A romantic triangle forms against the backdrop of high-tension power lines in Slim (1937). Young farmer Henry Fonda watches linemen erect a steel tower, climb it and string electrical lines. He’s enthralled, and is soon hired as an apprentice to expert lineman Pat O’Brien, who teaches him about life as much as his new trade. In Chicago O’Brien introduces Fonda to nurse Margaret Lindsay, and when Fonda is hurt later it is Lindsay who nurses him back to health. But will she break the bond between the two men when Fonda realizes his feelings for her?
It is refreshing to find a movie about a profession and lifestyle not often seen in cinema; it is doubly so when that movie is briskly edited, finely paced, funny, strongly acted and directed with a sharp eye for its subject. Director Ray Enright and cinematographer Sid Hickox utilize climbing crane shots to emphasize heights, including shots where Henry Fonda really is climbing up or down the steel and wooden structures.
The romantic triangle business is the weakest part of the film but fortunately it takes a back seat to undeniably impressive and tense scenes of men risking injury and death hundreds of feet off the ground. Even more detail regarding how scorching temperatures of summer, effects of wind and rain and how hunger or lack of sleep can lead to tragedy could have been stressed, but what is onscreen is already engrossing and sometimes startling.
Another asset is its lack of pretentiousness. The men know full well the dangers and when they literally fall prey to them there isn’t any sermonizing about it. The dramatic conclusion at a power plant in a blizzard brings this story full circle, but its ending may surprise some viewers, as it did my wife. In today’s climate I’d wager that the ending would be much different.
Although the film is dramatic, it’s also quite amusing, powered by Stu Erwin’s constant grousing and silly stories about his pa. Fonda’s catch phrase is “That’s what’s the matter,” whether he is happy, befuddled or bothered by something. And watch for Jane Wyman in a bit part as Erwin’s reluctant date in town.
My rating: ☆ ☆ ☆. (9:3).