Slim is another of those products from the working man's studio of Warner Brothers and extols the heroism of the various lineman putting up towers and wires to electrify the nation. This was one of the finest achievements of the New Deal, the Rural Electrification Agency and the work you see Pat O'Brien and Henry Fonda do, they are doing in conjunction with that agency. Most of rural America was without any kind of power before then because the cost to private industry wasn't worth the profit they got back.
If Pat O'Brien wasn't working with James Cagney, he'd be making this kind of film with Dick Powell or John Payne. None of those quite have the rural demeanor for the title role, so Warner Brothers got Henry Fonda who was then under contract to producer Walter Wanger.
Fonda is in the title role of Slim, a country kid who sees the linemen bringing power to the nation and figures he can travel, see places and do things, in a necessary occupation. It's also why a lot of kids from rural areas enlist in the armed services. Pat O'Brien takes a liking to him, takes him under his wing so to speak and even accepts when his girl Margaret Lindsay prefers Fonda to him. For O'Brien he realizes he's far from ready to settle down.
I've always felt that O'Brien together with James Cagney were the real founders of the male buddy film. Given the nature of the role, Fonda more than fills Cagney's shoes. Jimmy Cagney would never be believable as a kid off the farm.
Look for J. Farrell McDonald to give a nice performance as the foreman of the crew Fonda and O'Brien work for. And Stu Erwin gives a nice performance, imitating Bob 'Bazooka' Burns who was at the height of his popularity as a regular on Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall. Erwin gives out with the same homespun rural humor that Burns was so popular for.
With the nation mostly electrified and the Rural Electrification Agency now the Rural Maintenance Agency as of 1994, the film is somewhat dated. But it is still a good piece of entertainment and a tribute to the men who literally electrified a country.
