SPEED (1936)

 

No, this isn't that movie with Keanu Reeves. This SPEED was made in 1936, and it was the very first leading role for James Stewart. The actor was under contract to MGM at the time, and the studio put him in a low-budget B-type of picture for his first starring turn. 

In SPEED Stewart plays Terry Martin, a mechanic-test driver for Emery Motors. Terry is a cynical type who has a grudge against the front office, and he's also trying to invent a new type of carburetor. Terry gets distracted by his interest in Jane (Wendy Barrie), who has just gotten a job in the publicity department. But Jane is also being wooed by Frank (Weldon Heyburn), an Emery engineer who is assigned to work with Terry on the carburetor idea. Terry and Frank test the carburetor out at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and on the Muroc Dry Lake, and after a number of crashes and romantic mix-ups, everything is resolved at the end. 

SPEED isn't so much a James Stewart movie as it is a promotional film for the American automobile industry. The viewer is shown plenty of footage of cars being made on an assembly plant and being tested in all sorts of ways (this footage was filmed by MGM at a Chrysler plant in Michigan). We also get a lot of stock footage of racing at the Indy 500 and high-speed auto testing at the Muroc Dry Lake in California. The viewer is also constantly reminded by the characters that all this racing & testing is for the safety and comfort of the average American driver (I wonder if some MGM executives got some nice deals on new cars because of this production). 

James Stewart had only been at MGM for about a year when he worked on SPEED, but he already shows a natural likability and notable onscreen presence. It's a good thing he does, because the character of Terry Martin does him no favors. Terry has a chip on his shoulder, and he's bullheaded--a lesser actor would have wound up just annoying the audience. I don't want to give away the ending of SPEED, but in it Terry becomes the one in need of rescue, an unusual circumstance for a leading character in a film like this. 

Wendy Barrie does a competent job as June, but she and Stewart don't seem to have a lot of chemistry together. Weldon Heyburn (there's a name for you) was one of the many generic-looking, dull actors during this period who played second leads and romantic rivals who never got the leading lady. Former Stooge leader Ted Healy plays the comic relief role of Terry's buddy Gadget (you can tell he's supposed to be comic relief because he has a "funny" moniker). It appears as if Healy is ad-libbing dialogue in every scene he's in. 

The real surprise in this film is Una Merkel. She plays an executive of Emery Motors, and we are told that she worked her way up from being a secretary. This time Merkel is not playing a flighty or zany lady--her character is actually somewhat disappointed in her white collar life, and she has eyes for Frank. I felt that the story of Merkel's character would have been much more interesting than what goes on in SPEED. Something else about Merkel here--she has only a few moments of screen time with Jimmy Stewart, but the two of them have way more chemistry than Stewart did with Wendy Barrie (it would have been more fitting if Stewart and Merkel wound up as a couple at the end of this film). Ralph Morgan plays an Emery vice-president. 

SPEED was directed by low-budget veteran Edwin L. Marin, and it is only about 70 minutes long. The film will be of interest today to James Stewart fans and classic car and racing buffs. This was one of the very few Jimmy Stewart films I had never seen. It's not a major part of the actor's resume, but it is historically notable as his first lead in a film.