High Pressure

High pressure was based on the play "Hot Money" by Aben Kandel. Seems to be the first thing he did in "show biz"... The leads, William Powell, Evelyn Brent, George Sidney, Evalyn Knapp had all been making films for years, although Powell is probably best known for the "Thin Man" series, a couple years after this one. The girlfriend, lovely, 25 year old Knapp certainly was a busy girl; she was in twelve films in 1932 alone! Lots of clever jokes written into this con-man farce, and the timing is great. Show has a fast pace, mixups like taxi-drivers and taxidermists, and fun characters like Alison Skipworth , who plays the rich, silly Mrs. Miller, (who had worked with W.C. Fields on FOUR films... I was guessing she might have worked with the Marx brothers, but it appears not) They all keep this Warner Brothers shortie (72 minutes) moving right along! A jealous girlfriend, a competitor, Mr. Banks, and the Attorney General all keep Gar Evans (Powell) on his toes. Of course, what madcap show is complete without a zany professor?? Can Powell get out of trouble with the law? and it all stays pretty clean, in spite of being made prior to enforcement of the Hays code. Fun!

William Powell has his latest company to promote when Frank McHugh and George Sidney bring him a man with a process to turn garbage into rubber.... except they can't find the man.

It's based on a Broadway comedy, and Powell gives an air of setting the pace with his stately flow of words and broad gestures, while Warner's large company of contract players, including Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee.... well, everyone, it seems except Cagney, Arliss, O'Brien, and Joan Blondell show up to take or be taken. It's so chock full of character comedians that leading lady and second-billed Evelyn Brent gets about four minutes of screen time.

The pace lets up in the final twenty minutes, as often happens with comedies; after all, there's a plot to be resolved. However the first half hour is tremendously funny.

William Powell has a great time in this Pre-Code comedy about a promoter who gets involved with an invention that can supposedly turn sewage into rubber. Powell's pretty much the entire movie has he hawks this "too good to be true" product, making many false promises along the way. When it turns out the scientist who invented the product is crazy, Powell appears to be in big trouble.

George Sidney, Guy Kibbee, and Frank McHugh offer good support. Evelyn Brent is not a particularly strong leading lady for Powell but she does okay. It's a talky movie but it moves along at a quick pace with fun dialogue from Powell & company. A great showcase for William Powell's talents.

High Pressure (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Nice comedy from Warner has William Powell playing Gar Evans, a fast-talking promoter who builds up interest in a company that claims to be able to make rubber out of sewage. Soon Evans gets everything in place except for the inventor of this special rubber who has gone missing. With his neglected girlfriend (Evelyn Brent) about to leave him and still no inventor in sight, the entire thing appears to be a scam. It's funny to think that Warner pretty much let Powell walk away to MGM because they felt he was getting too old and yet it would turn out that the high points of his career were just about to happen. This film here certainly isn't a classic and while there are many problems with the actual story I think the cast members are so good that you can't help but recommend it to their fans. It should go without saying but this is the type of role that Powell could play in his sleep. The fast-talking con man who has plenty of charm and wit. Powell has no problem doing the part and he manages to make you care for the character even if he does things that you might not agree with. George Sidney plays the man who brings Powell the scheme and he too is very effective as is Frank McHugh who plays his typical supporting role. Apparently Powell fought to get Brent the role here and while she's not too bad I do think that one problem with the screenplay is the entire relationship between the two. There's actually very little chemistry between Powell and Brent and I'd say some of this might be blamed on the screenplay because there's just not enough spark to their relationship. With a satire like this it's common for there to be mostly dialogue. For the most part the spoken words are funny but I still thought that a majority of the jokes fell flat. There were a few darker gags that worked including a bit about there being a bank president shortage because all of them were killing themselves. Obviously this was a joke aimed at the hard times the country was in when the film was made. HIGH PRESSURE isn't a classic and it's not really a good film but fans of the cast will want to check it out.

William Powell stars as Gar Evans, a fast talking "promoter". He gets to make an entrance in this film, as the first part of it is Gar's partner Mike Donahey (Frank McHugh) looking all over town for him. The reason is that a man (George Sidney as Mr. Ginsburg) has a contact who says he can make rubber out of sewage, and since the idea is one that nobody would take seriously, a promoter is needed to put this new startup company before the public in a serious way. Gar believes that Ginsburg's statements are true, but goes about decorating the new "company" behind it with exaggerations such as putting the company in a grand suite of offices it does not need, employing an army of salesmen who have nothing to sell at this point, hiring a professional CEO who often lives on skid row between Gar's CEO gigs, etc. Of course behind all of this is the belief that the day will come when there is something to sell, that the stock will be worth something, and that there will be rubber manufactured. Complications ensue as Gar treads on the edge of legality.

William Powell's romantic interest in this film is played by Evelyn Brent, and I rather wonder why. Brent was never under contract to Warner Brothers as frequent costar Kay Francis was, and sound had brought her previously lucrative silent film career to a halt. Brent did not have a terrible accent like some of the old silent stars, but she did speak in a rather lifeless monotone which is especially noticeable when you are up against Warner Brothers' stock company as she is here. Maybe Powell was trying to give his old Paramount colleague's career a needed boost?

Although William Powell in topic comedic form makes this movie, special recognition needs to go to George Sidney as the "owner" of the rubber company. He spends the entire film trying to keep pace with Powell's spiel, and he is constantly muttering pointed quips or confused questions in his Jewish dialect just to drive that point home.