IMDb RATING
6.6/10
1.7K
YOUR RATING
Two friends, who are members of a road crew employed by a Los Angeles power company, battle the elements to restore electrical power, and trade punches over the same woman.Two friends, who are members of a road crew employed by a Los Angeles power company, battle the elements to restore electrical power, and trade punches over the same woman.Two friends, who are members of a road crew employed by a Los Angeles power company, battle the elements to restore electrical power, and trade punches over the same woman.
Murray Alper
- Lineman
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhile visiting his friend George Raft on the set, Bugsy Siegel was introduced to Virginia Hill. In the scene where Raft gets into a brawl with Barton MacLane, Hill appears as the hat-check girl to whom Raft gives a piece of leg from a smashed chair as he leaves the nightclub. The brawl scene and Bugsy Siegel's first meeting with Virginia Hill on the gas station movie set are recreated in Bugsy (1991).
- GoofsAfter Johnny bails Fay out of jail, they are seen walking together down a stairway at the police station. When they arrive at the first landing, as they turn and continue to descend the stairs, the shadow of the microphone boom can be seen on the wall behind them.
- Quotes
Hank 'Gimpy' McHenry: [Last Lines] Did anyone yell headache when I was coming down?
Johnny Marshall: Sure.
Hank 'Gimpy' McHenry: I'm glad nobody got hurt.
[Hank dies]
- ConnectionsFeatured in The True Adventures of Raoul Walsh (2014)
- SoundtracksHe Lied and I Listened
(1941)
Music by Friedrich Hollaender (as Frederick Hollander)
Lyrics by Frank Loesser
Sung by Marlene Dietrich (uncredited) at the Midnight Club
Played as background music often
Featured review
Blows a Fuse
Is the movie a comedy with melodramatic overtones or a melodrama with comedic overtones. Sometimes it's hard to tell since exaggeration appears the way director Walsh has decided to pitch the material. The storms, the comedic byplay, Robinson's good-hearted working man—all are spread on pretty thickly and much of the time, I'm afraid, to a fault. At times there's almost a frenetic undercurrent as though the audience won't get the point unless it's shoveled on. Contrast Walsh's approach here with his tightly controlled direction of High Sierra (also 1941).
All in all, it's a strange movie. For example, when I think "daughter of the American working class", I don't think of a 40-year old with a German accent, even if she does pop gum in one scene. Just how that queen of continental glamour Marlene Dietrich wound up in a Warner Bros. programmer is puzzling, to say the least, especially when the studio had that supremely soulful blue-collar girl, Ida Lupino, under contract. Too bad that the wooden Dietrich adds to the phoniness of a movie that already has too much.
Of course, there are the thunder and lightning scenes that show what special effects in those days could do with a carefully lit soundstage. The storms are impressive, but they also make you doubt the sanity of anyone clambering around on 1,000 volt power lines. Falling appears to be the least of the hazards. Anyway, the movie's many conflicting parts produce an oddly awkward result, even if the very last shot achieves a kind of baroque poetry. Somehow, I suspect there's an inside story behind the making of this concoction that may be more compelling than the film itself.
All in all, it's a strange movie. For example, when I think "daughter of the American working class", I don't think of a 40-year old with a German accent, even if she does pop gum in one scene. Just how that queen of continental glamour Marlene Dietrich wound up in a Warner Bros. programmer is puzzling, to say the least, especially when the studio had that supremely soulful blue-collar girl, Ida Lupino, under contract. Too bad that the wooden Dietrich adds to the phoniness of a movie that already has too much.
Of course, there are the thunder and lightning scenes that show what special effects in those days could do with a carefully lit soundstage. The storms are impressive, but they also make you doubt the sanity of anyone clambering around on 1,000 volt power lines. Falling appears to be the least of the hazards. Anyway, the movie's many conflicting parts produce an oddly awkward result, even if the very last shot achieves a kind of baroque poetry. Somehow, I suspect there's an inside story behind the making of this concoction that may be more compelling than the film itself.
helpful•95
- dougdoepke
- May 14, 2009
- How long is Manpower?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 44 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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