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The Age of Commercialism

Great Film overall

A lot of fun.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Jimmy Stewart may be only an automobile tester right now, but he's got plans: "I'm not always gonna be a mug with cylinder oil in my hair," he vows.While he spends his working days racing, flipping and crashing test cars, he is also working on a new carburetor design that he is sure will make his mark. Unfortunately, he's having trouble perfecting the carburetor…will the company bigwigs force him to take on help from the snooty engineering department? Stewart's ambitions and frustrations make up one part of the plot; the other half of the story is a romantic drama involving publicity agent Wendy Barrie, newly promoted auto executive Una Merkel, and bland auto engineer Weldon Heyburn, whom Stewart considers a rival both professionally and romantically but who is really not a bad guy after all.The first fifteen minutes of the picture offer a great tour of the automobile factory where these characters all work. It's basically a commercial for the auto industry, and a pretty neat look at the inside of a production plant, circa 1936.With this cast, you would expect some good laughs or at least plenty of snappy dialog delivery; unfortunately, the tone is fairly grim and the screenplay pretty dry. We do get a bit of comic relief from Ted Healy as Stewart's friend and sidekick; but it sure seems a shame to have both Barrie and Merkel—two really excellent comic talents—go practically a whole movie with no wisecracks! The production is slick and includes some impressive footage from testing grounds and racetracks. And Stewart definitely shows some charisma, even though his character is so stubborn and self-pitying that it's hard to root for him completely.Overall, it's easy to watch but probably should have been better.

That honor goes to Next Time We Love with Margaret Sullavan. Indeed, she specifically chose Stewart to play opposite her. What stands out here is how even in his early raw period, his naturalness before the camera stands out. Most everyone's style of acting is rather dated, but not Stewart's. This is so even in the musical he did with Eleanor Powell, Born to Dance. Not even in those early roles where he was honing his skills. He even stands out against Powell and Loy and Company in After the Thin Man, where he shows an early surprising edge. Speed demonstrates that Stewart did drunk well--see The Philadelphia Story for later confirmation of this. He's also quite sexy in some of that early stuff.

**SPOILERS** Pre "Mister Smith goes to Washington" James Stewart as automobile greasy monkey Terry Martin who's come up with this great invention that would revolutionize the auto industry. Terry inverted this real cool carburetor that can increase the speed of a car, without increasing the gas intake, at least 30%. The trouble is that the super cool carburetor doesn't seem to work in the tests at the Emery Auto Factory that Terry is employed at. It's when hot shot auto engineer Frank Lawson, Weldon Heybrun, shows up at the plant that he finds a way to put Terry's carburetor to work.That's with a horizontal inlet value that he invented that will have the flow of air adjusted to the carburetor's burning of gasoline.Putting aside all this boring technical stuff about super cool carburetors and horizontal inlet values the film really gets going when pretty Jane Mitchell, Wendy Barrie, shows up on the scene as a publicity agent for the auto company. It's then that both Terry and Frank start knocking themselves out to get Jane to go out on a date with them. It's Frank, in being a collage graduate with an engineering degree, who ends up with Jane making Terry, a self made mechanic, feel a bit down and resentful, of both Jane for turning him down and Frank for ending up with her.Determined to show that his carburetor is the real deal Terry together with friend and fellow grease monkey Clarence Maxmillian "Gadget" Haggarty, Ted Haley, test the contraception out at the pre trials of the Indianapolis 500 and set a track record with it! It's when later Frank has his horizontal inlet valve installed that the car that Terry & Gadget were driving flips off the track putting gadget into a wheelchair and leaving Terry with a mild brain concussion!***SPOILERS*** Terry is now given permission from his boss Mr. Dean, Ralph Morgan,to drive the super car Falcon, that's the spitting image of the later Batmobile, in at test drive at the Salt Flats in Utah. As Terry attempts to brake the worlds speed record he almost ends up almost killing himself when the car,that mysteriously caught fire, overturned and almost crushed him to death! With now Frank rushing behind the wheel he drives to the nearest hospital at super speed all the way to L.A with an unconscious Terry as his co-driver. In the end Frank not only saves Terry's life but breaks the world speed record giving Terry, the driver of record, the credit of doing it! And as for Jane it soon comes out that shes the niece of the company's owner Mr. Emery! It was Jane who was influential in getting Terry's carburetor tested and having Frank, who was in on whom she really was, perfect it for him! Terry in the hospital recovering from his injuries begins to realize what a sap he was and makes up for it by letting Jane, whom he had earlier broken up with, kiss him goodnight.

I've always been curious about this since someone never got the bright idea to release it on video to capitalize on the success of Keanu Reeve's film with the same title. After viewing it, I think it was to save James Stewart's reputation.This Speed is a modest B picture actioner about a test car racedriver who is a bit of a fathead. For reasons not explained in the film, he has a problem with design engineers who have an education. But he's got an eye for Wendy Barrie from the publicity department and so does Weldon Heyburn the engineer who has roused Jimmy Stewart's ire.That thin romantic plot is fattened out with newsreel scenes from the automobile plant and from racetracks. Stewart is involved with a nasty crash that almost kills his pal Ted Healy who as the sidekick has the best part in this film.Since it didn't cost much and played the bottom half of doublebills, I'm sure Speed recouped its cost for MGM. But today it wouldn't make the made for TV grade.