Slim

"I never wanted to do nothin' as bad as I want to be a lineman!" To farm boy Slim Kincaid (Henry Fonda), daring death in the electric high wires looks like mighty heroic work. So he shakes the sod off his boots and joins a crew, where a tough lineman (Pat O'Brien) befriends the newcomer -- including introducing him to his best girl (Margaret Lindsay). There's trouble ahead, on the job and in the heart, in this brawny, rough-and-tumble drama adapted from a popular book by William Wister Haines (Black Legion, Command Decision). The scenario lets Fonda do what he does best: manifest the strength and dignity of the common man. The denouement is sensational, with the two men climbing towers in a blinding blizzard to repair lines "as hot as an electric chair," knowing the slightest misstep means disaster.

• classic
• drama