Crashing Through Danger

Made in 1938, the following year's Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and The Women didn't exactly have a tough act to follow. The directing is bad, the acting is bad, the story could fit on a gum wrapper, but other than that, it kept my attention. It fits together reliably, fairly forumulaic. Sally Paine is pleasant enough but not a terrific actress. I did enjoy seeing how they did line work back then. They seem to have done some research about that. The men wore long leather coats, for instance. It's pretty funny in the climax when Sally Paine takes it upon herself to rescue the men who are fighting blackouts in a tropical storm in Los Angeles. She dons a slicker and is seen trotting down the street against a blue screen. It's really bad. A bit later she is driving the bucket truck through the storm. Keep in mind she isn't the fierce leader who points out the stupidity of all men like women are portrayed today. She's just the pretty boss's daughter.

"Crashing Through Danger" is a pretty ordinary B-movie...watchable but also slight and easy to skip. It's about the adventures of some electrical linesmen...and how their relationship is affected when a lady comes between them.

After their supervisor is killed on the job, three electrical workers are concerned AND smitten with the supervisor's daughter. So, they invite her to come live with them and be their housekeeper...a strange proposition and one that seems to defy the new, toughened Production Code. This code pretty much sanitized films...and so I'm surprised that the film would have an unmarried woman living with three men...three men who are obviously hot and bothered by her being there! This aspect of the film is its most interesting aspect, though overall it's really nothing special....yet another adequate B-movie with the usual production values and tropes.

Ray Walker, Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, and James Bush are line men under Robert Homans -- the men who climb the electirc poles in bad weather and reattach the lines so power keeps flowing. But Homans dies, Williams is promoted as the new guy in charge, and some one comes up with the bright idea of hiring Homans' daughter, Sally Blane, to cook and clean for them. She resists, and when she gives in, the reason becomes clear. All three men are in love with her, and their friendship, which had made them a good team, begins to crack under jealously.

There isn't much of anything that you haven't seen in a dozen other B movies, although editor John English -- who was already transitioning to the director's chair -- keeps up the pace of cutting and finds some good library shots of storms, when the slow pace of dialogue isn't infuriating me. It's a production of Sigmund Neufeld, directed by his brother, Sam Newfield, before they wound up at PRC. Sid Saylor and Dick Curtis have roles, but you needn't bother.

Formula movie about 3 men who risk their lives maintaining the utilities in a large U.S. city in the late 30's and their romances. Sally Blane (Loretta Young's sister) is as beautiful as ever, but really can't act. The rest of the cast are 30's era contract players, doing their best when making 10 or 12 movies per year. I guess it was worth the nickel admission of it's time.

I like seeing the old city (I assume that it was filmed in LA) and seeing how the safety precautions for utility workers were pretty primitive in that era.

All in all it was an unremarkable film to me, although others may find it action packed and romantic. My favorite scene is a fight scene in a what was apparently a German Beer Hall type place, interesting for 1938.

It didn't bore me, but didn't really excite me either. If you come across it, watch it. I'd be curious what other people thought of it.