‘HIGH PRESSURE’

Evening Star, Issue 21231, 12 October 1932, Page 5

‘HIGH PRESSURE’

WILLIAM POWELL IN COMEDY ROLE William Powell, better known iu Dunedin for sophisticated characterisation, plays in a highly convincing' way in the sheer comedy of the Warner Brothers’ production, ‘ High Pressure,’ which commences at the St. James on Friday. Mr Powell has, for him, the decidedly unusual part of a company promoter who, by intense enthusiasm for a project which appeals to him, is able to launch remarkably successful concerns and so earns a wide reputation in American business. It is not surprising then, that Gar Evans, the keen promoter portrayed by Mr Powell, should become enthusiastic when Ginsberg, a financier, approaches him with the object of founding a company to manufacture artificial rubber. Ginsberg has purchased the process of a German professor, but, unfortunately for Evans, the directors and the staff of the company, the shareholders and himself, he does not find out, until all financial arrangements are completed for manufacture, that the “ professor ” is insane and his honours in education were purchased for 17dol at an insignificant American university. The antics of George Sydney, well known as the “ Cohen ” of “ The Cohens and Kellys’ ” films, and the breadth of tbo financial imagination of Evans, who is prone to embark upon colossal 'schemes if ho receives adequate encouragement from his fiancee, played by Evelyn Brent, is said to provide much amusement. Everything goes wonderfully well with the new company, and the sale of the shares begins to trouble the rubber trusts until Evans and Ginsberg suddenly realise that they have no proof that rubber can be manufactured by the process, and, what is more, the inventor is missing. It is not until newspapers begin to inquire into the status of the company', and the State authorities, egged on by the rubber trusts, are making investigations that the inventor is found. And then there comes the realisation that, the inventor is deranged. The complexity of the situation gives full scope to Mr Powell and Mr Sydney in exceptional comedy roles, and they are assisted in the lively humour by Frank M'Hugh. Evans’s assistant, Guy Kibbee, the amusing if irresponsible president of the company, and Luis Alberni, the leading stock salesman. While Mr Powell and Miss Brent are involved in if tangled romance, there is also interest in the acting of two young players, Evelyn Knapp and Ben Alexander.