UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Animenter There are women in the film, but none has anything you could call a personality.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Michael_Elliott 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.

MartinHafer In 1932, Humphrey Bogart was a relative unknown--an unproven actor who was starring in one of his first films. And, because he was an unknown, the movie they gave him was clearly a B-movie--a quick film with relatively low expectations. After seeing it, I could see why it would still take Bogart many more years AND another film studio before he became a household name. While the film isn't terrible, it certainly isn't good--making it more of a curiosity than anything else when seen today.Bogart is a pilot who has dreams of building his own aircraft engine company. However, when a vacuous rich playgirl comes his way, his dreams all seem to go on hold. As one of the characters in the film said, the combination of the two is like oil and water--they just don't mix.While Bogart is throwing away his promising career, his sister is going full speed on the Road to Skankville--having met a sleazy guy who convinces her to sleep with rich guys so they can shake them down for tons of cash! Bogey has no idea his sister ISN'T the actress she claims to be and doesn't realize later that the rich woman he loves leaves him for the same guy whose mistress is....Bogart's SISTER!!! All this leads up to a finale that is reasonably enjoyable. However, what follows is one of the dumbest scenes I have watched in a very long time! By now, the rich lady is not going to marry the guy sleeping with Bogey's sister (whew!) but because she's now poor and no good for Bogart, she's about to fly away and kill herself. Bogey finds out, chases the plane on foot, jumps on the plane as it's taking off and crawls up the fuselage to take control of the plane and save her!!! This is so utterly silly and ridiculous, I found myself laughing out loud. Up until then, I might have scored it a 4 or 5--this sunk the movie to a 3 (how one reviewer gave this an 8 is beyond me).The bottom line is that this was a talking and silly film. On top of that, it's all wrong for Bogart, as the action hero at the end and the simpering lover are horrible matches for his persona that was so wonderfully created in the early 40s. Manly and solid better suits the man--one of America's great actors but clearly out of his element here.By the way, those who love Pre-Code films and their very adult sensibilities may want to see this one. Practically everyone in the film believes in and practices pre-marital sex and Bogey curses in the film--things you never would have seen after the toughened and more moralistic Production Code was adopted in 1934.

drednm 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!

classicsoncall Filmed in 1932, "Love Affair" has traces of the silent film era coming to a close, particularly in the wide eyed and innocent faces of the two female leads, Dorothy Mackaill as free wheeling socialite Carol Owen, and Astrid Allwyn as struggling actress Linda Lee. Linda is the sister of Humphrey Bogart's character Jim Leonard, a former flight instructor with bigger things on his mind, as he seeks financial backing for his new airplane motor that he touts as the "greatest motor in the world".The only trouble is, wealthy businessman Bruce Hardy (Hale Hamilton), who's willing to back Leonard, is also backing the penniless Carol Owen, who is completely in the dark about her financial situation. Hardy wants to marry Owen, even as he entertains an occasional dalliance with actress Lee, all without the knowledge of any of the other players. When Jim Leonard meets Carol, he is immediately smitten with her looks and charm, and begins spending time with her at the expense of the new company he's just formed. But there's a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he's just not worthy of big spender and girl about town Carol.There's a well done counterpoint at the beginning of the film when Carol first meets Jim. She requests him for her first flying lesson, and he obliges by performing some daring flight stunts, chock full of rolls and dives. As Carol turns green (you can tell, even though the film is black and white), she returns the favor once on the ground by giving Jim a harrowing ride into town in her roadster.At sixty eight minutes, the film is probably just a bit too short to effectively tell it's tale. There are a number of quick cuts and fades that create a somewhat choppy feel, though they are coherently done and maintain the flow of the story.In what could have been a disastrous ending, Carol, unwilling to marry Hardy for his money, and too embarrassed to come crawling to Jim, leaves a suicide note for airport manager Gilligan. As can be guessed, Jim races after Carol who's about to take off for a one way solo flight, and manages to create some tension as he hangs on for dear life of his own before scrambling into the cockpit of the airborne plane. The movie closes on the two lovebirds as they head off into the skies, Bogey thumbs up to indicate everything will be A-OK.Humphrey Bogart had five films under his belt by the time "Love Affair" was released. This would actually be his first leading role, and though capably done, it would be a few more years before he got to portray real meaty characters like Duke Mantee in "The Petrified Forest" (1936), and "Bugs" Fenner in the gangster drama "Bullets or Ballots" (1936). As a Bogey fan, I recommend them all, even if you're not.