I have seen quite a few films made in 1929 and something they all have in common is poor sound. The sound techniques and equipment were very primitive and as a result, many DVDs are practically unwatchable unless they have closed captions or DVD captions. Unfortunately, as I saw this film on an Alpha Video DVD (a company that specializes in public domain films), there were no captions of any type--as they never, ever provide captioning or restorations on their films. But, fortunately, "High Voltage" did, for a 1929 film, have exceptionally good sound. While I had to struggle a bit to understand what they were saying, it wasn't impossible! Now as for the film, I have no idea what the title has to do with the film. After all, there is no electricity in the film and it's set in a snow storm!! The film begins with a primitive 1920s style bus getting stranded in a snow storm out West. However, the passengers are able to trek to a nearby primitive chapel where they are able to take refuge from the elements. However, there is almost no food and the group is concerns they'll either run out of firewood and freeze to death or starve to death because there's no food. Either way, things don't look good.
The stranded folks consist of two women and four men. One of the women is Carole Lombard--who is being extradited back to New York to serve a prison term. William Boyd (a.k.a. 'Hopalong Cassidy') plays the guy who is already taking refuge in the church when everyone arrives. However, in a case of an amazing Hollywood-style coincidence, he, too, is a wanted man! And, wouldn't you know it, he and Lombard soon fall in love!! What are the odds?!? Where exactly all this goes is mildly interesting, but even for a 63 minute film, it seems too talky and slow. Not a horrible film, but also no better than a time-passer at best.
The worst moments in the film--the plane that circles in an impossible manner that is obviously a model as well as the singing number that seems to come from out of no where. Notice how the singer has his back turned to the camera the whole time--this is because studios were having a hard time figuring out how to do singing without actually having a live orchestra just off camera playing the music! And so, here, I assume they just had the guy faking that he's singing while they played a record!
The stranded folks consist of two women and four men. One of the women is Carole Lombard--who is being extradited back to New York to serve a prison term. William Boyd (a.k.a. 'Hopalong Cassidy') plays the guy who is already taking refuge in the church when everyone arrives. However, in a case of an amazing Hollywood-style coincidence, he, too, is a wanted man! And, wouldn't you know it, he and Lombard soon fall in love!! What are the odds?!? Where exactly all this goes is mildly interesting, but even for a 63 minute film, it seems too talky and slow. Not a horrible film, but also no better than a time-passer at best.
The worst moments in the film--the plane that circles in an impossible manner that is obviously a model as well as the singing number that seems to come from out of no where. Notice how the singer has his back turned to the camera the whole time--this is because studios were having a hard time figuring out how to do singing without actually having a live orchestra just off camera playing the music! And so, here, I assume they just had the guy faking that he's singing while they played a record!