America's Boy Friend On A High Wire

Half Way To Heaven (1929) Among Early Paramount Talkie Tries

Carny folk among small-town rubes, from which love inevitably springs, this time between aerialist Jean Arthur and aspiring Charles "Buddy" Rogers, who'd like to be her wire partner but for lethally jealous Paul Lukas, his a troublesome habit of dropping would-be suitors from fifty feet up. There's the plot for this 66 minute dose of early talking Paramount, better than you'd expect for resourceful direction by George Abbott (he gets clever angles on trapeze performing) and relaxed job by Rogers, who was America's Boyfriend thanks to relentless promotion along said simple line. Thesping heat is province of Lukas here, who looks, acts at times like countryman Bela Lugosi as he plots demise of Jean Arthur swains, including Buddy. Latter is unfailingly polite --- after he whoops tar out of Lukas, he apologizes for "hurting your feelings," a great line dropped into crowded back and forth that I suspect was ad-libbed by Rogers. If that was case, America's Boyfriend had a ready wit. Half Way To Heaven is another long-gone amidst Universal holdings --- watch a dub or don't see it at all --- but worth a glance if you know a good bootlegger.