Two Warner Brothers' B-Movies

STEEL AGAINST THE SKY (1941)
Strong Warner Brothers B-film with all their usual strengths and few of the weaknesses. It's a family conflict narrative, the kind that, with an A-budget, might have had James Cagney and Dennis Morgan. Here, it's Lloyd Nolan and Craig Stevens as brothers who work building bridges; Nolan is the older, plainer, more stable one and Stevens is younger, good looking, and cocky, and also not certain that he wants to follow in the family footsteps. Nolan is dating Alexis Smith (the boss's daughter) until sparks fly between Smith and Stevens (who would get married in real life a few years later). This leads to problems on the job and at home, where the brothers live with their father (Edward Ellis). The scenes on the bridge, though obviously done on studio sets with rear projection, are quite well done considering the low budget, and the climax, during a freezing rain "blizzard," is great. Edward Brophy, the third brother, has some nice comic relief; Walter Catlett provides less welcome comedy as a foolish inventor named Sampson who is working on something called Sampsonite (!); Gene Lockhart is the boss; Howard Da Silva is effective as a villainous agitator; Jackie Gleason and John Ridgely have small roles. [TCM]

SHE COULDN'T SAY NO (1940)
Eve Arden had her first leading role in this short second-feature. She plays a secretary to a lawyer (Roger Pryor), though she herself is also a lawyer; because she and Pryor are engaged, and he wants to "wear the pants" in the family, she has been content to be the hired help. Pryor heads out to a small town to get old man Potter (Clem Bevans, not Lionel Barrymore ;-) to sell some property that Pryor's old boss wants, but the eccentric Bevans won't deal with anyone because he lives in fear of a breach-of-promise suit being served by an old flame, Vera Lewis. Pryor offers to help Bevans in the suit in exchange for the property. Arden arrives in town unexpectedly and through a misunderstanding, winds up being hired by Bevans; Pryor represents Lewis, and both are promised the property. Naturally, there are shenanigans along the way before the happy ending. Arden outshines Pryor (who never rose above B-movie leading man) as does Cliff Edwards who plays a friend to both. Vera Lewis had small roles in over 100 movies, and her rather unpleasant looks make her stand out--she always looks mean and startled at the same time, even when she's smiling. Most of her roles were uncredited bits; this may be her biggest part ever. Fun for fans of Arden, and short enough to be generally fun and painless for all. [TCM]