Under Pressure (1935) User Reviews

Sand Hogs And Muckers

[boblipton · 7/10 · 7 September 2023]

Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe are sandhogs working on a tunnel from Brooklyn to Manhattan. McLaglen is the crew leader, and they battle a lot, but their hatred is saved for Charles Bickford, who's the lead sandhog of the crew tunneling from Manhattan.

The first fifteen minutes of this movie is reserved for lots of explication about why these men work under several atmospheres of air pressure, and the threats that poses. Fortunately, newspaperwoman Florence Rice is on hand to explain it to, and for Lowe to romance. Marjorie Rambeau plays the McLaglen's woman; she runs the beer hall the Brooklyn crew drinks in, and into which Bickford stalks occasionally to rile everyone up.

Hal Mohr and L. W. O'Connell are the cameramen who shoot the working men down under with some dramatic lighting, and director Raoul Walsh (with some uncredited help from Irving Cummings) brings out the very real chemistry between the frequent co-stars, as well as some highly dramatic sequences. Fox was coming out of a period when they seemed to have no writing department, but this muscular tale of tough men is a solid and entertaining movie.

Two-fisted thick-ear

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 31 August 2002]

Following their success as Flagg and Quirt in "What Price Glory?" (directed by Raoul Walsh), Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe starred in a long unofficial series of films playing similar characters. Typically, they played brawny rivals who were quick to sling their fists at each other (usually fighting over a woman), but who never hesitated to team up against a mutual threat. Usually, McLaglen's roughneck character outranked Lowe's (or had some form of authority over him), but the younger and handsomer smoothie played by Lowe would get the last word.

"Under Pressure" is nimbly directed by Raoul Walsh, the best director this team ever had. McLaglen is the foreman of a team of sandhogs who are digging an underwater tunnel from Brooklyn to Manhattan, although McLaglen's leadership seems to consist mostly of snarling things like "Get yer backs into it, you mugs!" while his men are already at the brink of exhaustion. Meanwhile, another team of sandhogs (led by Charles Bickford, very hissable), are digging the other end of the tunnel from Manhattan to Brooklyn. We might expect the teams to meet amicably in the middle, but this is an action movie full of macho he-men ... so the two teams are rivals. Whichever set of sandhogs covers a greater share of the distance underwater will get more money and more work assignments in future. Basically, McLaglen and Bickford are having a contest to see which man has the bigger, erm, shaft.

Lowe is caught in the middle, with less to do than usual in his team-ups with McLaglen. Lowe's character is attracted to a girl, so McLaglen has to be attracted to her too. The love interest is played by Florence Rice, a very beautiful but bland actress who was the daughter of sports columnist Grantland Rice.

Bickford's chief goon, a thug named Tug with an ugly mug, is well-played by George Walsh, the director's burly brother. George Walsh had a promising career in silent films until he landed the title role in "Ben Hur", which proved to be his downfall. The chariot epic was filmed on location in Italy, where it encountered all sorts of production problems until the studio decided to scrap all the footage and start all over on the Hollywood backlot with an entirely new cast. George Walsh's career had lost its momentum in the meantime, and never recovered. Walsh gives a good performance here as Tug, but there's a ludicrous scene in which he, McLaglen, Bickford and Lowe all take turns snarling "I'll see you later" at each other, with no discernible purpose and no real punchline.

Marjorie Rambeau, a character actress who was always under-rated (until her brilliant final performance in "Man of a Thousand Faces") is very good in a small role here. I recommend "Under Pressure" as a good B-level Raoul Walsh film. Second-level Raoul Walsh is better than first-level work by almost any other director.

Sand hogs

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 27 June 2009]

The building of a tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn is the subject of one of Raoul Walsh lesser known works. It is worth a look by people that have admired the director. It is based on a book, "Sand Hog" by Borden Chase. Billy Wilder is given credit as having contributed to the screenplay that served as the basis of this Twentieth Century picture of 1935.

Two factions are rivals in the process of excavating what must have been the Battery Tunnel between the two boroughs of New York City. At the time when the excavation was done, the two people in charge, Jumbo Smith, of Brooklyn, and Nipper Moran, of Manhattan make a bet as to whom would be the first one to reach the opponent under the harbor. One can imagine what courage and determination it took to get the tunnel finished under less sophisticated construction methods. The men that worked under water had to put up with innumerable health problems, the worst being the way the pressure of the air trapped in the excavation.

Victor McLaglen, who is Jumbo Smith in the picture, makes the viewer feel as though he would be with him and his crew digging, facing all kinds of horrors while making such an important contribution for future generations. Mr. McLaglen's appeal was his physical strength, which he clearly shows in his take of Jumbo. Edmund Lowe, is Shocker, his second in command, the one that dares defy Jumbo's authority and get away with it. Charles Bickford plays Nipper Moran, the rival that will stop at nothing in order to prove he was better than his enemy. Marjorie Rambeau appears as Jumbo's love interest, while Florence Rice was Shocker's girl. Lynn Bari and Ward Bond are also seen in minor parts, uncredited in the film.

If you have liked Raoul Walsh's body of work, you'll enjoy "Under Pressure"

Innocuous Title Belies Excitement

[GManfred · 20 June 2013]

Doesn't sound promising, does it? The title makes it sound like a good movie to fall asleep on. Or a movie to kill time until the main feature comes on. So, it was with great surprise that I watched "Under Pressure", a 1935 'buddy' picture starring Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe. This was a popular team during the 20's and 30's and together they made 9 features, the first being "What Price Glory", a 1927 silent.

The formula seldom varied. Two buddies have a falling out and become rivals, sometimes over a woman, here over a misunderstanding during a cave-in. "Under Pressure" is about men who dig tunnels, called 'sand hogs'. In this instance they are digging a tunnel under the East River (not the Hudson) in NYC, between The Battery and Brooklyn. That would make it the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, not the Holland Tunnel, despite the view of the Geo. Washington Bridge shown in the rear-projection. The movie illustrates the hazards inherent in such an occupation, such as cave-ins, depressurization, flooding, etc. Additionally, there is fierce competition between their crew and the crew headed by Charles Bickford, which is digging from the opposite direction so they will meet in the (approximate) middle.

This picture is only 70 minutes long but director Raoul Walsh crams a lot of plot and action into it. We see the guys at work and afterwards, which is a visit to a beer joint run by Marjorie Rambeau. Of course, in an attempt to don an air of refinement, they take the time to switch from work gear to suits and ties, which is one of the reasons I find 30's movies so enjoyable - for the joint in question, they could have come in their work duds! This picture has energy, heart and excitement, and you could do a lot worse with 70 minutes.

The ultimate

[Jgallag386 · 16 April 2002]

I saw this movie with my Dad in 1973 in an art house theater in Cape Cod, he'd seen it as a kid and was always impressed with it, the story is basically about Lowe and Macglaglen who work on the hudson tunnel as "Sand Hogs" the men who dig the way through, both love the same woman and fight over her, but at the end when the brace gives way Macglaglen stays behind holding the whole river back while lowe escapes, it was the bravest scene i'd ever viewed in a movie