High Voltage (1929) User Reviews

Boyd and Lombard try hard to thaw the ice

[kidboots · 5/10 · 25 November 2007]

Made in 1929 when talking films were still finding their feet, most of the action in this claustrophobic film takes place in an abandonded church.

Several people take shelter from a snow storm when their bus breaks down. Carol Lombard plays Billie, "the girl", who is being taken back to prison. Owen Moore plays "the detective". Diane Ellis (who tragically died in 1931 on her honeymoon) plays "the Kid".Handsome William Boyd plays "the boy", an escapee, who at first is gruff but then becomes a big help to the snow bound inmates. He and Lombard fall for each other and have real chemistry in their scenes together.

It is short on action and very long on talking (and corny dialogue at that) but at 70 minutes it is mercifully short.

Carole Lombard was at the start of a super career when she made this film. She had been in a few shorts including "The Campus Vamp" and "The Swim Princess".

William Boyd had been a successful leading man in the 20s and the next year (1930) would see him in his first western - "The Painted Desert" - after which he would have a long career as Hopalong Cassidy. He proves, in this film, he had a flair for dialogue and a very natural acting style. Both he and Lombard try hard to rise above the trite dialogue. It is clear that they are destined for bigger things.

Owen Moore, who had been in films from the earliest days and was Mary Pickford's first husband plays the detective.

Billy Bevan, a silent comic, was the bus driver.

Stuck In The Snow in the High Sierras

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 16 January 2012]

The screen's future Hopalong Cassidy William Boyd starred in this early talkie with Carole Lombard. High Voltage teams the two of them as they're stuck in an abandoned church during a blizzard in the High Sierras.

Lombard is a fugitive going back with Detective Owen Moore to face trial and imprisonment on a bus which would today just qualify as a van. Two other passengers are young bride Diane Ellis and banker Phillips Smalley. Driver Billy Bevan rather stupidly decides to push on and gets stuck in the snow drifts. Fortunately there's a church isolated out there that they can see and they make for it for shelter.

Where they find it's already occupied by William Boyd who is far from the cowboy hero of Hopalong Cassidy. In fact Boyd is a wanted fugitive and he's got a cache of food for himself alone and he's not looking for company to share it.

Of course being stuck the way they are nature takes its course and Lombard finds a way to melt poor Boyd in all that snow.

For a film entitled High Voltage not much electricity was being generated from the team of Lombard and Boyd. It looked to me like the whole cast was a bit nervous of the new sound motion pictures. Phillips Smalley in a voice that might have been dubbed sings a lyric tenor number to keep the group entertained and Billy Bevan who was a music hall entertainer in his native Australia as well as the United Kingdom did a couple of numbers as well on the church piano. They were the highlights of the film.

Fans of Carole Lombard might want to check this out to see her in a very early sound film and Hoppy fans might want to see Bill Boyd in another role, but High Voltage should not generate too much interest elsewhere.

A bad early sound film in every category

[AlsExGal · 5/10 · 30 July 2023]

In spite of the fact that this film stars Carole Lombard, I recommend that you pass on this one. The story is that a bus is trying to cross Nevada's alkali flats when a winter storm hits and forces the passengers to take refuge in an abandoned church miles from the nearest town. Carole Lombard plays Billie, a young woman being taken to prison. The other passengers include the cop that is accompanying Billie, a young girl, a banker, and, of course the bus driver. The group enters the church to find they are not alone. Bill (William Boyd) has found shelter there too, has a large stash of food, and wants to order everyone around.

This is one of those films in which a bunch of characters of diverse backgrounds are forced to sit through a crisis and talk about themselves. However, "Petrified Forest" this is not. Because it is an early sound film the director seems to think somebody has to be saying something all of the time, whether or not it is interesting or done in a non-monotonous tone. It will be the longest hour in your life. The only thing worse than boring stilted conversation is boring stilted conversation you can't hear well.

Interesting Story Idea, & Lombard Is a Plus, But Otherwise Undistinguished

[Snow Leopard · 6 September 2005]

This starts out with a fairly interesting story idea, and it also offers Carole Lombard (it always seems strange when she is billed without the 'e') in the role of a young convict. The rest of it, though, is undistinguished, with parts of it being of rather low quality. Even while making allowances for it being an early sound-era movie, there is a lot of dead time that makes it hard not to notice the low production values.

The story starts when a bus and its passengers get stranded in a snowstorm, and they take refuge in a church building, only to find that someone else is already there. The situation focuses on the strained relationships that develop when the varied personalities are thrown together for an indefinite period. It could have led to some tense, even memorable drama, but it never really develops more than an occasional moment of suspense.

Lombard's character gets most of the attention in any scene that she is in. As the bus driver, Billy Bevan gets a couple of good moments of comic relief, but some other lines that were probably intended to be funny just fall flat. Owen Moore and William Boyd have characters who are natural rivals for one another, but their scenes never pack the punch that they could have. Neither of them shows enough presence to make a formidable foe for the other.

While "High Voltage" does have a few worthwhile moments, most of it is just too routine to be anything more than a typical feature of its era and genre.

High Voltage...low wattage

[gavinlockey · 3/10 · 4 April 2006]

OK the movie is none too clever, but I did enjoy one or two things. I was impressed that the filmmaker allowed off-screen dialogue although obviously hampered by the difficulty in being unable to have different sound levels. I guess I was most impressed by my first encounter with William Boyd. I guess his hokey, folksy voice went a long way in his future career as "Hopalong", but I must say that I was bowled over by his assured performance and his naturalistic style which for the late twenties was a breath of fresh air. He was particularly impressive in his reflective and thoughtful facial expressions. I sense that his style was ahead of its time and that he could have been a great actor in the Gene Hackman mould in the modern movies.

Trapped in the snow

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 11 September 2019]

A bus, with four passengers, gets caught in the snow as it crosses Nevada's Alkali Flats. Those on board take shelter in a remote church they see in the distance. A man named Bill is already there and he doesn't seem too pleased to have company. The passengers include Billie, a female fugitive; Dan Egan, the detective taking her back to jail; a young woman going to see her boyfriend in Chicago; and a banker... there is also the driver who's overconfidence got them into the predicament. Tensions rise somewhat when Bill starts paying more attention to the ladies than Dan would like... it seems Dan has his suspicions about Bill. Not knowing when they might get out the characters divide their limited food and even joke about who will get eaten first!

Considering this film is now ninety years old I think it has aged reasonably well. It probably helps that even though it was set in the present, for the time, it has a western feel... the travellers stuck in a remote building in the American West during a snowstorm, not to mention a lawman and his female prisoner, immediately reminded me of 'The Hateful Eight' even though other aspects are obviously very different. The film established the setting well and did a solid job of introducing the characters on the bus before putting them in peril. Once in the church there is a decent sense of mystery about Bill and the tension feels genuine. The setting is effective; it certainly looked as if we were in a frozen landscape miles from anywhere. The acting might feel a bit stagy by modern standards but I thought it was pretty decent considering it was one of the earlier films where actors' voices were heard. Overall I'd say that this is well worth watching if you enjoy old films... if you don't like it you'll only waste just over an hour.

Gimme Shelter

[lugonian · 2/10 · 10 July 2001]

HIGH VOLTAGE (Pathe, 1929), directed by Howard Higgin, is an early film talkie about a bus carrying numerous passengers attempting to cross Nevada's alkali flats in the dead of winter. Among the passengers are Billie (Carole Lombard), a lady fugitive being taken back to prison in handcuffs by Detective Dan Egan (Owen Moore); a young girl called "The Kid" (Diane Ellis); J. Milton Hendrickson, a rich banker (Phillips Smalley), who feels money can buy him anything; and a bus driver (Billy Bevan) who constantly refrains, "Please, Paaaleaze." The bus gets caught in a blizzard some miles from the nearest town. Seeking shelter by walking through deep snow, the passengers stumble onto an abandoned church to keep warm. While there they notice the church is occupied by a mysterious man named Bill (William Boyd) who might also be a fugitive from justice. But for the time being, the guests must take orders from the level-headed Bill in order to survive the ordeal of possibly freezing to death.

HIGH VOLTAGE is not top-of-the-art cinema, in fact, forgetting when this was made (1929), it's either horrible or unbearable, whichever a viewer prefers. In spite of an interesting premise, the movie is hampered by bad dialog that at times is laughable, and at 63 minutes, the film seems a lot longer that what it is. William Boyd, the cinema's future cowboy matinée, Hopalong Cassidy, and Carole Lombard (billed Carol), the future screwball comedienne in such classics as MY MAN GODFREY (1936) and NOTHING SACRED (1937), are both effective as the tough guy and gal, but in spite of their presence, they can't seem to rise above inferior material. Other low points include Owen Moore passing the time singing an Irish song or two by the church organ. There are times in which the movie suffers from some distorted sound recording, especially during the outdoor scenes when the passengers walk about to get exercise, throwing snow balls at each other, and finding The Kid suddenly falling through the ice, etc., the latter being one of the few scenes to perk up some excitement.

Distributed to home video in the early 1980s, and later onto the DVD format, HIGH VOLTAGE, formerly broadcast on out-of-service cable stations as Tempo Television (1988) and Channel America (1990-91), is a public domain title recommended for lovers of bad cinema, or to film buffs interested in this only as a curio, especially when a very young and unrecognizable Carole Lombard is concerned. (*)

Better than some other early talkies.

[ksdilauri · 6/10 · 30 July 2019]

Many films have used the title "High Voltage" over the years, and by modern standards, this one isn't exactly electric.....but it has its pluses. With several outdoor scenes, it's less stagey than than many early talkie. Even with the dated plot and dialogue (remember, this film is now nearly a century old) leading man William Boyd shows a more modern quality than many leading men of the time, as does talkie newbie and future superstar Jane Alice Peters---here billed as Carol Lombard, with the "e" to be added later. If you like to sample what Old Hollywood had to offer, give this a watch. Slightly more than an hour long, it's worth it just for the historical value and talent of the leads.

Low Voltage

[wes-connors · 2/10 · 11 April 2010]

"Billie Davis is a girl crook who falls in love with a handsome lineman (William Boyd) while marooned during a snow storm," according to the DVD sleeve description, "Crossing the High Sierras in a bus is a group of travelers that find themselves stranded in a small village, and at the mercy of Bill Dougherty (Boyd), a lineman who apportions them a small amount of food."

The first "All-Talking!" feature for many stars resulted in some legendary retirements, but many performers recovered from their bad speaking debuts. At the time, Boyd was the big star, and Mr. Moore was considered a veteran favorite. Thankfully, Ms. Lombard was relatively unknown, and recovered nicely. The men, especially Boyd, speak as if Oliver Hardy was the film's vocal coach - and, this can not be blamed entirely on poor technology. Holding her own, co-star Diane Ellis died suddenly, in 1930.

** High Voltage (6/29/29) Howard Higgin ~ William Boyd, Carole Lombard, Owen Moore, Diane Ellis

RE: Welcome to Film History (posted 2005)

[kimbpaul · 6/10 · 19 June 2021]

It's now 2021, 16 years since OP voiced his review, and I agree 100%. This film is 92 years old, and having just recently watched John Wick: Parabellum, I think I'd still rather watch hokey little films like this. Folks in 1929 were still in awe of moving and talking pictures, some called it a fad that wouldn't last. Imagine their shock that 92 years later we can watch the same film on a little screen that we can hold in our hand. I love the scenes of the stranded travellers playing on the frozen lake, even with the poor sound consistency.

And, that BUS! Wow! Wish I owned one of those babies!

What the heck does the film's title have to do with this movie?!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 28 April 2010]

I have seen quite a few films made in 1929 and something they all have in common is poor sound. The sound techniques and equipment were very primitive and as a result, many DVDs are practically unwatchable unless they have closed captions or DVD captions. Unfortunately, as I saw this film on an Alpha Video DVD (a company that specializes in public domain films), there were no captions of any type--as they never, ever provide captioning or restorations on their films. But, fortunately, "High Voltage" did, for a 1929 film, have exceptionally good sound. While I had to struggle a bit to understand what they were saying, it wasn't impossible! Now as for the film, I have no idea what the title has to do with the film. After all, there is no electricity in the film and it's set in a snow storm!! The film begins with a primitive 1920s style bus getting stranded in a snow storm out West. However, the passengers are able to trek to a nearby primitive chapel where they are able to take refuge from the elements. However, there is almost no food and the group is concerns they'll either run out of firewood and freeze to death or starve to death because there's no food. Either way, things don't look good.

The stranded folks consist of two women and four men. One of the women is Carole Lombard--who is being extradited back to New York to serve a prison term. William Boyd (a.k.a. 'Hopalong Cassidy') plays the guy who is already taking refuge in the church when everyone arrives. However, in a case of an amazing Hollywood-style coincidence, he, too, is a wanted man! And, wouldn't you know it, he and Lombard soon fall in love!! What are the odds?!? Where exactly all this goes is mildly interesting, but even for a 63 minute film, it seems too talky and slow. Not a horrible film, but also no better than a time-passer at best.

The worst moments in the film--the plane that circles in an impossible manner that is obviously a model as well as the singing number that seems to come from out of no where. Notice how the singer has his back turned to the camera the whole time--this is because studios were having a hard time figuring out how to do singing without actually having a live orchestra just off camera playing the music! And so, here, I assume they just had the guy faking that he's singing while they played a record!

For 1929 Not bad...if not GREAT!

[steven_torrey · 10/10 · 19 February 2017]

I immediately felt the tension in the movie. When the survivors trekked their way for a mile through heavy snow to the church, the tension in the church was palpable--the viewer felt anything could happen. The physical and psychological atmospherics rivaled what Hitchcock would do. The bleak snow clad landscape mirroring the psychological bleak lives they all lead, the bleakness of prison for two of the six characters.

Six people (3 men/3 women--one male, one female on their way to prison) trapped in a church during a snow storm; the central character is aware they could be trapped for ten days at a minimum, and knows there is only food for five days; the central character plays the heavy enforcing the distribution of food, which makes him the heavy and the central character. Eventually, the food runs out, the wood for heating fuel runs out. (They seemed to have used the organ for fuel. Do they burn the wooden cross by the end of the film?) "Singing in the Rain" pointed out the difficulties of recording of early talkies, none of those difficulties were apparent in this movie.

In a day when we are all spoiled with more than a century of film excellence, when we come to an early talkie such as this, we cannot expect the level of sophistication modern film brings. And yet, this film excelled in the sophistication of simplicity, simplicity of atmospherics, and with a simple and heart warming message for a conclusion.

liked a Jack London short story, the narrative held up and was taut for its one hour unfolding.

Sanctuary in the snow

[russjones-80887 · 6/10 · 2 August 2020]

When a bus crossing the Sierra Nevada is stuck in a snowdrift 40 miles from the nearest town, the passengers take refuge in a small Church. However, the Church already has an occupier who may have a dark secret.

An interesting mix of characters which, at just over an hour's running time, does makes for reasonable viewing. William Boyd stars as the man of mystery but the film is best remembered as the first talkie appearance by Carole Lombard.

"Well kid, what are we gonna do about it?"

[classicsoncall · 4/10 · 1 November 2009]

The voltage isn't high nor is much else regarding this turn of the talkie era film, except maybe for the unusual pairing of William Boyd and Carol Lombard in the lead roles. With clunky dialog and low production values, the best one might expect is that the picture is mercifully short at just over an hour, but even then it seems like much longer. Case in point, the conversation between Boyd's character Bill with New York Detective Dan Egan (Owen Moore) - just how many 'maybe's' can you parry back and forth before it all starts to sound just a bit ludicrous? That along with the bus driver's (Billy Bevan) constant referrals to his time back in Duluth, like that was supposed to impress anybody. I thought he should have been just a bit more contrite for getting the group stranded in the middle of nowhere with his pig-headed insistence on driving unplowed snow covered roads. Wouldn't an experienced driver have some insight into that?

Not to be too harsh on the story, after all, every talking picture coming out of the silent era had the feel of some kind of experiment in a new medium. Yet almost everything about the characters and situations here had a not quite right feel to them. I was surprised actually to learn that 'Hoppy' already had over fifty films to his credit by the time this one was made, with Lombard not that much further behind. Since most of those were silents, it makes sense that a good number of the elements expressed here seem awkward.

If most of the film seemed baffling enough, the ending wound up being a real head scratcher. The detective was going to let his own prisoner get away until Bill turned the tables and decided to give up for the both of them. The rationale for that scene wasn't supported by anything that went before, and just added another element to the surreal nature of the film.

But there was one great exchange between Egan and Bill that was so comical I had to share it here - Egan: "What are you two doin', playin' post office?" Bill: "Well if we were, there wouldn't be no letter for you".

Exactly - I think.

It's the Outdoor Visuals That Count

[dougdoepke · 2 May 2020]

Plot- when their bus can go no farther in the heavy snow, five dissimilar people are trapped in a deserted nowhere and must seek refuge in a strange isolated church. So, how will their personalities play out in one room confinement. And what about that extra guy hiding out in the church's back.

I wish we knew where the snowy scenes were filmed. They're convincing as heck, distant figures slogging across a huge snowy expanse, with arctic-like mountains in the far horizon. To me, these riveting visuals amount to the movie's high-point, with no evidence of special effects. Then there's the lonely church plunked down like a tiny island in the midst of that icy ocean, making me wonder where the worshippers could come from. Trouble is once the five refugees from the snow-bound bus enter the lonely refuge, the promising story collapses into endless talk with little real character development, except for Boyd and Lombard's budding romance. Apparently the writers had little idea how to generate drama from one-room confinement with six people. At the same time, there's those awful piano and singing moments that almost had me reaching for the off- button.

Seems like there should be some backstory to all this. But I guess 1929 was just too far for IMDB to reach back for detail. Then too shouldn't forget the church background of moral renewal that subtly underlies the climax. All in all, the vintage flick amounts to a visual oddity that unfortunately fails to develop its dramatic elements. Nonetheless, it's a good thing Lombard went on to a big-time career before an untimely passing, while Boyd got lifetime employment as the one-and -only Hopalong Cassidy.

High Voltage review

[JoeytheBrit · 4/10 · 5 May 2020]

Bus passengers forced to take refuge from the snow in an isolated church stumble upon a hobo who might be more than he seems. Carole Lombard's first talking picture is a sluggish drama that doesn't really know what to do with all but two of its characters. Similarities in the traveller's situation with those in The Hateful Eight is evident, but it's unlikely that anyone could draw inspiration from something so dull.

modestly effective

[Cristi_Ciopron · 7/10 · 6 March 2016]

A drama with Boyd and Carol Lombard. The storyline is good, but the dialogs are mediocre, and the squabbling and haggling of the cop and the host contradict the movie's style and deflate the characters. The movie is neat, and has a good sense of the cinematography.

It's true that Boyd was better than the western jesters and harlequins he later worked with. Better than them, but not enough for the lyrical realism intended in this drama. From his role here, you can see both that Boyd, here 6 yrs before 'Hop-a-long …', was a good actor (that is, better than his future colleagues in the B westerns), and that he's not as good as desirable in this role, because it offered more than he achieved; an ordinarily good actor, unable to provide the intelligent, piercing performance required by this role. Anyway, his style matched the movie's. Aside from the leads, the cast gives modest, homely performances, and Boyd brings a lyrical glow.

In the outdoor scenes, the cinematography achieves effectiveness. A handful of menaced people, walking, playing, or facing danger ….

Carol's role has the quality of sadness and doom, already there in her early roles, either as a gangster's moll, or, here, as a convicted girl.

Life Trajectories Altered By Blizzard

[iquine · 4/10 · 29 June 2019]

(Flash Review)

After fleeing their stuck bus, five people become stranded in a desolate church while passing through the area during a blizzard. They encounter a hobo living there with a small supply of food. Everyone blusters for leverage over the group while rationing the food supply. One woman in the group was being transported to the workhouse and one of the men with an unrevealed past falls for the women. Will they get rescued? Will the two escape their pending futures and start fresh? There was a lot of idle chatter but it had some decent moments of drama. Pretty standard for the 20s.

Welcome to film history!

[charles_gilkison · 15 June 2005]

By today's standards, of course, HIGH VOLTAGE with Carol(e) Lombard and Bill ("Hoppy") Boyd would hardly qualify as more than a horribly campy C-movie. The acting is hammy, the plot is sluggish, the cinematography is primitive, and the ending is inane. Worse yet, it contains a grayish atmosphere that's depressing. Some 76 years ago, though, HIGH VOLTAGE must've thrilled the audiences. It served as a stepping stone in the film industry's transition from producing silents to making talkies. From a historical perspective, therefore, it possessed an importance that modern viewers have ignored. The acting itself reflected that transition. Everyone was still relying on exaggerated expressions and stagy gestures to communicate to the audience. The original sound system consisted of transcriptions, which the projectionist played like gramophone recordings. Because the microphones of that era lacked range and sensitivity, the actors had to congregate around hidden ones and shout their lines, which eliminated most of the naturalness in delivery and performance that we have grown through the decades to expect. I strongly suspect that pre-recorded dialogue and sound effects generated most of the "noise" in the true outside scenes. To say the least, too, the script reflected the newness of creating a full-length feature. It had so many "dead spots" that I could almost envision where the message boards of a typical silent belonged. Another clue to its antiquity was the absurd ending. If HIGH VOLTAGE had been a modern movie, both the criminal characters, played by Boyd and Lombard, would have fled to freedom as soon as the opportunity surfaced. Along the way, the snow and cold might have killed them, but that would not have been a chief concern of such (supposedly) hardened felons. Back then, however, moral conduct played a more important role, even among the "bad guys and gals." Another significant difference was the lack of sex, profanity, and drugs. If produced within these last thirty years, Boyd would have found a means of teaching Lombard the real meaning of "Hoppy," Carol's vocabulary would have made a Marine blush, and The Kid would have spent much of the story "blowing dope." HIGH VOLTAGE may not be a historical piece, but it is definitely a piece of history!

The crook, the thief, her lawman and the snow

[vitachiel · 18 July 2011]

Badly acted and badly directed early talkie. Public bus gets stuck in the snow in the middle of nowhere. Passengers are forced to take refuge in a deserted old church house nearby. A wanted crook is hiding in the church and joins the group. One of the passengers is a convicted lady crook who conspires with him. Together they plan but do not act out an escape. End of story. And end of a very dreary hour…

Most hilarious moment is the bus getting jammed in the snow. Some of the worst acting and most inconceivable dialogues I've ever come across in a motion picture. Never mind the poor sound techniques, if you can't do it right, don't do it at all. Adults behaving like children. Some sparkling is seen in the crooks 'love scene' towards the end. Everything else is highly forgettable.