Boom Town (1940)

Director:

Jack Conway

Writers:

James Edward Grant (story)
John Lee Mahin (writer)

Release Date:

30 August 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Where Men Are Rough And Tough . . . And Like Their Women The Same Way !

Plot:

Two buddies who rise from fly-by-night wildcatters to oil tycoons over a twenty year period both love the same woman.

Plot Keywords:

Oil Derrick | Suicide Attempt | Stock Ticker | Marital Separation | Oil Tycoon

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Clark Gable	...	Big John McMasters
Spencer Tracy	...	Jonathan Sand
Claudette Colbert	...	Elizabeth Bartlett McMasters
Hedy Lamarr	...	Karen Vanmeer
Frank Morgan	...	Luther Aldrich
Lionel Atwill	...	Mr. Harry Compton
Chill Wills	...	Deputy Harmony Jones
Marion Martin	...	Whitey
Minna Gombell	...	Spanish Eva 'Evie'
Joe Yule	...	Ed Murphy
Horace Murphy	...	Tom Murphy
Roy Gordon	...	Mr. 'Mac' McCreery
Richard Lane	...	Assistant District Attorney
Casey Johnson	...	Little Jack McMasters
Baby Quintanilla	...	Baby Jack McMasters

Also Known As:

Boom Town! (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #6351)

Filming Locations:

Bakersfield, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Rita Hayworth did a screen test for the role of Karen Vanmeer.

Quotes:

Big John McMasters: [walking up the saloon stairs to wash up] Hey, Whitey, I'll be back down like a spring breeze. Don't let those apes steal all your peaanuts.
Whitey: They say that with diamonds where I come from.
Big John McMasters: Yes, sir, Whitey, a brass band in a bathtub.
[she laughs]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Remington Steele: Steele Sweet on You (#2.15)" (1984)

Soundtrack:

The Wedding March

Moves Along At A Cracking Pace

This film has four big stars perfectly cast and appearing at their very best in a very entertaining film about "wild catting" in the American oil industry.I rated it 7/10.First up is Clark Gable playing the "mans man" role he made so famous in "Gone with the Wind".Next up is Spencer Tracy giving one of his speeches in court where he seems so comfortable, ("Judgment at Nuremburg", Cass Timberlayne" etc).Next up we have Claudette Colbert giving one of her best sympathetic "tea and sympathy" performances e.g. "Since You Went Away" and finally there is the gorgeous Hedy Lamarr playing to her strength of a sophisticated, intelligent and beautiful business associate who knows how the oil industry business is is transacted in the New York corridors of power.The film was made one year before the U.S. entered WWII so the budget could afford to be generous.Fot its day, the scenes and special effects of the oil well fire were very realistic.One reviewer remarked that Clark Gable in his youth worked on a "wild cat" oil site, if so this gave his performance added realism.What about those muddy roads.I felt like asking the town corporation to pave them over with some of that oil money flooding into the oil barons' coffers which presumably would attract some local taxation!