"The Power and the Glory" was meandering along at an average pace until it completely fell off the tracks. It wasn't a great movie, but it wasn't bad for the first hour or so. Then there came the point where railroad workers were gathering to form a collective unit and the big boss made his presence known. That's where I had enough.
"Power and Glory" was essentially about a man named Thomas Garner (Spencer Tracy). He was your prototypical pick-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps guy. He was illiterate until the age of twenty when he met his future wife Sally (Colleen Moore) who taught him how to read. She didn't stop there. She encouraged him to go to college where he could get enough of an education to make something of himself instead of just a railroad walker (not sure exactly what they did).
With his education and new found ambition Tom worked his way up until he became the president of Chicago & Southwestern Railway Co. It was a real rags to riches story which brings me to the scene I began my review with.
The railway workers were gathered to talk strike. They were several hundred deep and all riled up. Old Tom Garner defiantly walked through the whole lot of them and stepped up to where the speaker was. He told the speaker to stand down and so he did as sheepishly as he was hawkish before Tom arrived.
Tom then gave every man an ultimatum: be at work by 12:00 or be fired. He then launched into a speech that was pure spin doctoring.
"You know this isn't a private fight. There are store keepers waiting for goods, women waiting for food, and there are babies waiting for milk. Well they're not going to wait any longer. This railroad runs tonight." It was just like a corporate hawk to lay blame at the feet of common workers for problems the corporation created and had the ability to fix.
Tom's cowboy move to bark down hundreds of working men looking for better conditions reminded me of Walter Huston in "The Criminal Code" where he, as a warden, walked into a prison yard of about two-thousand inmates to essentially dare them to try any monkey business while he ran the prison. Hollywood BS through and through.
"Power and Glory" only got worse when Tom found out that his baby with his new wife Eve (Helen Vinson) was his own son's. It was the kind of bombshell that's used for salacious drama, but it only served to make it cheap and tawdry. To end it all Tom killed himself just to make it more tragic.
Free on YouTube.
"Power and Glory" was essentially about a man named Thomas Garner (Spencer Tracy). He was your prototypical pick-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps guy. He was illiterate until the age of twenty when he met his future wife Sally (Colleen Moore) who taught him how to read. She didn't stop there. She encouraged him to go to college where he could get enough of an education to make something of himself instead of just a railroad walker (not sure exactly what they did).
With his education and new found ambition Tom worked his way up until he became the president of Chicago & Southwestern Railway Co. It was a real rags to riches story which brings me to the scene I began my review with.
The railway workers were gathered to talk strike. They were several hundred deep and all riled up. Old Tom Garner defiantly walked through the whole lot of them and stepped up to where the speaker was. He told the speaker to stand down and so he did as sheepishly as he was hawkish before Tom arrived.
Tom then gave every man an ultimatum: be at work by 12:00 or be fired. He then launched into a speech that was pure spin doctoring.
"You know this isn't a private fight. There are store keepers waiting for goods, women waiting for food, and there are babies waiting for milk. Well they're not going to wait any longer. This railroad runs tonight." It was just like a corporate hawk to lay blame at the feet of common workers for problems the corporation created and had the ability to fix.
Tom's cowboy move to bark down hundreds of working men looking for better conditions reminded me of Walter Huston in "The Criminal Code" where he, as a warden, walked into a prison yard of about two-thousand inmates to essentially dare them to try any monkey business while he ran the prison. Hollywood BS through and through.
"Power and Glory" only got worse when Tom found out that his baby with his new wife Eve (Helen Vinson) was his own son's. It was the kind of bombshell that's used for salacious drama, but it only served to make it cheap and tawdry. To end it all Tom killed himself just to make it more tragic.
Free on YouTube.