While en route to an assignment as a war correspondent in Europe, young Walter Norton returns to his home town in a mining region to visit his parents. There, he is alerted by Archie Connor, one of the miners, that Redman, the owner of the mine, is running an unsafe operation. On the morning that Walter is to sail for Europe, his father is injured in a mine explosion, and he decides to stay and investigate. Dressed as a miner, Walter joins his friend, Barney Tolliver, in the tunnels, but the men, fearful of losing their jobs, oppose his efforts. To protest the unsafe conditions, Connor decides to dynamite the mine, and when Walter tries to stop him, both men are arrested. As Walter languishes in jail, his sister Nina, who works as Redman’s secretary, overhears her boss bribing Matthews, the state mine inspector, not to report the dangerous conditions in the mine. Nina relays the information to her boyfriend, Barney, who realizes that they must get Walter out of jail to help them. They are aided in their task by Linda Connor, Walter’s high school sweetheart and the miner’s daughter, who uses her knowledge as a nurse to get Walter transferred to the hospital, from which he is able to escape. Walter and Barney then lure Matthews into the mine and threaten to dynamite the tunnel unless he confesses to bribery. Their plans go awry when Johnson, the mine supervisor, arrives with his guards and leaves Matthews, Walter and Barney to die in the blast. When Barney’s fake dynamite fails to detonate, a betrayed Matthews informs the miners of the grave danger, and the news of Redman’s corruption prompts the government to assume control of the mine. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch Black Diamonds (1940)
