Boom Town

Plot synopsis:
"Big John" McMasters (Clark Gable) and "Square John" Sand (Spencer Tracy) are two down-on-their-luck oil wildcatters who join forces. Without enough money, they steal drilling equipment from a skeptical Luther Aldrich (Frank Morgan). Their well proves a bust and they have to hastily depart when Aldrich shows up with the sheriff to take back his property. The two oilmen team up and make enough money to partially pay Aldrich. To get him to back them for a second try, they cut him in for a percentage of the well. This time, they strike it rich.
When Elizabeth 'Betsy' Bartlett (Claudette Colbert) shows up, McMasters sweeps her off her feet (without knowing that Sand considers her his girl) and marries her. Sand accepts the situation, wanting Betsy to be happy. However, on their first anniversary, she catches her husband dancing with a barroom floozy. As a result, Sand quarrels with McMasters and they flip a coin for the entire oilfield. Betsy leaves too, but returns when she learns that her husband has lost almost everything to Sand and needs her.
Each man goes through booms and busts. Building on his renewed success as a wildcatter, McMasters moves to New York to expand into refineries and distribution, competing against former customer Harry Compton (Lionel Atwill). Seeking inside information about his rivals, he hires away Compton's adviser Karen Vanmeer (Hedy Lamarr), who uses her social contacts and womanly charms to gather industry information.
Meanwhile, Sand loses everything he has built up in South America to a revolution. When he meets McMasters at an oilmen's convention, the two finally reconcile, and Sand goes to work for his old friend. When he suspects that McMasters is carrying on an affair with Karen, he tries to save Betsy's marriage by offering to marry Karen. However, she deduces his motives and declines. When a miserable Betsy tries to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills, Sand decides that the only way to help her is to bankrupt McMasters. Sand loses his costly battle with his former friend and goes broke. It is only when he asks McMasters to give his wife a divorce that the married man finally comes to his senses. Later, McMasters is prosecuted by the government for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act and loses his business. In the end, poor, but happier, Sand and McMasters team up again, with the blissful Betsy looking on. Aldrich supplies them with equipment and the whole cycle begins again.

Tags: violence, romantic

Review:
As one who has worked in the "oil patch" for 25 years, I feel that 'Boom Town' is the most realistic portrait of the industry (during that period) that has ever been put on film.
Claudette Colbert is fine as the woman both men love and Hedy Lamarr was her usual alluring self.Great entertainment all around..
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!.
Portraying a friendship similar to the one they shared in the earlier "San Francisco," Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy play two oilmen or wildcatters in "Boom Town," an entertaining saga directed by Jack Conway.
Tracy is the more solid, down-to-earth Jonathan Sand, who is Gable's moral conscience, much like he was in "San Francisco." The pair meet cute while heading in opposite directions on a narrow board walkway across a muddy street.
The mud is barely washed off their clothing when Gable unwittingly steals Colbert from Tracy, and the jilted platonic lover carries a torch for his lost love throughout the film.
Oil gushers, well fires, and fistfights, the action wanders all over the MGM back lot from Texas to South America to New York.Gable anchors the film with his larger-than-life personality, while Tracy underplays in deference to his more charismatic co-star.
Although re-teaming the Oscar-winning leads of "It Happened One Night" must have seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, Colbert, unfortunately, often seems out of place in "Boom Town." Her manners, poise, and dress do not mesh with the Texas oil fields or the South American hovels.
However, she is certainly believable as the object of any man's lust and physically perfect as an "other woman." Fortunately, a fine cast of supporting players, such as Frank Morgan, Chill Wills, and Lionel Atwill, surround the leading stars and further enhance the lively proceedings.First class production values, a fast-moving story, and appealing stars make "Boom Town" a solid entertainment, if not a masterpiece..
They used four of their biggest stars, any one of whom could have starred in their own films.Clark Gable already had an Oscar for It Happened One Night, another nomination for Mutiny on the Bounty, and was nominated in the 1940 Academy Awards for Gone with the Wind.Spencer Tracy, a nine-time Oscar nominee, already had a nomination for San Francisco, a win for Captains Courageous, and a win the previous year for Boy's Town.Three-time Oscar nominee Claudette Colbert already had a win for It happened One Night, which she did with Gable, and a nomination for Private Worlds.Frank Morgan had gotten one of his two nominations for The Affairs of Cellini.And, our Star of the Month, Hedy Lamarr, was just beginning her career.This was a raucous film with all the excitement that you would expect in one about wildcatters in the oil business and featured barroom fights, streets of mud, and stories ripped from the headlines.
Tracy and Gable play two "wildcatters" -- oil hunters -- who are always at loggerheads and both manage to gain and lose several fortunes before the film's end.
A lot of fun scenes (especially when the 2 bullheaded oil barons finally duke it out), good characterizations (Morgan, as always, deserves a mention, this time as the slightly petty equipment broker they both rely on), but a somewhat predictable story, though well scripted.
Anyway, if I were Claudette Colbert, I would have a hard time deciding between Clark Gable (handsome and rugged) and Spencer Tracy (sweet, caring, and devoted).
Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy make the unlikely pair of men who join forces to strike it rich, and they're both lively and sharp on their game.
Later in the movie, Gable in New York (during a successful few years) and he is caught up with an urban siren played by Hedy Lamar.
But it's sweeping and convincing in that 1940s Hollywood style that is kicking in, technically flawless, beautiful made in every way.Throw in four great actors (as well as Frank Morgan, the man who the year before played the Wizard in that Oz movie) and you have a really excellent production.
I found it tough to get involved with the story and the characters.The cast was terrific: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr, Frank Morgan, Lionel Atwill, Chill Wills - are you kidding me?
Gable had the lead as the cocky oil wildcatter "John McMasters" and Tracy has his more controlled friend "John Sand." The latter is more than leery of his buddy which turns out to be prophetic as McMasters marries the woman Sands had his eyes on: "Elizabeth Bartlett," called "Besty" in the film and played by Colbert.
As the main characters, Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy are in top form, and still young enough looking in 1940 to play oil wildcatters.
The ladies, Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr, play more complex than usual women for this kind of film, as their motivations at all times make sense even if one doesn't care for them.Boom Town isn't an easy movie to categorize.
Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr star in "Boom Town," a 1940 film directed by Jack Conway.
It's about wildcatters and friends, played by Gable and Tracy, who make money as partners, love the same woman, go their separate ways, reunite, all under the specter of oil rigs.Gable has a role he owned, that of Big John, a tough guy, a man's man, kind of Rhett Butler goes wildcatting.
Well, she had to choose between Clark Gable, matinée idol, and Spencer Tracy, a character actor whose talent gave him leading man status.
The couple end up in New York, where Big John meets a Big Beauty named Karen (Lamarr) and goes for her, threatening his marriage.Everyone is very good in this absorbing movie, with Lamarr's knockout beauty a real asset.
A couple of oil-drilling buddies (Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy) strike it rich together.
BOOM TOWN can't decide whether it wants to be a buddy flick (CLARK GABLE and SPENCER TRACY) about wildcatters, a domestic romance with an "other woman" angle (CLAUDETTE COLBERT, HEDY LAMARR), or just a big brawling adventure epic about losers and winners amid gushing oil.Somehow, it manages to be all three--which makes for a rather uneven story that serves as a star-gazer for fans who like to watch the foursome go through their paces even though the script isn't strong enough to support them and their misadventures.Claudette is lovely in the chief romantic role as Gable's love interest, but it's HEDY LAMARR (who strolls into the story pretty late in the film) who dazzles with her close-ups and that amazing beauty.Gable is right at home in this get-rich-quick-scheme drilling for oil, since he was an oil rigger at one time before his movie days.
He and Tracy are both in love with Claudette--but after she falls for Gable she regrets his close working relationship with Lamarr--and that's where the plot starts to thicken but loses credibility at the same time.Lamarr's role is so underwritten that she hardly has time to register strongly as a sophisticated woman attracted to Gable.
The focus is hardly on the women involved, but instead the main thrust of the plot is carried by Gable and Tracy and their relationship.It's the sort of macho buddy film you'd think Gable's friend Victor Fleming would direct, but instead it's Jack Conway behind the reigns.
Okay, it's true that if you have a movie starring Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy it can't be bad.
The plot after a while becomes VERY tiresome and the relationship between the guys makes no sense (unless you read and agree with my final comment below).Gable and Tracy love each other and yet spend the entire fighting and making up again and again.
The initial excuse is over a woman, but it soon is apparent that this isn't the real reason, as Gable not only takes Tracy's girl but then takes a hot tamale as his mistress.However, despite the silliness of this plot, the absolute WORST moment of the film is the courtroom scene near the very end.
Two wildcatters Big John McMasters (Gable) and Square John Sand (Tracy) hit it off quickly (thanks to their mutual instinct of dodging potshots), and bouncily go for it in their oil rigging enterprise, there are hits and misses ongoing, but their archetypal bromance is put into a critical test when they are both besotted with the same dame, Betsy Bartlett (Colbert).
Thankfully, the reunited Gable-Colbert pair knows how to play the flirtatious bonhomie right, and a bluff Tracy makes a rather surprising capitulation to the "she is not that into him" situation but is never able to get over her, instead, he becomes the watchdog of their marriage, a resolute assurer that Betsy's happiness is unadulterated.
So an extrinsic force timely arrives in the form of Hedy Lamarr's drop-dead gorgeous Karen Vanmeer, Big John's business adviser and a socialite who is adept at eavesdropping, as an interloper, she is not beyond reproach but for once, she is presented more than a vacuous bombshell, in fact she has the wiles to apply her own counter- moves when Square John tries to buy her out.Slightly tortuous in its story-line, and 77 years have passed, Jack Conway's BOOM TOWN has sustained to evince a pristine luster in pointing up two of the most peddled attributes of America: the land of opportunity and the propitious everything-will-be-fine motto..
I liked the interaction between Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy.
In an oil-rich 1918 Texas town, manly wildcatter Clark Gable (as "Big John" McMasters) meets fellow prospector Spencer Tracy (as Jonathan "Shorty" Sand).
Gable and Tracy steal some oil equipment and strike it rich.
Tracy's well-dressed girlfriend Claudette Colbert (as Elizabeth "Betsy" Bartlett), who sells ladies' underwear, arrives and goes to bed with Gable.
Very predictably, this starts a long rivalry...Gable and Tracy win some, and they lose some..."Boom Town" starts out exciting and turns into a one-note soap opera that doesn't impress.
Rather late in the story, beautiful Karen Vanmeer (as Hedy Lamarr) enters as a second love interest for Gable.
Despite being hollow, "Boom Town" is a classy and engaging production from a studio with the staff to make it happen.***** Boom Town (8/30/40) Jack Conway ~ Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr.
"Boom Town" is a very entertaining soap-opera which solely depends on the charm of it's two stars.I'm happy to say that both Gable and Tracy are great in this movie.The action sequences are amazingly done considering the vintage of this movie.
However, aside from an unusually spirited performance by Gable; it was Hedy Lamarr, in a brief role, that made a big difference.
With 4 terrific stars, including the most beautiful woman in the movies Hedy Lamarr is beyond comprehension.
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..
Even all the great stars of yesterday including Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy can't raise this picture above average and that's exactly what it is-average.I guess the dialogue is good.
This one has it all-great cast(Spencer, Clark, Hedy, Claudette), rousing action(check that oil well fire scene), over-use of montages, boom and bust cycles, beautiful women(esp.
A typical big budget, big star feature of the times.I donno how much I bought the soap opera angle-clearly Claudette and Spencer should have gotten back together at the end, w/ Gable taking off w/ Hedy.
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.
There's always Gable glad-handing everyone, Tracy glowering, Colbert wondering if Gable really loves her, and Hedy Lamarr glowing with her incendiary sensuality.
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.
But that again is the part that Tracy always played in the three film pairings with Gable.
In a certain sense like most buddy films, the love story is between the two guys and it never shines better than in their explosive fight scene towards the films end.Claudette Colbert does a great job with a thinly written part as "the beautiful Betsy".
She really holds her own with the famous scene-stealer.Frank Morgan, Lionel Atwill, and Chill Wills are among the rest of the excellent MGM company supporting cast in this film.It's too bad that this was the last film with the two great stars.
Think Tom Cruise and Bruce Willis teamed with Julia Roberts and Sharon Stone tht would be todays equals you're already looking at 60-80 million dollar budget.Enough of that Gable, Tracy, Colbert, and Lamarr are all wonderful in the film.
Just before they strike it rich, big john meets a lady (colbert) as she arrives into town.
Diaster strikes Gable loses his shares to tracy and he and colbert go off to make a new fortune.
big john and betsy go out west to wildcat and are joined by square john happy ending.Although this all sounds contrived...it works...the film is fast paced each actor givesa  solid performance.
Gable and Tracy are all manly men and Colbert and Lamarr are stunning as the women who love them.
In the present case, Gable teams up with an enthusiastic Spencer Tracy, and later with gorgeous Claudette Corbert.
The ups and downs of Gable's and Tracy's oil businesses, together or separate, and their relationship, constitutes much of the substance of the film.
Boom Town is a Love story, a Drama, a Western, and an Adventure all put into one movie.
The movie stars Spencer Tracy as Square John Sand, Clark Gable as Big John McMasters, and Claudette Colbert as (Elizabeth) Betsy Bartlett.
This is the last of three films that Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable starred in together which included San Francisco, Test Pilot, and Boom Town.
Hedy is a pretty lady; she just seemed stilted in this role; a siren should seem suave but she never quite comes across as the wanton woman she is supposedly portraying.The more Spencer Tracy movies I see, the more I appreciate his acting ability.
Gable and Tracy go through fortunes, friendship and they love the same woman all in one picture.The men meet by chance, finally strike it rich, Gable takes off with Claudette Colbert, the woman Tracy loved.Both men rise from going broke, but their love for Colbert endures over the many years.Enter Hedy Lamarr for a role she was born to play.
Great pic with great performances by Gable, Tracy, Colbert, & Morgan.
This is one of my favorite films with either Spencer Tracy or Clark Gable...and here you have both!
And, the film has another very necessary ingredient -- Frank Morgan, whose role sort of holds the whole thing together.Gable and Tracy play two oil wildcatters who steal drilling equipment from Morgan.
The fun is in following their cyclical ups and downs along the way in both oil and a woman -- Claudette Colbert who intended to marry Tracy, but then falls in love with Gable.This is a pretty interesting film where you can learn a bit about the climate of the wildcat oil business of the day.
Perhaps a bit more like the Tracy of "Northwest Passage", also in 1940.Claudette Colbert is wonderful here as Gable's wife.
The odd star out is Hedy Lamarr, who by rights shouldn't have gotten equal billing with Gable, Tracy, and Colbert.
Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, plus Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr!!!.
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.
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).
Gable meets, falls in love with, and marries Colbert without realizing that she was Tracy's girl.
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..