Bill Cracks Down (1937)
William Reardon, a steel magnate, dies and leaves a strange will. When his spineless and dandified heir and son returns home from living in Paris, he finds "Tons' Walker, a strong and burly steel worker running the company, per his late-father's will request. He also finds that his father's will specifies the Junior will change his name to Bill Hall and work in the family steel mill for a year under the fake name. Walker's job is to make a man out of the son. The son is not overjoyed by this prospect. Neither is Walker.
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It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
Blistering performances.
Everybody loves the boss. Pierre Watkin is the head of a steel mill with a ne'er' do well son (Ranny Weeks) who arrives to take over when the old man dies. But he finds himself under the thumb of dad's right hand man (Grant Withers) who has taken over the company and Weeks does everything to under-mind him, even going after his girl (Beverly Roberts). Fists fly as the two come at odds and it is up to Roberts to make peace. This results in a drama with comic overtones of turning a boy into a man, and even if certain plot elements of the film might seem to come out of nowhere or even seem realistic, it is obvious that the writers were going for something different than normal, which results in all of the characters learning a major life lesson and coming out better. Standard B fare is short and sweet, typical for the bottom of the bill feature, and acting is passable, if not remarkable. Watkin, in his brief scenes, makes more of an impact than the other actors. William Newell strives hard for laughs but a lot of his attempts at comedy end up with groans.
Grant Withers plays a steel man and friend of the mill owner who is left control of the mil when the owner dies. Withers is to control the mill until the owners son proves himself over the course of a year. Odd comedy/drama/romance thats set in and around a steel mill. The film is an odd mix of seeming real locations (the mill) and Hollywood sets (everything else). As I said the film is rather odd, pausing for a song in the midst of everything else thats going on. The unevenness of the tone works against total enjoyment of the film since it seems to be shifting gears a bit too often. Its not bad, its just not as good as it should have been.
William Rearden Sr, who built the steel mill, dies on the job and leaves the mill to his son, a painter in Paris, if he works in the mill for a year. In the meantime, it is in the hands of 'Tons Walker'.It's an interesting idea for the story, and the steel mill sequences are shot with care and verve. Grant Withers as Tons is excellent, and Beatrice Roberts as the love interest is fine, but the rest of the cast is, at best, uneven and some are bad. Ranny Weeks as Bill Jr. is nasal and annoying. But he's not a patch on William Newell, playing his raccoon-coat-wearing, ukulele-strumming buddy, 'Porky' in an awful Jack Oakie imitation.There are some potentially interesting plot complications added, but they are played by stiffs. If I were you, I wouldn't bother.