In the 1940s, the Pine-Thomas production unit (releasing through Paramount) specialized in low-budget black-and-white adventures about the military, aviation, and various rugged occupations with titles such as ALASKA HIGHWAY, POWER DIVE, FLYING BLIND, WILDCAT, AERIAL GUNNER, MINESWEEPER, THE NAVY WAY, HIGH EXPLOSIVE, TIMBER QUEEN, HIGH POWERED, SWAMP FIRE and HOT CARGO. Most of these films mixed shots of the actors in cramped studio interiors with stock footage of actual military maneuvers or industrial activity. DYNAMITE (1949), was the last of the industry-themed series and something of a throwback to the early 1940s as the Pine-Thomas team soon moved into medium-budget Technicolor adventures set in the old west or in more exotic climes, as indicated by such titles as EL PASO, HONG KONG, TRIPOLI, JAMAICA RUN, CARIBBEAN, TROPIC ZONE, and SANGAREE.
DYNAMITE focuses on a four-man/one-woman contracting team who lay the groundwork for bridge and tunnel construction by dynamiting through solid rock in advance of the actual construction crews. It follows the standard formula of these films with tensions on the job between an older worker and a younger man and rivalry over a woman between the same. Here, the older, more experienced hand is "Gunner" Peterson, played by William Gargan, and his rival is a smoother, college-educated newcomer, Johnny, played by Richard Crane. Virginia Welles plays Mary, the daughter of the crew supervisor, Jake (Irving Bacon), and it's obvious she thinks of Gunner, whom she's known all her life, as more of a big brother than a potential mate, and is clearly more enamored of the dashing and aggressive Johnny. The remaining crew member is old-timer Hard Rock (Frank Ferguson). Eventually, a dispute on the job between Gunner and Johnny leads to tragedy.
There seems to be less stock footage and more actual location footage involving the cast members than was usual for these films. The caves they film in look a lot bigger than the quarries found in Bronson Canyon in Hollywood's Griffith Park, the usual go-to location when caves were needed for a shot. There's even a bonafide action scene that qualifies as something of a car and truck chase as one vehicle's occupants try to rescue the driver of a truck with loose brakes.
The most significant element of this film for me was the casting of character actors Irving Bacon and Frank Ferguson as crew members. These men normally played much smaller parts, with Bacon usually cast as soda jerks, proprietors or storekeepers or, more famously, in the long-running Blondie series as the mailman on Dagwood's street, and Ferguson often cast as a reporter in a crowd or as various officials or men who sat behind desks and counters. Here they are active participants in the dynamiting work and appear in scenes throughout most or all of the film. For them, these must have been very meaty roles indeed. Also, Douglas Dumbrille plays the construction supervisor who gives them a job and is on site during all their work as well. He often played villains, usually sitting behind a desk, so this was a chance for him to get out into the field and play an active—and sympathetic--role as well. Of the younger cast members, Richard Crane deserves singling out for going on to play TV's Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.
DYNAMITE was the last of five features directed by co-producer William H. Pine himself. (I've seen two of the others, AERIAL GUNNER and SWAMP FIRE.) As Pine and his partner, William C. Thomas, nicknamed the "Dollar Bills," moved into higher-budget features from 1949 on, the directing was most often assigned to Lewis R. Foster or Edward Ludwig, although occasional name directors did one feature apiece for them, including Joseph Losey, Nicholas Ray and Phil Karlson.
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