Love Affair (1932)

By CinemaSerf

This is a bit all over the place, but still affords us a chance to see a young Humphrey Bogart - still finding his feet - as aspiring engineer "Jim", who is enamoured of the wealthy "Carol" (Dorothy Mackaill), who isn't quite the rich girl he thinks - she is being kept afloat by an old family friend "Hardy"(Hale Hamilton) who is also smitten with her. The love triangle is further complicated by the former having a whizzo design for an aero engine and the latter considering investing - but in his own words to her - he's not going to "invest in his rival". The reliable Halliwell Hobbes stabilises the rather rocky ship a bit as the loyal family retainer "Kibbee" and Jack Kennedy spouts quite a few words of wisdom as "Gilligan". The production is reasonably paced, and adequately slung together but the ending is really quite weak and rushed. That said, we do start to see the beginnings of the handsome Bogart stealing the scenes and owning the screen.