Director: Thornton Freeland

Cast: Dorothy Mackaill, Humphrey Bogart, Hale Hamilton

Synopsis: Heiress Carol Owen learns to fly from aeronautical engineer Jim Leonard who begins neglecting his work as their affair progresses.

I watched Columbia’s 1932 drama Love Affair mainly because it features a young Humphrey Bogart in an early leading role. Bogart plays a clean-cut aircraft engineer embarking on a relationship with a rich girl that is almost thwarted by misunderstandings and duplicity on the part of interested parties. It’s no great movie but, after a slowish start it gathers pace nicely – and, at only 68 minutes long, isn’t really long enough to outlive its welcome. Bogart fails to stand out in what is admittedly a fairly insipid role, and shows little of the star quality he would display less than ten years later.

(Reviewed 3rd April 2002)