Edwin C. Hill narrates this industrial film about the production and uses of steel. It was made, unsurprisingly, for the U. S. Steel Corporation, then the world's largest manufacturer of steel. It starts out in the mines of Minnesota, then it's the ships carrying the ore to the refineries, and finally the production and shaping of steel.
Visually, it's early Technicolor shot in low contrast environments, so that most of the images are dull. Even the ladies inspecting the finish of stainless steel are not brilliantly photographed, even though they wear uniforms of cyan. Instead, the brilliance and brightness is reserved for the steel itself, rivulets of red and yellow molten steel, glowing orange steel being worked, even the glare of cold steel being shaped. This movie is, after all, about steel.
As for the narration.... I don't know who wrote Hill's speech, but he never stops speaking for more than 35 minutes, and it's a constant barrage on the senses, with never a noun that does have an adjective, and rarely an adjective without an adverb. Classical allusions abound. I don't know how he kept it up. I tired of listening to him quickly.
Visually, it's early Technicolor shot in low contrast environments, so that most of the images are dull. Even the ladies inspecting the finish of stainless steel are not brilliantly photographed, even though they wear uniforms of cyan. Instead, the brilliance and brightness is reserved for the steel itself, rivulets of red and yellow molten steel, glowing orange steel being worked, even the glare of cold steel being shaped. This movie is, after all, about steel.
As for the narration.... I don't know who wrote Hill's speech, but he never stops speaking for more than 35 minutes, and it's a constant barrage on the senses, with never a noun that does have an adjective, and rarely an adjective without an adverb. Classical allusions abound. I don't know how he kept it up. I tired of listening to him quickly.
