Men of Action

They're building a dam. The local ranchers are financing it, putting up their spreads to finance the bonds; Edwin Maxwell is the money man; Arthur oyt runs the construction company that is building it; and Leroy Mason is the engineer in charge of the construction. He's also sweet on Barbara Worth, Hoyt's daughter, who is the secretary/radio operator of the site.

Trouble begins when Frankie Darro's father is killed on site. Mason takes him under his wing, but troubles continue, and it soon becomes apparent to the audience, if not the characters, that he's trying to delay the opening of the dam so he can grab all the land that's been pledged for the work.

In other words, it's a modern variation of a western plot that's been used several times in the movies. As such, director Alan James hires a lot of western regulars. Where it really succeeds is the nice integration of film about the construction of the Hoover Dam into the movie. That makes it an extensive editing job, and editor Charles Harris is up to the task. There are a lot of short takes, and a nice pace of editing in the final confrontation, with a chase where the bad guys want to blow up the dam, and the good guys want to stop them. Plus there's a general melee at the end in which, if the fight choreography isn't particularly well done, the speed of editing holds the audience's interest.

In short, it's a B movie from 1935, a year when faster editing techniques were beginning to permeate Poverty Row. A few years would see considerable advances, but for the year it's about as good a you could get.