Rubber Tires (1927)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Alan Hale

Writers:

Frank Condon (story)
Tay Garnett (adaptation)

Release Date:

7 February 1927 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot Keywords:

Tourist | California

Cast

Bessie Love	...	Mary Ellen Stack
Erwin Connelly	...	Pat Stack
Frank Coghlan Jr.	...	Charley Stack (as Junior Coghlan)
May Robson	...	Mrs. Stack
Harrison Ford	...	Bill James
John Patrick	...	Adolph Messer
Clarence Burton	...	Mexican

Also Known As:

Ten Thousand Reward

Runtime:

USA:70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

DeMille Pictures Corporation

Bessie Love in an A-1 Comedy Gem!

I didn't realize that Alan Hale enjoyed a brief career as a director in the 1920s. If the most amusing and delightful "Rubber Tires" (1927) is typical of his output, he was indeed an extremely competent artist who could not only produce great performances from his players, but extract plenty of smoothly pleasant fun from his script. Mind you, his players, led by the delightful Bessie Love, handsome Harrison Ford, heart-of-gold if seemingly grouchy May Robson and amusingly luckless Erwin Connelly, were certainly mighty talented to start off with, although Hale assuredly brings out all their natural charisma. His locations and the cars themselves also prove enormous fun to look at. In contrast to his own movie presence, Hale's touch and timing are not in any way heavy, but surprisingly light and subtle. True, there is a comically emphatic Jewish trader who moves the action along most successfully. Hale skilfully uses this frantically conventional figure of fun to make a splendid contrast with the hazard-prone, cross-country trekking Stack ensemble. I enjoyed Miss Bessie Love's ingratiating performance a lot more in this charmingly diverting excursion than her rowdy little trouper in "The Broadway Melody" (1929) or her nondescript heroine of "The Lost World" (1925).