The Love Test ** (1935, Judy Gunn, Louis Hayward, David Hutcheson, Googie Withers, Bernard Miles, Thorley Walters) – Classic Movie Review 7955

The Love Test is an early Michael Powell 1935 romantic comedy about love shenanigans among a laboratory’s research chemists, who plot to make their disliked new boss, Mary Lee (Judy Gunn), fall for John Gregg (Louis Hayward) so that she neglects her duties messes up at work.

It is amiable and amusing enough, even a little bit charming, but also slight, dated and slow paced. Alas, this is a museum piece that perhaps understandably has not really stood the test of time, but it is still a fascinating relic for film buffs, with its important director and interesting cast.

It is one of five movies the 30-year-old director made that year: 12 of his early films are missing and desperately sought by the British National Film Archive. The Love Test was believed lost, but a copy was found and it was shown at the National Film Theatre in London in March 2000.

Also in the cast are David Hutcheson, Morris Harvey, Googie Withers, Eve Turner, Bernard Miles, Aubrey Dexter, Jack Knight as the Managing Director, Gilbert Davis, Shayle Gardner, James Craig, Thorley Walters and Ian Wilson.

The Love Test is directed by Michael Powell, runs 63 minutes, is made and distributed by Fox British/ Fox Film Company, is written by Selwyn Jepson, from a story by Jack Celestin, is shot in black and white by Arthur Crabtree, is produced by Leslie Landau and John Findlay, is scored by Charles Cowlrick and is designed by Ralph W Brinton.

It was shot at Fox British studios, Wembley, London, England.

It was made as a quota quickie, one of the many low-cost, low-quality, quickly made films commissioned by American distributors active in the UK or by British cinema owners to satisfy the quota requirements under the Cinematograph Films Act of 1927. Withers made four quota quickies with Powell, but she found him a ‘difficult man’ to work with.

The film-makers have a hidden agenda in the plot. The laboratory chemists in the film are trying to find a way to make toy dolls in a non-flammable form of cellulose. This connects to the movie industry’s problem of the highly flammable celluloid used to make films like The Love Test in 1935.

Powell’s first feature as director, Two Crowded Hours (1931), has been declared to be Missing, Believed Lost by the British Film Institute. It is listed as one of their 75 Most Wanted lost films, along with Powell’s later films The Price of a Song (1935) and The Man Behind the Mask (1936).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7955

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com