The process of moving out of the silent movie era

It seems all the reviewers agree on High Voltage not being a great film, and it is indeed difficult to disagree with that. It is, however, interesting from the perspective of seeing how the film industry grappled with the challenge of producing a soundtrack along with the visual material - getting some things right, while not succeeding yet with other elements.

For starters, getting the title right was perhaps not given much thought at the time, with energy possibly spent on other technical issues instead. In this case, 'High Voltage' is just not apt enough. I can well understand the film-makers tried to imbue the film with a sense of high tension, to go along with the novelty of a spoken dialogue, but the lack of any electrical/power features amongst the props undermines that idea.

I don't mean this as criticism at all, but to point at the kind of challenges the film industry faced at a time when the whole landscape was changing. It wasn't only about finding the right ways to situate microphones and find the right sound levels and other technical issues - it was also about finding the right ways to communicate intrigue and the film's message to the audience.

I thought the film's first few scenes were well done - the bus's struggle through the snow looks more realistic than some of today's efforts would (with CGI so prevalent.) The scene where two characters fall through the ice into a lake was quite captivating as well. Those actors had a much tougher time of it than today's. Anyway, I believe director Higgin and his team did get quite a few things right.

It's clear to see though that they were yet inexperienced with character-interaction situations, and instead of repeating what others had already stated in the reviews, I'll just say that the ham-fisted acting (in places) and guffaw-inducing dialogue is also interesting from a historical perspective. It is interesting to see the mistakes made, and by watching following films through the 1930's, to see those mistakes and shortcomings addressed.

For Hollywood to get it right, they had to make mistakes first. Watching High Voltage is anything but a waste of time from that perspective, as we can see a vital part of that process in these 63 minutes.

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