Fresh Stock 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 let’s 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.