Man of Conflict

John Agar has graduated college and returned home to his father's well-maintained factory town. Reversing the usual order, it is his father, Edward Arnold, who wants him to start taking over immediately and Agar who thinks he needs to learn the business from the ground up. So he apprentices as a lathe operator. Some he's making real progress and falling in love with Dorothy Patrick, the daughter of the man he's apprenticed to. When he fails to put on his goggles and is slightly injured, it's Miss Patrick's father who is fired by the dictatorial Arnold.

This one takes place in either a universe where there are no labor unions or NLRB, or perhaps it's actually a play from 1884, done in modern dress. Although Mr. Arnold appearing in this movie makes it of interest, the well-meaning banalities about the dignity of honest labor seem overdone for 1954.