Love Affair

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!

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.

"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".

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!

a film with Bogart could not be bad. that is the start point to discover Love Affair , a nice movie who has only the sin to present too much pieces in a short time ignoring, in many scenes, the links between them. without be memorable, it is a decent film. interesting not exactly for the story itself - many movies from the same period are result of same clichés/solutions - but for the old flavor and for the actors. Jim Leonard is a special role by Humphrey Bogart, clear, innocent, precise, vulnerable and that is a great virtue of film. Dorothy Mackaill has a beautiful role as the poor rich/poor girl who represents, in fact, the portrait of a world. a story who has inspired solutions for the complicated plot . and that represents the real important thing in its case.