A fun glimpse of 1920s car culture

Rubber Tires (1927)
Starring: Bessie Love, Harrison Ford, Erwin Connelly, May Robson, Junior Coghlan, and John Patrick

Director: Alan Hale

After their main bread-winner (Bessie Love) loses her job, the Stack family sells all their belongings, buys a car, and heads on a cross-country journey from New York to start a new life in California. There, in the wilds beyond Los Angeles, the family's patriarch (Erwin Connelly) bought a house and land with the family's savings, gambling oil might be found there. Now, it has to be their home... if they can make there! 

"Rubber Tires" is a proto road movie full of fun and lighthearted romance. Bessie Love is in top form as an independent young woman with a never-say-die spirit who is determined to see her family successfully to a new home. The comedy and pacing of the film hold up nicely, and the glimpses provided into life in 1920s America--especially for those of a nomadic bent--are interesting.

Two things I found interesting about the look into the past was the apparent complete lack of requirements to have drivers licenses or car insurance of any kind; Love's character Mary Ellen buys a car from a scrapyard, then just drives off in it. Later, characters are shown trading cars with each other with a level casualness that one might do with pens or hats. 

Although motor vehicles as something the masses could own and enjoy were a relatively new thing in 1927, it was amazing how much society's approach to cars has changed over the past century or so. While I realize films aren't accurate reflections of reality, it seems to me that at least the general environment and cultural outlook of the characters has to feel right to viewers, especially when the characters on the screen are living in a world not unlike the real one. The trusting nature that people seemed to have toward each other--even total strangers--was particularly surprising to me, even for a cheerful comedy like this; I can't imagine trading my car to a total stranger for his car without having it checked out by a mechanic! (The one character in the film who is an expert in cars--who amusingly spends about half the movie in a car with no engine and thus being towed along by others as he tries to keep up with the Stacks on their journey--is also the only one who worries about whether the cars being traded for actually run. Everyone else just seems to assume that they will, or that everyone they meet is as honest as they are.)

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this film is that there is no true antagonist in the story. Any threats toward the Stacks come mostly from the circumstances they encounter. Every character in the film is likeable... even both men seeking to conquer Mary Ellen's heart (played Harrison Ford and John Patrick) are equally upstanding and decent. This is one of those very rare films that is charming and sweet without getting schmaltzy. (The only time when there was an opportunity for truly villainous characters to appear in the story, they are reduced to faceless shadows, basically making them just another circumstance that threatens the Stacks.)

Because the characters are all basically so likeable--due in no small part to each and every major actor in the film having great screen presence--all this film needs is the various threats and hurdles that the Stacks need to overcome to reach their new life in California. The running subplot about the fact they're driving a car worth $10,000 without knowing it also goes a long way to keeping the viewer invested in the outcome.

Click below to watch "Rubber Tires". I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!