The Valley of Decision (1945)

Directed by Tay Garnett

It’s been a long time since the members of either major American party have paid attention to men who make things in the great factories of the world.  When I was born, Detroit was a muscular city, the fifth largest in the nation, turning out cars and trucks by millions.  Where would you look for tires and rubber, if not to Akron?  And Pittsburgh, the city of the three rivers, a port city more than two thousand miles by water to the sea, was the city of steel.  There was smoke, sure, and there was pride.  The Pittsburgh man could say, “Next time you cross a bridge, think that the river below might as well be our Allegheny.”

I doubt that Hollywood nowadays is any more interested in industrial matters than most politicians are.  Industry is too muscular, perhaps.  But the situation is ideal for high drama: brute matter against human intelligence and will; men risking life and limb; immense outlays, and immense gains or losses; commodities that bring ease and even beauty to our lives, but…