Movie of the Week: Boom Town (1940)

This week’s movie is Boom Town (1940).

Gable is “Big John” McMasters and Tracy is “Square John” Sand, or as Big John calls him right from the beginning, “Shorty”. They are two wildcatters out west trying to strike oil. They pool their money and smarts and soon hit it big. Putting a snag in their festivities is the arrival of Elizabeth or “Betsy” (Claudette Colbert), Shorty’s sweetheart from back home. She arrives to see him but falls in love with Big John instead, and they are married the night they met.
A year passes and when Shorty thinks that Big John is not treating Betsy right, the two men come to blows and flip a coin to decide who gets the oil rigs. Shorty wins and Big John and Betsy hit the road. The film follows them through the years as Big John and Betsy have a son and strike it rich, first in Oklahoma, then in New York. Shorty also strikes it rich but soon loses it all. When the two men meet again and decide to let bygones be bygones, their friendship and working relationship is tested again when Shorty discovers Big John is having an affair with the elegant Karen VanMeer (Hedy Lamarr).

This one is the epitome of a mega studio MGM’s big budget blockbuster: Four big names, action, fire and explosives, romance, great supporting cast (Frank Morgan! Lionel Atwill!)

Claudette and Clark, of course, had proven their chemistry several years earlier in It Happened One Night and nothing had changed.  I really love the scene where she says she’s going to leave and runs up the stairs and he says calmly, “Come down here.” She does, and he says, “I make up my mind quick. I made it up when I first saw you I guess. You aren’t ever going to leave.” What gal could after that??

Clark and Spencer were good friends, although Spencer was jealous of Clark’s popularity and Clark was jealous of Spencer’s acting ability. This is their last pairing, after Spencer was Clark’s sidekick in San Francisco and Test Pilot. They make great pals onscreen and sparring partners!

Clark’s character is a jerk in this one. He manipulates and rips off Frank Morgan, cheats on Claudette unabashedly and uproots her several times from homes she’s poured her heart into, mocks Spencer relentlessly—-and yet we still like him at the end. Darn that Gable charm!

I do like Clark’s chemistry with Claudette better than I do Hedy. Maybe that’s just because Hedy plays the vixen here, albeit an absolutely stunning vixen.

I really like this film. It’s in the period where Clark is top of his game: Married to Carole Lombard, top of the heap at MGM, fresh off of Rhett Butler. He’s really shining here.

Full review is here.

Nutshell review is here.

Oh and here’s Clark Gable with a baby. You’re welcome.