Rubber Tires (1927)

An early outing for Harrison Ford? Well, not unless he was an extremely early glint in his parent's eye... No, this features a completely different actor in the rather watchable tale of the "Stack" family. Daft old "Pa" (Erwin Connelly) blew the meagre family fortune of a house in California upon which, he hoped, an oilfield sat! OK, yes - maybe a bit of a gamble but off they go since they must pay quite a chunk of back taxes to Uncle Sam. What ensues is quite a nifty little silent comedy, directed by Alan Hale, that mixes just a hint of slapstick with a bit of romance and some cracking old cars - one that might be worth $10,000 - as they traverse their country, A few decent supporting roles from "Junior" (Frank Coghlan) who bristles at the very idea he must wash behind his ears, and the slightly, but amiably, stereotyped (and uncredited) Jewish fella and his son - and, of course, the aforementioned Ford who is pursuing his love, their daughter "Mary Ellen" (Bessie Love). I found Love really only had one gear as an actress, but she's fine with this - as they all are and I quite enjoyed it - it's only just over an hour.