It's always an ordeal when an earthquake strikes, but imagine living life in an iron lung, unable to breathe properly when the power goes out. For the ailing Paul Langton, it's not only the earthquake striking it's a paranoia that wife Loretta Young may be having an affair with his handsome friend John Agar. This bit of suspicion is planted in his head by his puckered sister Dorothy Adams whom Agar compares to a sour lemon. while Loretta is assured by the telephone operators that iron lung cases are a priority, she must work to keep her husband calm and his suspicions from taking over his nervous system.
Young must give not only an emotional performance but a physical one as well, working manually to keep the iron lung machine going. For Langton, it must be difficult to be lying in one position for an extended period of time, and it makes you wonder how people in this situation dealt with regular issues. That adds to not only to the issues surrounding the earthquake but the personal suspicions. Even with its small cramped one room set, this never feels claustrophobic because the intensity of the limited time to resolve everything doesn't allow that.
Young must give not only an emotional performance but a physical one as well, working manually to keep the iron lung machine going. For Langton, it must be difficult to be lying in one position for an extended period of time, and it makes you wonder how people in this situation dealt with regular issues. That adds to not only to the issues surrounding the earthquake but the personal suspicions. Even with its small cramped one room set, this never feels claustrophobic because the intensity of the limited time to resolve everything doesn't allow that.
