Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Clark Gable | ... | Big John McMasters | |
Spencer Tracy | ... | Square John Sand | |
Claudette Colbert | ... | Betsy Bartlett | |
Hedy Lamarr | ... | Karen Vanmeer | |
Frank Morgan | ... | Luther Aldrich | |
Lionel Atwill | ... | Harry Compton | |
Chill Wills | ... | Harmony Jones | |
Marion Martin | ... | Whitey | |
Minna Gombell | ... | Spanish Eva | |
Joe Yule | ... | Ed Murphy | |
Horace Murphy | ... | Tom Murphy | |
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Roy Gordon | ... | McCreery |
Richard Lane | ... | Ass't. District Attorney | |
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Casey Johnson | ... | Little Jack |
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Baby Quintanilla | ... | Baby Jack |
Buddies Big John McMasters and Square John Sand are fast-talking, wisecracking wildcatters who manage to con enough equipment and capital to develop their own oil fields, but their friendship is put to the test when Big John inadvertently falls in love with Elizabeth, Square John's longtime girlfriend. Eventually their friendship and partnership comes to an end on the flip of a coin. Years later, when Big John's interest in the beautiful Karen Vanmeer threatens his marriage too, Square John intervenes in an effort to save the marriage of his former friend - even if it means ruining him financially. Written by G. Taverney (duke1029@aol.com)
When one thinks of roles identified with Clark Gable, Boom Town does not immediately come to mind. Yet this film, done at what most would consider the high water mark of Gable's career (after Gone With the Wind and before Carole Lombard's death) was possibly his most personal role. Before he was actor Gable worked in the oil fields with his widowed father. After that he decided acting was a far easier way to make a living. But he actually lived the life that he and Spencer Tracy portrayed in Boom Town. He brings more to the part of Big John McMasters than any other part he ever did. I'm sure he was an unofficial technical consultant on the film.
The film is also an ode to laissez faire capitalism, maybe one of the most right wing films ever done in Hollywood. You will never hear Herbert Hoover's rugged individualism better justified than in Spencer Tracy's speech to the jury in Gable's anti-trust trial. One half of the script writing team was James Edward Grant who later did many of the more propagandistic films that John Wayne did.
Frank Morgan is his usual befuddled self, he had a patent on those parts. Claudette Colbert is fine as the woman both men love and Hedy Lamarr was her usual alluring self.
Great entertainment all around.