Such a frustrating disappointment

best movie i've ever seen.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

. . . upon American Women, as the always prophetic Warner Bros. warn We Americans of (The Then) Far Future of the sort of HANDMAID'S TALE-like backlash doubtless in store for the female half of the U.S. Populace IF distaff dictators push their witch hunt PURGE of Real Life leaders such as Al, Roy, Charlie, Dustin, Richard, Woody, and Garrison any further. Everyone knows that women lived on a Real Life pedestal in the Early 1900s, when MANPOWER was made. Yet this flick begins with "Hank McHenry" manhandling his "taxi dancer," and the entire male cast is frequently shown "goosing" hospital nurses before "Johnnie Marshall" punches "Fay Duval" so hard in her face that she collapses in a heap! Though MANPOWER's contemporary audiences must have been stunned and totally perplexed by these then unheard-of events, Warner was primarily addressing the Ladies of Today's 2018 America. Warner advises these Modern Chicks that there's a Time and a Place for everything, and U.S. Men have NO intention of fading away quietly into the night (like the dudes who've gone AWOL on WONDER WOMAN's home island). Sociologists estimate that 80% of U.S. Men have copped some sort of feel during the past 10, 25, or 40 years (not to mention 96% of Women, when predator roles are reversed). None of these past hijinks will appear seemly under the glare of Today's Women-dominated media, Warner senses in MANPOWER. If the chick flick folks insist upon purging ALL of these guys, the resulting vacuum of Good Guys will invite a wave of New Founding Fathers whose rules will make Allred's life seem like a pleasant picnic by way of comparison, MANPOWER forecasts.

"Manpower" isn't exactly the kind of film that requires much brain power. It is a case of what you see is what you get. That isn't to say that the film isn't good or entertaining, it is. It is a more undemanding kind of film. It is unfortunate that the two leads didn't work together again at "Warner Bros." Much has been made of the slight tension on the set between Edward G. Robinson and George Raft. It is true that both people had a different style to the way they worked and that was the source of the tension. It is not true that they both engaged in a fist fight. What happened, was that Robinson and Raft exchanged a few words and Raft slightly elbowed his co-star in the ribs. Supporting players Alan Hale and Ward Bond quickly kept them apart and Robinson left the set for a while. The story is about two engineers whose friendship is compromised by the arrival of a woman (Marlene Dietrich). That is all the there is but it's enough. Alan Hale comes out with his usual silly one-liners, as does Frank McHugh. They provide some comic relief which doesn't intrude upon the film. George Raft enjoys a couple of punch ups and they are good enough.

This original screenplay from writers Richard Macaulay and Jerry Wald is essentially a drama about California linesmen for the power company, two of whom (Edward G. Robinson and George Raft) get tangled up over a sultry woman just out of the pen (and a recent graduate of a local clip joint). Uneasily cast film with overlays of raucous comedy, brotherly roughhousing, static adventure...but oddly, no romance. Robinson and Marlene Dietrich end up married, but the union seems loveless (she's indifferent to him, while he stays mostly hungover). Dietrich sings one colorless tune and seems to fight a case of the blahs. Special effects are good, but the mostly male supporting cast quickly tire the ear with would-be lascivious stories of 'dames' and 'babes'. Eve Arden has some funny one-liners playing Marlene's hostess co-hort, and there's a wild bit of satire set in a hash-joint. **1/2 from ****

Everything about MANPOWER is highly improbable, including the casting of EDWARD G. ROBINSON as a lineman in love with the alluring clip-joint hostess MARLENE DIETRICH and the three-way romance that includes GEORGE RAFT as a jealous blue collar onlooker who warns Robinson about the pitfalls of marrying Dietrich.Raoul Walsh directs it in his customary boisterous style, letting ALAN HALE, FRANK McHUGH, WARD BOND and BARTON MacLANE overdo the rowdy blue collar supporting roles. The comic relief offered by Hale and McHugh is below par this time and becomes tiresome long before the tale reaches a climactic storm scene.Fans of the star trio will probably overlook these faults and find the film passable viewing, but it's nothing special and easily forgotten. EVE ARDEN gets to sling some one-liners in the kind of role she always played with verve and skill.Linemen working on electrical wires at the height of a severe thunderstorm is stretching things a bit for the melodramatic climax.