Love Affair

LOVE AFFAIR (Columbia, 1932), directed by Thornton Freeland, is a minor second feature drama starring former Warner Brothers star, Dorothy MacKaill, opposite future Warner Brother star, Humphrey Bogart. Though the title bears no relation to the LOVE AFFAIR (RKO, 1939) starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer (remade most famously as AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr), this 68 minute production, taken from a story by Ursula Parrott, offers little interest except for the presence of young Humphrey Bogart in one of his earliest screen appearances.

Plot summary: Carol Owen (Dorothy MacKaill), a carefree heiress, is first seen at Antone's (Harold Minjir) salon getting all dolled up for an event that's to take place that day. After taking flying lessons at Gilligan's (Jack Kennedy) flying school, she's to now take her first flight in the air. Refusing the guidance of Eddie (Frank Rice), she chooses a much younger instructor, Jim Leonard (Humphrey Bogart). Following her flight in the air, she takes Jim on a wild car wide in her roadster back to town. She stops at her home where Jim is introduced to her society friends. Bored and feeling out of place, Jim, totally ignored, leaves without notice. Carol comes to Jim's apartment where she learns his plans on leaving aviation school to dedicate his time working on and trying to promote his new airplane motor. Because of her interest in Jim, Carol arranges for Bruce Hardy (Hale Hamilton), a Wall Street tycoon and her financial adviser, to finance Jim $5,000 for his motor for him to form his Leonard Motor Company. In the meantime, Jim has a younger sister, Linda (Astrid Allwyn), an aspiring young actress working under the name of Linda Lee, who isn't what she appears to be. She not only supported and living in the luxurious apartment of Bruce Hardy, who loves Carol, but she's been using his financial means for Georgie Keeler (Bradley Page), a suave Broadway producer, to use for his show where Linda is to appear. Problems arise when Carol, learning that she is broke, to become engaged to Bruce and marry him for his money after promising Jim she loves nobody else but him. Also in the supporting cast are: Halliwell Hobbes (Kibbee, Dorothy's butler); and Barbara Leonard (Felice, the French hair stylist).

As much as there is no real love affair to mention, LOVE AFFAIR is actually two separate stories for the price of one, each involving either Jim and his sister. Dorothy MacKaill's character is very much the aggressor going after and getting what she wants, Dressed mostly in fur coat and high-fashion clothes, MacKaill may be best known for her pre-code melodrama, SAFE IN HELL (Warner Brothers, 1931), which is often claimed to be her finest work in the early sound era. Humphrey Bogart, in a role that might have gone to the likes of a Ralph Bellamy, Pat O'Brien or a Ben Lyon, might seem to be an odd choice as her male co-star. Though type-cast later in gangster roles or bad-guys, Bogart would prove his worth as a romantic-type in the 1940s, especially in the Academy Award winning drama, CASABLANCA (1943). Yet, LOVE AFFAIR would prove more interesting viewing today mainly due to Bogart's presence than the rediscovery of Dorothy MacKaill. Astrid Allwyn as Bogart's sister, interestingly, appeared also in the better known 1939 edition of LOVE AFFAIR as well.

Never distributed to home video, LOVE AFFAIR did become available on DVD . It's cable television broadcasts were mainly on Turner Classic Movies in 1994, with brief revivals later in 2009 and 2011, around the same time TCM unearthed many other obscure films of the Columbia Pictures library from the 1930s and 1940s. (**)

Love Affair (1932)

** (out of 4)

Predictable and rather boring love story about a rich social girl (Dorothy Mackaill) and a hard working man (Humphrey Bogart) who hopes to build airplane engines. The two of them start up an affair but he slowly begins to lose sight of his dream while falling in love with her. She also has other things on her plate including a rich man (Hale Hamilton) who has his own plans for her. I was really looking forward to this small drama mainly because it was the first major role for the young Bogart. I must admit that I found a little entertainment in watching him play the clean-cut good guy but the screenplay is so predictable that one will quickly lose interest in the film. To make matters worse, the films runs a brief 68-minutes but it feels double that. The screenplay really doesn't do a thing right as it's never really romantic, it features no laughs and in the end it seems as if you've really not even watched anything at all. I'm really not sure what the purpose of the movie was as the screenplay is so confused in what it wants to say that we never really know if we should care about Mackaill's character or if we should see her as some sort of villain. Even worse is the ending that really comes out of nowhere and amounts to nothing more than silly melodrama. What keeps the film watchable is Bogart who actually manages to turn in a nice performance even if it is a tad bit strange seeing him act without that Bogart persona, voice and attitude that we'd see even in his smaller Warner roles. Bogart plays the happy-go-lucky role pretty well and he doesn't seem to have a problem with the smiling and charming. I must admit that he has one of the strangest ways of standing around (with his arms behind his back) but this too is rather funny. Mackaill isn't bad in the film but she's not all that good either. I think she has a little charm but the role of the rich spoiled girl has been played so much better by so many people. It does seem she has a rather bad timing as there's one scene where it appears she accidentally hits Bogart in the face (the driving sequence) and then another where she walks straight into a chair (when their going to get her a cup of coffee). In the end, this isn't a horrible movie but it's not a good one either and without Bogart it would have been totally forgettable. I think even Bogart fans will find themselves bored so this is certainly only recommended to those who want to see everything he's done.

... 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.

Humphrey Bogart in his first starring role looks very young, acts well, but has a pronounced lisp only hinted at later in his career. Still, he's very good and very appealing as the idealistic young inventor of a new airplane motor.

Dorothy Mackaill is the real star here, playing a once-rich woman who's torn between her real love for Bogart (he's broke too) and the comfort and security of marrying an older man (Hale Hamilton).

Along for the ride are Astrid Allwyn as Bogart's trampy sister, Bradley Page as her would-be producer, Barbara Leonard as the cosmetologist, Jack Kennedy as Gilligan, and Halliwell Hobbes as the faithful (and wise) butler).

Both Mackaill (whi had been a star in silent films) and Bogart were trying to gain a toehold in talkies in 1932. Bogart was a slow-rising actor from the Broadway stage; Mackaill was slipping and would soon appear in skid-row production like PICTURE BRIDES. Yet they are both very good here. Mackaill wasn't even 30 when she appeared in this film!

"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".