Movie Review: High Voltage (1929)
Synopsis: Despite warnings about snow-covered roads and an incoming winter storm, a bus driver, Gus, pushes forward with four passengers. The bus gets stuck and the five take refuge in a nearby remote church, where they meet a Bill, a hobo who is also sheltering inside the building. The storm continues for days, forcing the six to survive on a small supply of food Bill has with him as they strip the church of all its wood to keep a fire burning.
Who's in it? The movie stars Carole Lombard, William Boyd, Owen Moore, Phillips Smalley, Diane Ellis and Billy Bevan.
Review: I added High Voltage to my movie library a few weeks ago but completely forgot about the movie until I came across it yesterday evening. I decided to watch the movie this morning and, while I had some doubts about how entertaining it would be, it turned out to be a good choice.
This isn't a movie with a whole lot of action. You aren't going to see a whole lot of fights, the lone "fell through the ice" scene is kind of short and, despite having a law enforcement officer, Dan (Moore) and two criminals, Bill (Boyd) and Billie (Lombard) nobody carries a gun. Despite all of that, it still proves to be an entertaining and interesting film.
A big part of this is the overall hopelessness of the characters' situation. They are stranded 40 miles from the closest town with freezing temperatures and snow that is too deep to walk through. It didn't take long for their food supply to run short and by the end of the movie, even their supply of wood from pews, an organ, etc. was getting low.
The characters themselves are interesting. I liked how the group went from almost seeming to enjoy their situation (especially when they were playing in the snow) to an almost desperate acceptance of their situation, as though they were just waiting to die. I was intrigued by how none of them seemed to want to step up and take a leadership role, whether it was a plan to find help or an attempt to dig the bus out of the snow.
The budding romance between Bill and Billie added another interesting twist to the movie as well, especially when they made plans to runaway/escape while the other slept. While Bill seemed like the type to only care about himself, I wasn't sure if Billie would follow through or would have a change of heart. If it was the latter, I wondered what that would mean for both characters.
The movie's ending was also a pleasant surprise, with a couple unexpected twists that kept it from being as predictable as I would have expected while providing a decent amount of closure. At minimum, it was considerably better than so many other movies like this that just choose to end without tying up loose ends.
Well, maybe there is one lone exception to that. I really would have liked to have seen an ending that resulted in Gus (Bevan) being fired for getting them in that mess to begin with. If this movie had a villain, I would say it was him.
Final Opinion: It's a good movie that proves you don't need a lot of violence or even a ton of action to keep a film interesting from start to finish. It's worth taking the time to watch.
My Grade: A
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Here are some reviews of other movies involving people being stranded:
Movie Review: Five Came Back (1939)
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