Bill Cracks Down (1937) User Reviews

What's with the singing in this one?!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 1 June 2019]

The basic story idea of "Bill Cracks Down" is very good and it could have been a better film. However, the story moves too quickly and this makes the characters' behaviors seem strange and inconsistent. I'm sure it was only made worse when someone decided to abbreviate the film...cutting about 10 minutes off the run time.

When the story starts, a steel magnate is dying and he knows it. But he's afraid to leave the company to his lazy son. So, he gives it to his best employee, 'Tons' Walker (Grant Withers) to run until the son is responsible enough to take over...and the plan is to force the lazy son to go to work at the mill and learn about self-respect and the value of hard work.

The young man, not surprisingly, is cocky, manipulative and lazy....and he deliberately courts Tons' ladyfriend in order to take her away from him. But Tons isn't an ordinary guy...and if she loves the young man, he's willing to step aside. This magnanimous gesture throws the young man....shaking his confidence in his plan. What's next? See the film.

The acting in this one is pretty good...Withers in particular. However, the film has two strikes against it. One I mentioned above..the quickness which characters change...it just isn't realistic. The other is that although this is not a musical, twice characters just break into song. Musicals need music...non-musicals with singing...well, that's just weird. Worth seeing though flawed.

Learning the business from the ground up.....

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 28 March 2014]

Everybody loves the boss. Pierre Watkin is the head of a steel mill with a ne'er' do well son (Ranny Weeks) who arrives to take over when the old man dies. But he finds himself under the thumb of dad's right hand man (Grant Withers) who has taken over the company and Weeks does everything to under-mind him, even going after his girl (Beverly Roberts). Fists fly as the two come at odds and it is up to Roberts to make peace.

This results in a drama with comic overtones of turning a boy into a man, and even if certain plot elements of the film might seem to come out of nowhere or even seem realistic, it is obvious that the writers were going for something different than normal, which results in all of the characters learning a major life lesson and coming out better.

Standard B fare is short and sweet, typical for the bottom of the bill feature, and acting is passable, if not remarkable. Watkin, in his brief scenes, makes more of an impact than the other actors. William Newell strives hard for laughs but a lot of his attempts at comedy end up with groans.

Odd mix film is okay, but would have been better if they knew what type of film they were making

[dbborroughs · 4/10 · 1 February 2008]

Grant Withers plays a steel man and friend of the mill owner who is left control of the mil when the owner dies. Withers is to control the mill until the owners son proves himself over the course of a year. Odd comedy/drama/romance thats set in and around a steel mill. The film is an odd mix of seeming real locations (the mill) and Hollywood sets (everything else). As I said the film is rather odd, pausing for a song in the midst of everything else thats going on. The unevenness of the tone works against total enjoyment of the film since it seems to be shifting gears a bit too often. Its not bad, its just not as good as it should have been.

Uneven

[boblipton · 4/10 · 1 October 2006]

William Rearden Sr, who built the steel mill, dies on the job and leaves the mill to his son, a painter in Paris, if he works in the mill for a year. In the meantime, it is in the hands of 'Tons Walker'.

It's an interesting idea for the story, and the steel mill sequences are shot with care and verve. Grant Withers as Tons is excellent, and Beatrice Roberts as the love interest is fine, but the rest of the cast is, at best, uneven and some are bad. Ranny Weeks as Bill Jr. is nasal and annoying. But he's not a patch on William Newell, playing his raccoon-coat-wearing, ukulele-strumming buddy, 'Porky' in an awful Jack Oakie imitation.

There are some potentially interesting plot complications added, but they are played by stiffs. If I were you, I wouldn't bother.

Lots of potential never realized

[Silentsaregolden-539-660514 · 4/10 · 2 August 2019]

This film could have been better than it was. It's a standard story of a steel magnate who, in his will, leaves the running of his company to his favorite, devoted employee, Tons Walker (Grant Withers). The magnate wants to make a man out of his artist son, Bill (Ranny Weeks) who has been living in Paris off Dad's money. So, the will stipulates the son must work in the mill for a year, then he can inherit everything. Grant Withers is well cast as the devoted employee who adores his boss and only wants what is best for the company. However, he and the shiftless son, played ever so annoyingly by Weeks, clash. Actually there are times when we want Tons to punch Bill in the nose and doesn't. Here's where the story falls apart. Tons and secretary Susan Bailey, played by Beatrice Roberts, are engaged. However she sympathizes with the son having to work shoveling coal in the mill. Eventually she falls in love with him. They go out, date, and kiss without Tons' knowledge who is working nights to keep the company going. Of course, through a series of events, Tons and Bill come to like each other - so much that Bill gives Tons half interest in the company - and Susan realizes she really loves Tons. Really? He actually wants her back after she threw him over for another guy. Not only unbelievable but dumb. Someone else other than Weeks would have been better in this part, and, by the way, the lovely and talented Judith Allen is wasted as Bill's gold-digging girlfriend.