Boom Town (1940)

This is one of the many entertaining pairings of Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy; it's about two "wildcat" oil friends who become competitors and also get involved with two beautiful women, Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr. Frank Morgan also figures prominently as a competitor and partner.Directed by Jack Conway, with a screenplay by John Lee Mahin that was based on James Edward Grant's story, this slightly above average adventure romance drama received Academy Award nominations for its B&W Cinematography and Special Effects. Lionel Atwill and Chill Wills also appear.The plot is light fare: Gable is a tough guy who literally runs into tough guy Tracy, but the two become fast friends and scheme to drill for oil using someone else's money (Morgan's). If I'm not mistaken, this film features the scene where the two compete to see who can punch someone the farthest!They eventually strike it rich, and even partner with Morgan. Gable meets, falls in love with, and marries Colbert without realizing that she was Tracy's girl. But Tracy sucks it up and the two become big time oilmen until Gable's treatment of Colbert doesn't meet with Tracy's standards, and the partnership breaks up.Years later and successful again, Gable, still with Colbert, is working in New York with the beautiful Lamarr in his employ as a spy; Tracy has made his own success as well.Tracy also arrives in New York, visits his old flame Colbert, goes to Gable's office and assesses Lamarr, and then brawls with Gable to make him realize what he's got in Colbert. Tracy also testifies in court to help Gable out of a jam. Gable returns to Colbert and has this memorable, double entendre exchange:Gable: "you're going to stay here with me if I have to lick ya" Colbert: "of course I'll stay ... you can lick me if it'll help"The two, then the three (Tracy), and finally the four (Morgan) reconcile and are planning to work together to find oil again as the film closes.

MGM produced a good number of these pictures -- two pals driven apart (for a time) by a woman. In more than one case, Clark Gable was the raffish go-getter and his pal, Spencer Tracy, was the more grounded and less reckless partner.Here, the two are partners in a wildcatting oil drill in Texas in the earlier years of the century. They're both broke and have a lot of fun talking investors into funding their enterprise, stealing equipment, and celebrating when the oil comes in. It's the beginning of the automobile explosion and the oil is black gold. They also use oil in the production of lubrication, WD-40, plastic, cosmetics and ointment.The fly in the ointment is Claudette Colbert. She's a City Mouse whom Tracy deeply loves. But when she comes to Texas for a visit, seeking adventure, she runs into Gable first and the next thing, they're married. Tracy handles the news very well, but it sets up a competitive and unforgiving conflict between the two which is happily resolved at the end, when the principals march, arms linked, across the tawny hills of California's central valley, ready to start again as pals, and somebody mentions the place is called Kettleman Hills. Discovered in 1928, it was one of the biggest oil fields in California, now depleted of all but one half of one percent of its original oil.Well, there's hardly a dull moment in the movie. In fact, there IS no dull moment in the movie. There's always Gable glad-handing everyone, Tracy glowering, Colbert wondering if Gable really loves her, and Hedy Lamarr glowing with her incendiary sensuality. It's hardly worth repeating that Hedy Lamarr was not her real name. It's far to good to be true. Her actual name was Hedy Keester von Rauchen-Verboten. There's a lot of shouting and one good brawl before Gable and Tracy renew their bond. Fist fights are the only way that REAL MEN can resolve their differences. Can you imagine them sitting around and discussing their opposing values? "How do you feel about my stealing your girl, Square John?" "Oh, I don't know. I -- I feel all EMPTY inside. (Sob.)" You'll love it.

Why the biggest film studio could not afford to make this film in technicolor, is beyond me. With 4 terrific stars, including the most beautiful woman in the movies Hedy Lamarr is beyond comprehension. The movie started off on a good note until the middle of it. The typical, husband, wife and friend triangle soap opera entered the picture..it started to drag for me...and then a spark was generated when Hedy came on in her brief cameo role. From that point on, she was mostly on instead of Claudette. Don't get me wrong..love Claudette, but given a choice of watching her or Hedy on the screen...would be Hedy for me...just a quote from Spencer Tracy to Gable upon meeting her for the first time.."Wow...she can stop a stampede"...no truer words were spoken.

This is a case of a film with an amazing cast being done well as a period piece but which is an aging piece of film. The version I watched seemed choppy in sequences, including the first encounter between Gable & Tracy where the first time Gable calls him Shorty was missing. As I kept viewing this copy, it appeared the sequences were choppy & I can't believe when this film was first released it was that choppy. The question is can it be restored or is there a better copy than the one I saw.This cast of 4 heavy hitters with Tracy, Gable, Hedy Lamaar & Claudet Colbert is almost bigger than the screen. Add in Frank Morgan & Chill Wills and you have to wonder why all these folks were available for the same film. While this is a good film, it could have been a little better.It is interesting seeing & hearing Spencer Tracy make a closing speech in court where he mentions conservation of oil years before the industry even had any programs about this. Especially being before World War 2 as because of Hitler, environmentalism was scrapped for the war effort in some ways. The war did produce some of the earliest recycling programs in the US.This movie is about Wild Catting for oil and how it really was back in the early days. This is the kind of world which no longer exists. In this era, nobody was too big to fail.