High Pressure

High Pressure (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Nice comedy from Warner has William Powell playing Gar Evans, a fast-talking promoter who builds up interest in a company that claims to be able to make rubber out of sewage. Soon Evans gets everything in place except for the inventor of this special rubber who has gone missing. With his neglected girlfriend (Evelyn Brent) about to leave him and still no inventor in sight, the entire thing appears to be a scam. It's funny to think that Warner pretty much let Powell walk away to MGM because they felt he was getting too old and yet it would turn out that the high points of his career were just about to happen. This film here certainly isn't a classic and while there are many problems with the actual story I think the cast members are so good that you can't help but recommend it to their fans. It should go without saying but this is the type of role that Powell could play in his sleep. The fast-talking con man who has plenty of charm and wit. Powell has no problem doing the part and he manages to make you care for the character even if he does things that you might not agree with. George Sidney plays the man who brings Powell the scheme and he too is very effective as is Frank McHugh who plays his typical supporting role. Apparently Powell fought to get Brent the role here and while she's not too bad I do think that one problem with the screenplay is the entire relationship between the two. There's actually very little chemistry between Powell and Brent and I'd say some of this might be blamed on the screenplay because there's just not enough spark to their relationship. With a satire like this it's common for there to be mostly dialogue. For the most part the spoken words are funny but I still thought that a majority of the jokes fell flat. There were a few darker gags that worked including a bit about there being a bank president shortage because all of them were killing themselves. Obviously this was a joke aimed at the hard times the country was in when the film was made. HIGH PRESSURE isn't a classic and it's not really a good film but fans of the cast will want to check it out.