Steel mill accident, worker falls into slag ladle (and rescue).

A "nail biting" scene from the 1952 movie "Steel Town," whereby steel mill worker, Mac McNamara (played by William Harrigan) appears to have a heart attack and as a result falls into an empty slag pot just as the open-hearth furnace is about to be tapped with a "heat." Newly employed steel worker, Steve Kostane (played by John Lund) calls attention to the overhead crane operator to help in the rescue of Mac from the slag pot about to be filled with the hot slag from the molten steel flowing from the open-hearth furnace. Slag consists of impurities and often results from the smelting of metals such as iron or steel. It'll float on top of the refined metal in its hot molten state much like cream floats on top of milk.

Note the incredible close ups of the open-hearth furnace tapping on what had to be a difficult series of shots to record seeing that this was actually filmed amongst the molten steel, slag and flying sparks on the open hearth tap floor at the Kaiser Steel works at Fontana, California back in 1952.

Also, note the lack of any mood setting background music throughout the entire furnace tap floor scene as well as no spoken dialog until the very end of the scene. Only the sound of the heavy equipment, the flowing of the molten steel, a mill warning siren and arriving ambulance are heard.

And finally, how 'bout those three Kaiser automobiles in the first shot! Seen from left to right are a 1952 Henry J, a 1952 Kaiser and a late 1940's Kaiser-Frazer. Oh yes, that's actress Ann Sheridan in the second to last shot answering the phone playing the role of "Red" McNamara.

"Steel Town" is one of those movies you watch not so much for its' OK story, but for the terrific Technicolor scenes of early 1950's U.S. steel mill operations and activity. Unfortunately, it rarely shows up on cable television and has yet to be made available on DVD.