... and forgive me for that review title.
John Lucky Walden (Bruce Cabot) is a lineman working on a power outage at a carnival. Perched high above the ground, he sees the guy who cheated him in a game of cards the night before. After electricity is restored, he asks about the card cheat and finds out where tonight's game is. Lucky shows up and demands his winnings back. Intimidated, the guy returns Lucky's money. But when Lucky demands interest on his money as well, the cheat refuses and Lucky hits him in the head with his wrench. The man dies instantly. One witness to the killing runs, and when the police show up, they arrest Lucky. Lucky tells a completely false version of the crime to the jury, claiming it was self-defense, but he's convicted of murder anyway and sentenced to death.
Before the execution date, Lucky's brother Mike finds the witness who ran. Afraid that Lucky knows enough to implicate him in a bank robbery, the witness lies and confirms Lucky's version of events. The governor has enough reason to doubt that this was deliberate murder and commutes Lucky's sentence to life. Later, after committing an act of extreme bravery, Lucky is paroled.
Back on the outside, again working as a lineman at a power company, Lucky continues his reckless ways of wanting what he wants when he wants it, regardless of the consequences to his family and friends. Complications ensue.
The actual plot didn't quite make it to an hour, so about 5-10 minutes of a scene of the linemen attending a lecture on low and high frequency power with some imagery of electricity ladders is added. None of this has anything to do with the story.
Bruce Cabot was convincing as Lucky, a guy who was maybe not as bad as he was unlucky. He's definitely not living the life of Tom Powers of Public Enemy, and he wouldn't have gotten the death penalty for what happened to that gambler, not even in 1937, considering it was an impulsive act that killed the guy. He would have likely gotten a verdict of manslaughter. But then we'd have no story. The supporting players were forgettable but not embarrassing.
I 'm pretty sure I saw Robert Young in an uncredited role with just one line as his voice is pretty distinctive. That would have been odd, though, since Robert Young had been playing lead roles since 1931 or at least played in strong support.
