Slim (film)

Last updated
Slim
Slim FilmPoster.jpeg
Directed by Ray Enright
Written byWilliam Wister Hain
Based onSlim by William Wister Haines
Produced by Samuel Bischoff
Starring Pat O'Brien
Henry Fonda
Margaret Lindsay
Cinematography Sidney Hickox
Edited by Owen Marks
Music by Max Steiner
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • June 23, 1937 (1937-06-23)(New York City)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Slim is a 1937 American romantic drama film directed by Ray Enright and starring Pat O'Brien, Henry Fonda and Margaret Lindsay. [1] [2] It is sometimes (incorrectly) called Slim the Lineman.[ citation needed ] The picture is a film adaptation of the 1934 novel Slim by William Wister Haines, which concerns linemen in the electric power industry. The supporting cast features Jane Wyman. [3]

Contents

Plot

Slim, a farmer from southeastern Ohio, becomes fascinated by a crew of linemen erecting transmission towers across his uncle and aunt's property. He asks Pop for a job, but there are no openings. When a man is fired, however, Red, Pop's best lineman, takes a liking to Slim and persuades Pop to give him a chance as a "grunt", an assistant on the ground who sends up tools and parts. Red and Stumpy, another grunt, teach Slim what he needs to know.

Slim wins the respect of Red and Pop when he spots cheating during a poker game and pitches in during the ensuing brawl. When hungover lineman Wyatt Ranstead falls and is killed, Slim is promoted to lineman. The company sends a vice president to investigate the death. To save Pop's job, Red deliberately antagonizes the executive and is fired. Slim gets himself dismissed out of loyalty, and the two go on the road.

They head to Chicago to see Red's girlfriend, Cally, a nurse. The three set out to have a good time (although Red insists on paying for everything). Slim finds himself falling for Cally, and she for him. When Red's money runs out, he and Slim head off to New Mexico for work.

Red knows and dislikes one of their fellow linemen, Wilcox. When Red is later offered the job of foreman at another camp, he initially turns it down, but changes his mind when Slim offers to be his "straw boss" (assistant). Wilcox, who had been hoping for the promotion himself, tries to sabotage Red's rope, but Slim stops him. Later, on the ground, Wilcox pulls out a knife and stabs Slim. While Slim is recovering in the hospital, Cally comes to nurse him. They admit they love each other and tell Red they are going to get married. When Slim is offered stable, safe maintenance work, Cally accepts for him. Slim, however, refuses to give up his dangerous profession, and when Pop sends for Red, goes with him.

They arrive during a terrible blizzard and are called out to a substation to restore power, even though there are "hot" wires all around. Red and another man fall to their deaths when a rope breaks in a block and tackle while pulling up a transmission line. Cally joins Slim and once again tries to talk him out of line work. When Slim heads back out into the snow to complete the job, Cally accepts his decision, telling him, "I'll be waiting for you".

Cast

Reception

TV Guide described the film thusly: "While no great shakes as high drama, SLIM is a well-crafted buddy picture, which offers a detailed look at an occupation little seen in movies. ... SLIM was Fonda's first film for Warner Bros. and his talents complemented O'Brien's perfectly." [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Easy Rider</i> 1969 film by Dennis Hopper

Easy Rider is a 1969 American independent road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda, and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and South, carrying the proceeds from a cocaine deal. The success of Easy Rider helped spark the New Hollywood era of filmmaking during the early 1970s.

<i>Melody Ranch</i> 1940 American film

Melody Ranch is a 1940 Western musical film directed by Joseph Santley and starring Gene Autry, Jimmy Durante, and Ann Miller. Written by Jack Moffitt, F. Hugh Herbert, Bradford Ropes, and Betty Burbridge, the film is about a singing cowboy who returns to his hometown to restore order when his former childhood enemies take over the frontier town. In 2002, the film was added to the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board and selected for preservation as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Wyman</span> American actress (1917–2007)

Jane Wyman was an American actress. A star of both movies and television she received an Academy Award for Best Actress (1948), four Golden Globe Awards and nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards. In 1960 she received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for both motion pictures and television. She was the first wife of President Ronald Reagan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Kelly</span> American actress (1921–1995)

Nancy Kelly was an American actress in film, theater, and television. A child actress and model, she was a repertory cast member of CBS Radio's The March of Time, and appeared in several films in the late 1920s. She became a leading lady upon returning to the screen in the late 1930s, while still in her teens, and made two dozen movies between 1938 and 1946, including portraying Tyrone Power's love interest in the classic Jesse James (1939), which also featured Henry Fonda, and playing opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingstone, later that same year. After turning to the stage in the late 1940s, she had her greatest success in a character role, the distraught mother in The Bad Seed, receiving a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the 1955 stage production and an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for the 1956 film adaptation, her last film role. Kelly then worked regularly in television until 1963, then took over the role of Martha in the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for several months. She returned to television for a handful of appearances in the mid-1970s.

<i>The Petrified Forest</i> 1936 film by Archie Mayo

The Petrified Forest is a 1936 American crime drama film directed by Archie Mayo and based on Robert E. Sherwood's 1934 drama of the same name. The motion picture stars Leslie Howard, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. The screenplay was written by Delmer Daves and Charles Kenyon, and adaptations were later performed on radio and television. The film is set in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

<i>42nd Street</i> (film) 1933 musical film

42nd Street is a 1933 American pre-Code musical film directed by Lloyd Bacon, with songs by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics). The film's numbers were staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It starred an ensemble cast of Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, and Ginger Rogers.

William Wister Haines was an American author, screenwriter, and playwright. His most notable work, Command Decision, was published as a novel, play, and screenplay following World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Tyler</span> American actor (1903–1954)

Tom Tyler was an American actor known for his leading roles in low-budget Western films in the silent and sound eras, and for his portrayal of superhero Captain Marvel in the 1941 serial film The Adventures of Captain Marvel. Tyler also played Kharis in 1940's The Mummy's Hand, a popular Universal Studios monster film.

<i>The Cowboys</i> 1972 film by Mark Rydell

The Cowboys is a 1972 American Western film starring John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, and Bruce Dern, and featuring Colleen Dewhurst and Slim Pickens. It was the feature film debut of Robert Carradine. Based on the 1971 novel of the same name by William Dale Jennings, the screenplay was written by Irving Ravetch, Harriet Frank, Jr., and Jennings, and the film was directed by Mark Rydell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ballarat, California</span> Unincorporated community in California, United States

Ballarat is an unincorporated community in Inyo County, California.

<i>The Front Page</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

The Front Page is a 1931 American pre-Code screwball black comedy film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien. Based on the 1928 Broadway play of the same name by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, the film was produced by Howard Hughes, written by Bartlett Cormack and Charles Lederer, and distributed by United Artists. The supporting cast includes Mary Brian, Edward Everett Horton, Walter Catlett, George E. Stone, Mae Clarke, Slim Summerville, and Matt Moore. At the 4th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Picture, Milestone for Best Director, and Menjou for Best Actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Sawyer</span> Canadian actor (1906–1982)

Joe Sawyer was a Canadian film actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1927 and 1962, and was sometimes billed under his birth name.

<i>Maisie</i> (film) 1939 film by Edwin L. Marin

Maisie is a 1939 American comedy film directed by Edwin L. Marin based on the 1935 novel Dark Dame by Wilson Collison. The rights to the novel were originally purchased by MGM for a Jean Harlow film, but Harlow died in 1937 before a shooting script could be completed. The project was put on hold until 1939, when Ann Sothern was hired to star in the film with Robert Young as leading man.

San Quentin is a 1937 Warner Bros. drama film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, and Ann Sheridan. It was shot on location at San Quentin State Prison.

<i>On Our Merry Way</i> 1948 film by King Vidor, Leslie Fenton

On Our Merry Way is a 1948 American comedy film produced by Benedict Bogeaus and Burgess Meredith and released by United Artists. At the time of its release, King Vidor and Leslie Fenton were credited with its direction, although the DVD lists John Huston and George Stevens, who assisted with one of the segments, as well. The screenplay by Laurence Stallings and Lou Breslow, based on an original story by Arch Oboler, is similar in style to that of Tales of Manhattan (1942), another anthology film made up of several vignettes linked by a single theme. The picture stars Paulette Goddard, Burgess Meredith, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Harry James, Dorothy Lamour, Victor Moore and Fred MacMurray. It marks the first joint movie appearance of Stewart and Fonda, who play a pair of musicians in their section of the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forrest Taylor</span> American actor (1883-1965)

Edwin Forrest Taylor was an American character actor whose artistic career spanned six different decades, from silents through talkies to the advent of color films.

<i>So Big</i> (1953 film) 1953 film by Robert Wise

So Big is a 1953 American Drama Western film directed by Robert Wise and starring Jane Wyman, Sterling Hayden and Nancy Olson.

<i>Boy Meets Girl</i> (1938 film) 1938 film

Boy Meets Girl is a 1938 American screwball comedy film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. The supporting cast features Marie Wilson, Ralph Bellamy, Frank McHugh, Dick Foran and Ronald Reagan. The screenplay by Bella and Sam Spewack is based on their 1935 stage play of the same name, which ran for 669 performances on Broadway. The two zany screenwriters played by Cagney and O'Brien were based on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, while Ralph Bellamy's part as the producer was based on Darryl Zanuck of 20th Century Fox.

<i>Daughters of the Night</i> 1924 film

Daughters of the Night is a 1924 American silent melodrama film produced and distributed by the Fox Film Corporation. It was directed by Elmer Clifton with Alyce Mills as the lead actress.

<i>Public Wedding</i> 1937 film by Nick Grinde

Public Wedding is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Nick Grinde and written by Roy Chanslor and Houston Branch. The film stars Jane Wyman, William Hopper, Dick Purcell, Marie Wilson, Berton Churchill and Archie Robbins. The film was released by Warner Bros. on July 10, 1937.

References

  1. "Four Great Stars in the Most Gripping Picture of Their Lives..Or Yours!". Auckland Star . September 9, 1937. p. 28. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  2. "The Movies". The Miami News . August 15, 1975. p. 44. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  3. "News of Theatres". Anderson Herald . July 4, 1937. p. 15. Retrieved November 11, 2023.
  4. "Slim Reviews". TV Guide.