Blue-collar Warner Bros. loved recycling this blue-collar plot line, as others point out. Stick a couple guys on an industrial work site, have them fall out over a girl, then wind up with a big cliff-hanging calamity, and you've got a ton of built-in drama. Here it's Nolan and Stevens as unfriendly brothers working as bridge builders and falling out over the boss's daughter, Smith. Nolan may be no Jimmy Cagney, but he's got the drive to carry any movie, which he does here.
Actually, I was ready to dump things after the first half-hour, since there was too much silly humor with a plot yet to gel. But the second half really gels when the crew has to keep the bridge from falling apart during a wicked storm. Warner's production crew does a first-rate job simulating the besieged bridge and the high-wire acrobatics of Nolan and Stevens. All in all, this second half was worth waiting for.
The cast features two later TV stars in their early years, Stevens and Gleason. You have to look quickly for Gleason in the first half, as what else but a drunk. On the other hand, Stevens has a featured role in a very un-Peter Gunn workingman part. Ironically, he and his girl here, Smith, married several years later and remained hitched for a very unHollywood 49-years. Anyway, if you think you've seen the movie before, you probably have. But the effects are certainly worth sticking around for.
Actually, I was ready to dump things after the first half-hour, since there was too much silly humor with a plot yet to gel. But the second half really gels when the crew has to keep the bridge from falling apart during a wicked storm. Warner's production crew does a first-rate job simulating the besieged bridge and the high-wire acrobatics of Nolan and Stevens. All in all, this second half was worth waiting for.
The cast features two later TV stars in their early years, Stevens and Gleason. You have to look quickly for Gleason in the first half, as what else but a drunk. On the other hand, Stevens has a featured role in a very un-Peter Gunn workingman part. Ironically, he and his girl here, Smith, married several years later and remained hitched for a very unHollywood 49-years. Anyway, if you think you've seen the movie before, you probably have. But the effects are certainly worth sticking around for.