The Love Test

Possibly the least ambitious of these quota quickies Michael Powell had made since The Fire Raisers, The Love Test has the great advantage of being a light romantic comedy. It has a small enough cast of characters so that our focus isn't diverted too much from our main characters (like what happened in Lazybones), and it has that big heart that Powell was showing so frequently. It's a frothy bit of nothing, but it's an endearing and frothy bit of nothing.

Touching on the obvious fascination Powell had with increasing technological advancements, the film centers around a commercial chemist lab that's focused on trying to come up with something to make celluloid non-flammable. For those who've seen Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (including its quick clip from Hitchcock's Sabotage), you know that nitrate film was highly flammable and a huge problem for the film world for decades. Fox lost almost its entire silent library in a film vault fire (including most of the early work of John Ford and almost all the work of Theda Bera). This has the good sense to not delve too deeply into what the solution to this flammable celluloid could be (it seems to be some kind of coating instead of just a brand new method of making the stuff), but at least it doesn't feel as ridiculous as swimming pools at petrol stations like in Something Always Happens.

Anyway, this chemist lab is headed by Mr. Smith (Gilbert Davis) who has decided to leave in the middle of this critical time to look after his health (manifested by hiccup fits). His second in command, Thompson (David Hutcheson), thinks that he'll be a natural fit for taking on the roll, but when the office secretary, Minnie (Googie Withers), overhears the company president (Morris Harvey), it's obvious that the post will be given to Mary Lee (Judy Gunn). Overcome with emotion at potentially being passed over for a mousy woman, Thompson comes up with a plan for Mary Lee to lose her advantage by getting her to fall in love with John (Louis Hayward), another chemist in the lab. John reluctantly goes along with it (presumably because he already likes Mary Lee).

The bulk of the film is this nascent romance between the two with Mary Lee starting as an ice queen who talks about how the ideal social arrangement is the beehive with one queen and many workers (she sees herself as a worker, not a queen) and John starting as an uninitiated boob in the world of romance. The two slowly open up to each other as Mary Lee begins to like the sense of affection. It's nice.

And then the most interesting contrast happens in the film. Mary Lee decides to buy herself a dress for a dinner with John, so her neighbor, Kathleen (Eve Turner), decides to help her by providing her with everything else. At the same time, Thompson and Minnie come over to John's house to help him become Mary Lee's Casanova by teaching him how to kiss girls. So, Mary Lee strains to become pretty, and John makes out with another girl. In today's parlance, that would be considered problematic. I found it amusing, if unintentionally so.

There are complications that push Thompson to accelerate his plans which involve driving a wedge between John and Mary Lee. It's not a deep conflict, mostly relying on a couple of lies that someone immediately believes without question. However, it does provide this nice backdrop to a comic ending where John is locked up, Thompson has stolen his work, and Mary Lee has to figure out the situation on her own.

It's not deep or challenging, but it's a nice ending where good triumphs over irritatingly underhanded through the use of honesty and earnestness.

On these short features that Powell was banging out several times a year, it's obvious that his command of the physical production had solidified, his ability to coax performances out of actors was strong, and the strength and weaknesses rose and fell with the quality of the script. Here, with a modestly ambitious, tightly focused script, he's able to craft an amusing romantic comedy that still entertains 90 years later. It's nice.

Unusually for a 1930s English quota quickie comedy, this is actually not bad - in fact, it's pretty good. If you didn't know better, you'd think this was made by a big studio - although they'd probably have Fred and Ginger in it - it does have a Fred and Ginger feel to it.

You can tell this is made by a director with potential, not just because of the well composed framing but also by the way that the acting isn't just confined to those doing the speaking at centre stage. Unlike what you find in many 1930s films, the supporting cast don't just stand around like statues but react and contribute to the action. What you're seeing has a sense of reality which benefits a character driven comedy like this making it more engaging.

Considering this all happens in sixty minutes, the characters are exceptionally well rounded and believable. Judy Gunn's performance is exceptional for a little low budget movie like this - presumably helped by Powell. Her character transformation, the way she expresses her frustrations, her hidden desires and how she handles her betrayal is masterfully done. With a decent director, she really was quite a talented actress - and a very pretty one too.

Louis Hayward is the romantic lead but his character isn't the usual goody two shoes, there's real depth and personality there. David Hutcheson is the arch-villain but he to is no pantomime, moustache twiddling Dick Dastardy type which in a lesser film, he would have been. The board of directors, lounging in their ivory tower are also genuinely funny and Google Withers is a brilliant sassy secretary. You don't expect such intelligently moulded characters in a silly to-com like this - this is vastly more superior than your usual quota quickie.

Surprisingly for the time, it pokes fun at sexism in the workplace. Not quite MADE IN DAGENHAM but still good fun. Furthermore unlike in the American 1933 picture, FEMALE, a woman becomes the boss without seeing 'the error of her ways' and professing like Ruth Chatterton did that "I'm only a woman, I have no right to be a boss and I should be at home making babies." Judy's appointment is the basis of the story, it causes upheaval of course (it is the 1930s!) but the moral here is that she can be a woman and have a career.

It's ironic that the work this fictional laboratory is engaged in is making celluloid film fireproof since it was made at Fox's Wembley studio which burned down a few years earlier when the celluloid film caught fire.

Quite apart from the fact that this is an early outing in the career of Michael Powell it is also notable for featuring 3 actors who would go on to bigger and better films in the future,Googie Withers,Louis Hayward and Bernard Miles.Withers is very funny in her attempts to take off a wisecracking American secretary.There are a few interesting directorial touches such as the way Hayward is introduced at the beginning of the film by an extended tracking shot.Dinner at a big restaurant is shown by way of a waiter serving at the table with curtains in the background and music on the soundtrack.This is a very enjoyable film which you should make every effort to see if it comes your way or appears again on TV

Michael Powell must have been gaining a reputation for directing movies efficiently by the time he made THE LOVE TEST. He had already been trusted with directing Leslie Banks and Ian Hunter when he was lent to Fox' English unit for this pleasant programmer.

When Gilbert Davis comes down with the hiccoughs, he must resign as head of the project to develop a fireproof celluloid. He recommends as his replacement the best chemist working under him, Judy Gunn. This does not please David Hutcheson, who makes some Male Chauvinist Pig remarks and orders Louis Hayward to distract her by courting her. Of course, they fall in love, and of course Hutcheson decides to cut Hayward out after he has warmed up the cold fish.

It sounds almost modern in its discussion of men, does it not? Well, it falls into the all-too-neat routines of romantic comedy, but it certainly didn't hurt Louis Hayward's career. The movie, which turned up in the early 1990s, times in at barely more than an hour. It seems a totally unremarkable film, and probably didn't add much to Powell's reputation at the time.... except as a man who could get a decent film done on budget. That's never a bad thing.