Wednesday 1 April 2015

The Love Test (1935 Michael Powell)

One of Powell's 'quota quickies', made at Wembley Studios and running a mere hour and a minute, most enjoyable tale (ostensibly about developing a fire-resistant celluloid) has what I call the early 30s British 'bounce' and is quite interestingly put together, e.g. the opening round bottle that turns into the pompous MD's face. Judy Gunn and Louis Hayward are the couple and amazingly that's Blimp's 'Hoppy' David Hutcheson as the rascal. With Googie Withers, displaying hardly any eyebrows, and Bernard Miles in his first (credited) screen role.

Whilst there's no credit for editor it seems quite likely it was John Seabourne who was working closely with Powell on these at the time (see 'A Life in Movies'), perhaps evident in a montage of shots of an air conditioning grille through which the hero is (rudely) demonstrating. And it's an early effort from cinematographer turned director Arthur Crabtree.

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