. Watch it, don't expect Casablanca but it deserves way more than the current low rating. I give it a 8/10 and thanks, Bogie, for entertaining me! Okay? Okay!

... in this rather muddled tale involving a love quadrangle. The four corners of this quadrangle (in order) are engineer Jim Leonard (Humphrey Bogart) who is the protective brother of chorus girl Linda, who is the secret mistress of Bruce Hardy, who is the financial adviser and suitor of poor little rich girl Carol Owen (Dorothy McKaill) who falls for Jim Leonard. As Jim Leonard says to Carol, "Can you read blueprints?". If you can, you might have a chance of following this busy little precode film. Add in one more important character - a sleazy guy who wants to star Linda in a revue financed by Hardy's money.

What really hurts this movie is that the subplots don't really gel that well into one well integrated plot of a movie. Also there are some lines that you wait to hear that you never do. For example, when Carol brings Jim over to her mansion for a party the serious upright young man is obviously disgusted by Carol pretending to auction off her servant Kibbee like he was a piece of furniture to her drunken guests to offset her losses in the stock market. Jim walks out without saying goodbye. However, the next time the two meet Jim soft soaps the entire affair. I really wanted him to tell her off. What saves the film are the fine performances and the fact that the subplots are interesting enough even given the lack of motivation for the players' actions.

It's truly interesting to see Bogart playing a rather shy very scrupulous engineer - what a great smile he has! Dorothy McKaill is quite good as bored rich girl Carol who is trying desperately to fill up her day with fun things to do when her real problem is that she's lonely in spite of her busy social life. She really had a great voice and did good work here. It's a puzzle to me why she didn't really do that well in talkies. I'd recommend it to fans of McKaill and/or Bogart and to anyone interested in films of the early 30's.

Best precode moment - Jim has spent the night with Carol and is standing at the base of the stairs wearing the clothes he had on when he got there last night - a tuxedo. He's surprised by Carol's butler Kibbee. Jim then tries to stutter through an explanation of why he is there at 8AM in formal attire. Kibbee plays the part of the father figure that pretends to be convinced of his grown daughter's chastity when he knows otherwise and this is one of the few times you'll ever see Bogart behaving like a tongue tied teenager on film.

The low IMDb rating this picture has is simply because Bogart fans expect to see a 1940s Bogart. Fans of pre-code movies however will love this - it gives you everything you'd expect.

With ladies in lingerie, an impoverished heiress, an impossible romance and a gloriously corny ending, you just know this was made in the early thirties. It has that lovely warm and familiar feeling you get from films of this era and really immerses you into the streets of New York of 1932. It's an Ursula Parrot story and since she wrote some classic pre-code films, you know this is going to be pretty special - if a little corny.

OK, Mr Bogart isn't the cynical, hard-boiled tough guy here but he is honestly is totally believable as a young ambitious engineer. OK, this was his first leading role but he had been a respected stage actor for ten years so is actually pretty good at that acting malarkey. Yorkshire lass, Dorothy MacKaill, had also been acting for a decade and again puts in a faultless and credible performance. She's very believable. Like in all the best pre-code movies, the story gets wonderfully convoluted and then in the very last minute of the film, everything is resolved, all loose ends are tied up and everyone is happy.

Something this has which others don't is Humphrey Bogart doing a Tom Cruise, jumping in to a moving plane to rescue the his true love. Wonderfully silly but you'll still feel like applauding!

"You were on your way up and you tripped on a skirt !" Gilligan says to Jim Leonard. That sums up the plot of this story of up and coming Leonard (a YOUNG Humphrey Bogart) when his dream gets sidetracked by the bombshell heiress Carol, played by Dorothy Mackaill. Leonard has been working on a new and improved motor, but now his love life and motor company both have their ups and downs in this 68 minute shortie. Bogart hadn't developed the quiet, brooding style yet. Good performances by most of the supporting characters - her butler, his co-workers, a sister, interlopers along the way. Some adult themes, since it was done just before they really enforced the film code, but it's still tame compared to what is on TV today. Directed by Thornton Freeland, a year before Freeland directed the incredible "Flying Down to Rio".