Steve Mason, taking his noon break at the Stillman Iron Works where he is employed, collides with a speeding car driven by Janet Stillman, the daughter of the foundry’s owner, John. Steve scolds her for her reckless driving, and she responds by asking her father to fire him. Steve is collecting his final paycheck when he is stopped by Stillman. Pleased that someone stood up to his daughter, Stillman offers Steve a better job at the foundry. During the next five years, Steve rises through the ranks, winning Stillman’s esteem and the affection of the men in the plant. Stillman is fighting off a takeover by Paul Rankin, who has joined with Stillman’s foreman, Turner, to instigate a strike. Steve intervenes and convinces the men to return to work. A bit later, Stillman dies, leaving Steve in complete charge of his business and family affairs. With the exception of young Billy, Stillman’s grandson, the family, social climbing Mrs. Stillman, Janet, snobby son David and another daughter Diana, who is married to a British peer, are outraged by the news. They try to break the will and, when they cannot, decide to work against him. Rankin convinces the family that Steve will ruin the business and urges them to pretend to go along with Steve, while behind his back, they plot to destroy him. Steve refuses to give David the money to marry his showgirl fiancée, Flo Lancert, unless he shows himself capable of handling the responsibilities of marriage by getting a job. When both Flo and David refuse to consider this, Steve tells David that Flo had been in prison and has a child by another man. Determined to get his revenge, David takes a laborer’s job in the plant, and Janet becomes an assistant to Miss Smith, Steve’s secretary. They conspire together to deliver confidential bids to Rankin. When Rankin underbids Steve on two contracts, he suspects that there is leak in the office and requests upmost secrecy on the figures for the Hoover Dam bid. He then puts his own money into the plant to keep it in business. Janet, who has fallen in love with Steve, refuses to give the figures to David and they quarrel. After a struggle, David grabs what he thinks are the figures and rushes them to Rankin. Billy, however, has taken the papers from the office. He innocently tells Smith what happened, and she follows David to Rankin’s office. Janet, meanwhile, has confessed everything to Steve. He explains how Rankin planned to cheat them out of the plant, and now that everything is cleared up, Janet promises to marry him. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch The Iron Master (1933)
