My review title refers to the tense scene where Stephen Dangos: chief founder of the Danton automobile company, is the lone dissenter among the executive board, in opposing the recognition of a labor union as the official spokesman for the assembly line workers. Thus ends the 3 month strike at the plant, and Dangos' tenure as company president. Several eloquent speeches are delivered for and against, before the vote. This is presented as the only significant defeat for once illiterate Bohemian immigrant Dangos in his gradual rise from iron ore shoveler, to steel mill foreman, to auto designer, to auto company president, to his final later role in encouraging his former company, now run by his son, to rethink their B-17 bomber plant to meet the current government quotas, during the height of WWII armaments production, when this film was released. We then have a segment showing actual mass assembly of B-17s in a Long Beach factory, in this rather rare for the times, Technicolor film. The implication is that Dangos encouraged a group of thinkers and engineers to get the job done in short order, thus bringing a happy ending to the human interest aspect of this story. I have a feeling that this segment, along with some other segments in the latter part of the film, was the main victim of the 30 min. cut from the original film, after too many at the premier showing complained about the length. Director King Vidor then cleaned out his MGM office and never worked for MGM again. His cherished epic had been irreparably ravished, in his mind. The film didn't do very well at the box office, perhaps partly due to its lack of a major star, which Vidor had envisioned as Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman. Brian Donlevy, Tracy's replacement, does an admirable job. However, in this era, he was typecast as an oily villain: hardly an ideal resume to play an illiterate immigrant who, by native talent, luck and pluck, gradually advances to become a captain of industry.
Some of the documentary portions, showing some of the steps in iron ore mining and transport, steel production, and assembly line production of autos and planes, are rather impressive, especially considering that, unusually, they were shot in color. We see lots of Rosy -the- riveters working on the B-17s, but also lots of men doing the heavier work.
Taking advantage of the contributions to the message board at this site, we can surmise that Dangos is from the Bohemia region of the decaying Austro-Hungarian empire. At one point, he refers to himself as a 'bohunk', which was a derogatory term for poor illiterate residents of Bohemia, especially used by neighboring Germans and German immigrants to the US. The story must begin after 1892, which is when the krone(crown, in English) was adopted as the currency for this empire, but before 1899, which is when Dongos marries his Irish immigrant girlfriend Anna(Ann Richards), who began by teaching him English and encouraging his thirst to understand how machines worked relating to ore mining and steel making. Anna is a no-nonsense, but sympathetic, school teacher, who detects a kindred spirit-in -the-rough in the shy illiterate Dangos, thus encourages his latent romantic interest in her, with the stipulation that she expects him to be ambitious in rising to become a man of some importance. She even plants the possibility in his mind that his son might become president of his adopted country, causing him to name his later sons after various favorite presidents.
John Qualen, who plays Dangos' older cousin(Anton) adds much to the palatability of the early portion, when Dangos is learning to work in the iron mine. As often, Qualen comes across as the quintessential working class European immigrant, who infuses common sense and humor to the proceedings. He had a long film career playing various bit parts.
Humor is included periodically, mostly centering on Anton or Dongos. For example, Dongos is impatient to learn to be a mine steam shovel driver. Thus, on his lunch break, he climbs into the cab and starts working the levers, almost causing a catastrophe, dumping a bit of ore on Anton. Later, when he is showing his new friend Howard how much more powerful his car is after he tinkered with it, he races a train, and gets thrown in jail for speeding and reckless driving. Still later, he intentionally rolls over his new steel-roofed car, to demonstrate the increased survivability with such a roof, in case of accident. His comment: "I swallowed my gum". Too bad he didn't also think about installing a seat belt! The auto executives were impressed with his design, but balked at putting it in production, saying they think it best to wait until a competitor introduced a similar design. This is an example of a general assumption by the public that producers often let improved products or technologies sit on the shelf until forced by competition or by overwhelming consumer or government demands to release them to the public.
The message about labor and management needing to get along and compromise was timely, as worker strikes in armament factories were a periodic fact or threat during the war.
Some of the documentary portions, showing some of the steps in iron ore mining and transport, steel production, and assembly line production of autos and planes, are rather impressive, especially considering that, unusually, they were shot in color. We see lots of Rosy -the- riveters working on the B-17s, but also lots of men doing the heavier work.
Taking advantage of the contributions to the message board at this site, we can surmise that Dangos is from the Bohemia region of the decaying Austro-Hungarian empire. At one point, he refers to himself as a 'bohunk', which was a derogatory term for poor illiterate residents of Bohemia, especially used by neighboring Germans and German immigrants to the US. The story must begin after 1892, which is when the krone(crown, in English) was adopted as the currency for this empire, but before 1899, which is when Dongos marries his Irish immigrant girlfriend Anna(Ann Richards), who began by teaching him English and encouraging his thirst to understand how machines worked relating to ore mining and steel making. Anna is a no-nonsense, but sympathetic, school teacher, who detects a kindred spirit-in -the-rough in the shy illiterate Dangos, thus encourages his latent romantic interest in her, with the stipulation that she expects him to be ambitious in rising to become a man of some importance. She even plants the possibility in his mind that his son might become president of his adopted country, causing him to name his later sons after various favorite presidents.
John Qualen, who plays Dangos' older cousin(Anton) adds much to the palatability of the early portion, when Dangos is learning to work in the iron mine. As often, Qualen comes across as the quintessential working class European immigrant, who infuses common sense and humor to the proceedings. He had a long film career playing various bit parts.
Humor is included periodically, mostly centering on Anton or Dongos. For example, Dongos is impatient to learn to be a mine steam shovel driver. Thus, on his lunch break, he climbs into the cab and starts working the levers, almost causing a catastrophe, dumping a bit of ore on Anton. Later, when he is showing his new friend Howard how much more powerful his car is after he tinkered with it, he races a train, and gets thrown in jail for speeding and reckless driving. Still later, he intentionally rolls over his new steel-roofed car, to demonstrate the increased survivability with such a roof, in case of accident. His comment: "I swallowed my gum". Too bad he didn't also think about installing a seat belt! The auto executives were impressed with his design, but balked at putting it in production, saying they think it best to wait until a competitor introduced a similar design. This is an example of a general assumption by the public that producers often let improved products or technologies sit on the shelf until forced by competition or by overwhelming consumer or government demands to release them to the public.
The message about labor and management needing to get along and compromise was timely, as worker strikes in armament factories were a periodic fact or threat during the war.
