utgard14 Socialite (Dorothy Mackaill) takes flying lessons from a pilot (Humphrey Bogart) who has invented a new kind of plane motor. The two begin a romance but, despite caring for him, she proves to be a bad influence and his career suffers. When she suddenly finds herself broke, she decides to marry a man with more money so she can help Bogie with his dreams. Lackluster pre-Code drama of interest only for an early starring role for a fresh-faced Bogart. He does a decent job here but doesn't give any indication of his future superstardom. There are some scenes where he plays awkward and a little shy. That's not something you saw much of later in his career. Dorothy Mackaill is lively and less stagy than the normal style of the time. The supporting cast is adequate with no standouts. Best parts of the movie are the flying scenes and one scene where Mackaill is speeding in a car. Also some pre-Code elements some viewers might get a kick out of, such as suggested premarital sex. The story and romance are flat, even by 1932 standards. For Bogie completists and airplane enthusiasts only.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . for the money-grubbing miserly weasels that they are in this Depression Era LOVE AFFAIR. By the close of this story, Bogart's "Jim Leonard" character is told that the same Two-Timing Rich Dude has knocked up his little sister, filched his invention, and stolen his fiancée. Since Mr. Moneybags only cares about his Mountain of Gold, he rides off into the LOVE AFFAIR sunset with 100% ownership of Jim's Brain Child, leaving little sis Linda ruined in a Fate Worse Than Death (if she's even still alive), and Jim settling for sloppy seconds from the Big Shot's Beauty School Drop-Out. LOVE AFFAIR is just one example of many movies from this era urging Everyman from Anytown, USA, to grab his pitchfork and skedaddle on over to the next C of C meeting to straighten out America. Now with the Citizen's United Decision and the Rich Party's declaration that they'll never again vote on Supreme Court nominees save their own, it's too late for pitchforks to do any good. As the ending of LOVE AFFAIR suggests, One-Way Missions will be required of most every normal American to reclaim our Homeland for our children from the Vacuous Villain Class, represented here by "Bruce Hardy."

calvinnme ... in this rather muddled tale involving a love quadrangle. The four corners of this quadrangle (in order) are engineer Jim Leonard (Humphrey Bogart) who is the protective brother of chorus girl Linda, who is the secret mistress of Bruce Hardy, who is the financial adviser and suitor of poor little rich girl Carol Owen (Dorothy McKaill) who falls for Jim Leonard. As Jim Leonard says to Carol, "Can you read blueprints?". If you can, you might have a chance of following this busy little precode film. Add in one more important character - a sleazy guy who wants to star Linda in a revue financed by Hardy's money. What really hurts this movie is that the subplots don't really gel that well into one well integrated plot of a movie. Also there are some lines that you wait to hear that you never do. For example, when Carol brings Jim over to her mansion for a party the serious upright young man is obviously disgusted by Carol pretending to auction off her servant Kibbee like he was a piece of furniture to her drunken guests to offset her losses in the stock market. Jim walks out without saying goodbye. However, the next time the two meet Jim soft soaps the entire affair. I really wanted him to tell her off. What saves the film are the fine performances and the fact that the subplots are interesting enough even given the lack of motivation for the players' actions. It's truly interesting to see Bogart playing a rather shy very scrupulous engineer - what a great smile he has! Dorothy McKaill is quite good as bored rich girl Carol who is trying desperately to fill up her day with fun things to do when her real problem is that she's lonely in spite of her busy social life. She really had a great voice and did good work here. It's a puzzle to me why she didn't really do that well in talkies. I'd recommend it to fans of McKaill and/or Bogart and to anyone interested in films of the early 30's.Best precode moment - Jim has spent the night with Carol and is standing at the base of the stairs wearing the clothes he had on when he got there last night - a tuxedo. He's surprised by Carol's butler Kibbee. Jim then tries to stutter through an explanation of why he is there at 8AM in formal attire. Kibbee plays the part of the father figure that pretends to be convinced of his grown daughter's chastity when he knows otherwise and this is one of the few times you'll ever see Bogart behaving like a tongue tied teenager on film.

bkoganbing On Humphrey Bogart's first trip to Hollywood, he got his first leading man role in this B picture Love Affair. The first thing you ought to realize is that this film has absolutely nothing to do with the classic Love Affair later in the decade with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne or the two remakes that followed. It's not half as good any of those films.In fact Bogey is second billed to Dorothy Mackaill as a spoiled heiress who finds out she's been living her extravagant lifestyle courtesy of her late father's best friend and financial adviser Hale Hamilton. It comes as quite a shock to Mackaill. She considers a show business career as a way for an income.Bogart is a test pilot who is also an aeronautical engineer and he's designing an ultimate airplane motor and is looking for investors. Mackaill is willing to do it, besides she likes what she sees in Bogey.Considering the cynical roles that Bogart later made a specialty, it's a bit disconcerting to see him as this highly moral and self righteous character in Love Affair. The part doesn't wear well on him.Love Affair is your average B program second feature, nothing terribly special about it.