Steel Against the Sky (1941)
** (out of 4)
Boring mix of soap, comedy and melodrama has Lloyd Nolan playing Rocky Evans, a tough bridge builder who falls in love with the boss's daughter (Alexis Smith) but she ends up falling for his younger brother (Craig Stevens), which causes problems back at home. Warner will always be remembered for their gangster movies but they also did quite a few films that shined a spotlight on blue collar workers and this here would seem like a good subject but sadly everything is pretty much wasted for nothing. The entire film has a very weird pace and feel to it as we're dealing with dangerous situations where men are risking their lives to build these bridges and skyscrapers. That's fine but then it's mixed with some downright bizarre comedy and most of it dealing with a professor who the younger brother takes in in order to try and make some quick money. This stuff with the professor is just so unfunny but what's worse is that there's never any real reason for it to be here. The love triangle aspect doesn't work either because we're basically just told the situations of who loves who and we're never given any scenes where we believe what we're seeing. Nolan makes for a good leading man and I thought he was quite believable as the tough brother. Smith is as beautiful as ever but the screenplay gives her nothing to do. Stevens isn't too bad as the brother but he suffers from the same weak story. Gene Lockhart plays the boss and Walter Catlett appears as the professor. Jackie Gleason has a very small but memorable bit. STEEL AGAINST THE SKY could have been a good movie but the comedy needed to be dropped all together and the clichéd drama needed a major rewrite.
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