High Pressure (1932)

Gar Evans is a "high pressure" promoter who tends to be unrealistically optimistic about his projects and exaggerates the chance of success. He sets up the "Golden Gate Artificial Rubber ... See full summary »

Director:

Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

Aben Kandel (play), Joseph Jackson (screen version),

Stars:

William Powell, Evelyn Brent, George Sidney

Cast

Complete credited cast:
William Powell	...	Gar Evans
Evelyn Brent	...	Francine Dale
George Sidney	...	Colonel Ginsburg
John Wray	...	Jimmy Moore
Evalyn Knapp	...	Helen Wilson
Guy Kibbee	...	Clifford Gray
Frank McHugh	...	Mike Donahey
Oscar Apfel	...	Mr. Hackett
Ben Alexander	...	Geoffrey Weston
Harold Waldridge	...	Gus Vanderbilt (as Harold Waldrige)
Charles Middleton	...	Mr. Banks
Harry Beresford	...	Dr. Rudolph Pfeiffer

Storyline

Gar Evans is a "high pressure" promoter who tends to be unrealistically optimistic about his projects and exaggerates the chance of success. He sets up the "Golden Gate Artificial Rubber Company", and persuades a lot of people to invest. He believes that the process to produce artificial rubber exists, but does it?

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Plot Keywords:

rubber | inventor | pep talk | business competition | steam bath | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 January 1932 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ein ausgefuchster Gauner

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Vitaphone Corporation, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

73 min 73 min (Turner library print)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Several people in studio records/casting call lists as cast members did not appear, were not identifiable, or were replaced in the movie. These were (with their character names, if any): Lucien Littlefield (Oscar Brown - [replaced by Frank Darien]), Maurice Black (Poppolus - [replaced by Hector Sarno]) and Lilian Bond.

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Connections

Alternate-language version of Le bluffeur (1932)

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Soundtracks

"I Can't Get Mississippi Off My Mind"
(1931) (uncredited)
Music by Harry Akst

User Reviews

Powell at his peak!

Another wonderfully fast-moving early 1930s comedy with Powell in his element as a pushy promoter, this one is based on a stage play. As anticipated, it's rather talky, but the dialogue surfeit doesn't slow down the pace a single bit thanks to the masterful direction of Mervyn LeRoy who keeps the movie moving at such a rapid pace, it leaves the viewer begging for more as soon as "The End" flashes on the screen.

Assisted by Kurrle's fine photography and Grot's superlative sets, LeRoy has staged the movie using the full resources of the now mature sound cinema. Sequences like that in which a dialogue exchange between Powell and Brent is underscored by the tumultuous din of a salesmen's convention where the participants are growing more and more impatient by the second, have never been equaled, let alone surpassed. In fact, if anything (perhaps due to the dead hand of censorship), mainstream Hollywood seemed to grow more timid and less inventive as the 1930s advanced.

Powell has a great supporting cast to contend with, but still comes out on top.