“Boom Town” (1940): Ambition, Oil, and the Price of Success

Listen, honey, while I sing, how could you tell me that you're going away? Don't say that we must part. Don't break my aching heart. You know I've loved you truly many years. Longer night and day. How can you leave me? Can't you see my tears? Listen, while I sing. After you've got me crying, after you've gone, there's no denying. You'll feel blue, you'll feel sad. You'll miss the bestest pal you ever had. There'll come a time, now don't forget it. There'll come a time when you'll regret it. Someday when you're alone, your heart will break like mine and you won't be home. After you've gone, after you've gone. Thinking of a movie made between 1935 and 1945. Okay, uh, give me an actor. Clark Gable. Gone with the Wind? That's a little obvious, don't you think? All right, uh, give me another actor. Claudette Colbert. Oh. Oh. I want to say it happened one night, but that was made in 1934, so it can't be that. Good thinking. Uh, Spencer Tracy's also in it. Oh, Spencer Tracy. Well, uh, Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy are both in San Francisco. But not Claudette Colbert. Oh, that's right. Uh, Hedy Lamarr's also in it. Hedy Lamarr. Uh, Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr are both in Tortilla Flat, but not Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable. It's tough because all these actors made so many movies together. Yeah, but all four of them in one movie. Look at that picture. Give up? Wait, wait. I know. It's Boomtown. I'm Tiffany Brannan. I'm Rebecca Brannan. Welcome to Real Thoughts on Cinema. Clark Gable is one of those few film stars whose name is recognizable even outside of the classic movie fandom. And this is because he was the leading man in the famous Gone with the Wind from 1939. This movie's enduring popularity as the ultimate blockbuster means that it's still a staple of pop culture almost 90 years later. Although it's his claim to fame, this one film doesn't even begin to represent his vast film career. Just the next year after making the famed Civil War epic, Clark Gable appeared in another historical drama, which showcased not only his talent, but that of three other major stars. This film is Boomtown from 1940. The story begins in 1918 in a rugged oil town in Texas. Two men named John meet by accident. One of them is the tough, swaggering John McMasters, and the other is the slighter but more thoughtful Jonathan Sands. The two fellows form an unlikely friendship and business partnership as they're both oil wildcatters. That means that they try to put up small oil wells in unusual places in hopes that they'll become huge oil fortunes. They go through a series of successes and failures, larcenies and great triumphs, as they win big sometimes and lose big. As they're working on that first main oil derrick, John Sand, who's been nicknamed Square John, keeps riding to this girl in a distant city. Meanwhile, his business partner, who's been nicknamed Big John, has never met the girl. One day, Big John is going into town. He's the ladies' man, and so he's always looking for a little fun. He happens to meet a girl who's sort of different than all the other local saloon girls, but she refuses to tell him her name or anything about her. They impulsively get married that night. The next morning, however, both Johns are shocked to find out that the new Mrs. McMasters is Jonathan's girl from back home. Despite this apparent treachery on the part of both his gal and his pal, the two Johns remain good friends as they continue building their oil enterprise. However, the sad truth remains that whenever Big John manages to get ahead with some money, his eye begins to wander away from his beautiful, devoted wife. It's up to his pal, Square John, also known as Shorty, to try to keep him on the straight and narrow. However, a beautiful foreign temptress comes along, seeming like a business partner, but she may want to become more of a partner to Big John. This film was made by MGM. It was produced by Sam Zimbalist and directed by Jack Conway. It stars Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, and Hedy Lamarr. This movie certainly is a star-studded picture. Indeed. Even other than the four main stars, there are some very familiar character actors if you know the MGM studio people of the day. Most notably Frank Morgan, who is best known probably for being the titular wizard in The Wizard of Oz. But this movie I think is interesting because it's all about this strong male friendship between these two men who start out as rivals. I mean, the first thing they say to each other is, like, hey, get out of my way. But then that kind of rivalry slash deep devotion characterizes their friendship and business partnership throughout the movie. Yes. And I think it's an interesting case of art imitating life because the two actors were also good friends in real life while having a competitive nature. Right. Spencer Tracy was not too happy with that he got second billing to Clark Gable. Yes. Because I believe Clark Gable had a clause in his contract. Yes, he did, that he always would get top billing. But Spencer Tracy wanted a similar clause. So he said, after this, I demand to have equal billing with Clark Gable. And because of that, it was just too difficult to do that. So they never worked together again. That's right, because this was their third film collaboration. And interestingly, Claudette Colbert also had a clause in her contract that she had to get top billing. But she was willing to take third in this because she really wanted to work with Clark Gable again. Right. She wasn't part of the MGM studio at this time, but they had appeared together in It Happened One Night, which was a huge blockbuster, very unexpectedly. The first movie to sweep the Oscars, right? Yes. She won Best Actress very unexpectedly for that movie. And it was just a little Columbia picture directed by relative newcomer Frank Capra. But it was such an enjoyable experience for her that she was eager to work with Clark Gable again. And then as the fourth member of this, you could almost call it a love square, we have Hedy Lamarr. A relative newcomer in the Hollywood scene. She'd recently come to the United States from working in German movies, most notably Ecstasy in 1932. She'd made one or two American movies before this, but you can tell if you've seen some of her later films, she has a stronger German accent here than she would later. But she's very interesting and powerful in this role. This movie distinguishes itself to me as it's the first film in which I saw Hedy Lamarr. And she comes into the film very late, despite being fourth filled. I believe it's 40 minutes in the movie, if not more than that. I think it's after that one hour mark. You're right. She comes into it very late, but just her first entrance. I remember she walked on the screen and I just thought, that is the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen in my life. She was often called the most beautiful woman in Hollywood. And her youthful beauty is definitely on display here. But it was not usually a wholesome beauty, as is signified by the fact that her breakout film was this really risque European movie. She definitely has a feel sort of like Cleopatra or Pegatron Delilah, who she later famously played. So in this movie, she is a contrast to Claudette Colbert, who also had played some more risque roles. That's right, she played Cleopatra, didn't she? Yes, she did. But by this point, she was beginning to take on that more wholesome wife role. And in this film, she definitely is the good girl, whereas Hedy Lamarr is the bad girl. This is a kind of role, Claudette Colbert's that is, that would have been played by someone like Myrna Loy. The part was actually written for Myrna Loy, who famously appeared opposite William Powell in a lot of movies, as well as Spencer Tracy. It's interesting, for a while, because we had watched this movie once and then hadn't watched it again for years. Sometimes when I would think about it, I would think somewhere in the back of my mind, I was thinking this was Myrna Loy. I had to be reminded, oh, that's right, it's Claudette Colbert. They're not that similar, but I feel like moving into the 40s, they started to play very similar roles. Yes, yes, I would agree. Like you said, sort of the housewife. But this character is interesting because there is that bit of, it's not an intentional deception, but what she does right at the beginning when we first see her, it's a bit of a betrayal to John. She says, I never promised to marry him, I'm very fond of him, but she didn't have those feelings for him. But she doesn't tell John the truth because she's afraid she'll lose him. She doesn't think he would be willing to betray his friend like that. And in a way, the fact that she has to deal with a fickle and almost faithless husband for years, you can kind of see it's almost her punishment for being so impulsive. And you know that she knew she was potentially setting herself up for trouble in marrying him so impulsively. But the most noble character out of all four of the leads is actually that of Jonathan Sand, Spencer Tracy's character, because he's such a selfless friend, not only to Clark Gable's character, you know, his pal and business associate who ends up accidentally stealing his girl and not being the best husband in the world to her, but also this girl he loved. Now, you know from the beginning that he's not sure about her. He's aware that she has some reservations about whether she's interested in marrying him. But at that point, he doesn't just say, well, goodbye, thanks a lot. He continues to be that good friend to both of them. And I think that's a character you actually see fairly often in classic films. And it's always a really interesting character, that friend who is in love with the girl, but even though he realizes he can't have her and he would never try to cross that line. He has too much respect for her and for his friend, but that he's just there to kind of try to support them. And ultimately, he's trying to save their marriage just because he cares for her so much. This film is based on a short story called A Lady Comes to Burke Burnett by James Edward Grant, which was published in William Randolph Hearst's publication International Cosmopolitan. It's interesting how many movies actually were based on short stories in Cosmopolitan or other magazines. It was a good way for stories to kind of gain some popularity. And it turned out to be just the sort of thing MGM had been trying to find for years. They'd been looking for something related to the oil business for quite a few years, specifically for Clark Gable because he had oil working in his background. That's fascinating. His father was actually sort of a wildcat oil rigger, and he himself had worked in the Oklahoma oil business as a young man. So he was really eager to make a movie that was about the oil business and the men who work with it. So when this story came along, it seemed like the perfect thing. And Clark Gable actually contributed some story ideas and even some dialogue to the movie because he had that practical hands-on experience. So he really enjoyed making this movie. There's something interesting you see with a lot of actors, more so from the classic era. So many of them, they had such fascinating lives before they got into the acting business. It's kind of crazy, actually, when you read a person's life story. It's like, and he became an actor? It's just because they did these really rugged things or kind of rough backgrounds sometimes. And it's just funny how people will stumble into entertainment. And Hollywood would often capitalize on that and see that that could make them more relatable to the average person. Especially as this was kind of at the tail end of the Great Depression. So Clark Gable's image as a kind of common man of the people made him very relatable and popular. And I think that's why that first movie that he and Claudette Colbert made together, it happened when it was popular because he was like this poor, down-on-his-luck beat reporter. So people could relate to it. And was that sort of a switch for him? Yes, he mostly played thugs up to that point. Villains? Villains, yes. And at that point, he showed that he could be a kind of tough, rough-around-the-edges guy, but also a lovable character. So he began to switch to a more sympathetic role. And I think that kind of set the tone for a type of leading man that then became more popular. Yes, I would agree. It was the beginning of, some people call it, the first screwball comedy. And this movie definitely doesn't have as many comedic elements as some other films around the same time. There are some light moments. I think Frank Morgan probably supplies most of them. His funny, babbling, mumbling way that he always had, getting all excited and frustrated, he's always funny. He always has some levity. But, like most movies of this period, it has a really good pacing going back and forth between drama, romance, conflict, action, a little humor, back to some romance. I find Spencer Tracy's very funny. Yeah, he is funny. Just in sort of a natural way. Not like he's trying to get laughs, but he can always be very, very funny in this kind of his demeanor. Yeah, there's kind of a natural swagger about him and an honest quality that makes you laugh. And the banter between the two of them is very good and very natural, like you said, because they were friends in real life. This movie proved very popular, it made a good profit, and it was the top earning film of 1940. Like Gone with the Wind, this movie has some impressive fire stuff. They like burning things at MGM. Indeed. In fact, it was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Special Effects. And I think that dramatic fire sequence was probably the main reason it got both of those. And even though there is quite a bit of double exposure used, obviously, you can tell, as you commented, they were really burning something down. It's mainly in this scene where, after the first time the two Johns have a very successful oil business, one of their oil riggings catches on fire. And it's burning horribly. And they have a small amount of time to try to use nitroglycerin to have a huge explosion to blow out the fire. But to do that, the two men have to use shields to go almost right into the flames to set the fuses. And there's just so much flame and you can feel the heat. It's a very tense scene. So that's one of the more action-filled parts. I remembered that very vividly from watching it the first time. That was one of the main things that stood out in my memory about this film, the visual of that sequence. And that's also a fascinating idea to me, that you use an explosion to put out a fire. It's sort of like Cures Like, and it works, too. It's kind of crazy. It's interesting to see the realistic oil pumping and to see how this was a big part of America's growth, the boom of the nation, the growth of the oil business in the early 20th century. And like we said, the movie starts in 1918. And at the very beginning, you get a real kind of Wild West feel, like the muddy streets, the saloon girls, the music, and some of the costumes. And then immediately after that, they seem to forget it's supposed to be a period piece at all, and it's just 1940. In terms of costuming, I think you still see some cars that are more historical. And with the oil riggings, the house, they stick to that. But they weren't trying too hard to show an accurate, all right, now it's the 1920s, now it's the 1930s. Because they wanted both of their leading ladies to look, I think, very fashionable, very a la mode, so they didn't want them to look outdated in a way. Because it's being a period piece, in some ways, is not a main focus of it. You pointed out they just started earlier, so it didn't end up in 1960, because it covers a long time. You don't know exactly how long it is, actually. There are references to Prohibition, but that started just two years after 1918. And there definitely are some, like they'd been married seven years at one point. It probably ends around 1930 or so. Yeah, the costumes are definitely beyond that. But again, it's almost not long enough ago to be a period piece. You know, it's just a little over 20 years, and it ends after World War I has already ended. So it's not really about that, about what's happening, it's just about the oil business. So the time period takes a secondary position to that. My outfit is inspired by the second costume which Claudette Colbert wears the morning after her wedding. It's a very simple, sort of mid-30s style dress, with the mid-calf length skirt and the puffy sleeves, a black belt, and simple shoes. Later on in the film, she wears a black hat, very much like this one. My outfit is based on the first costume which you see Hedy Lamarr wear. It's a stylish pantsuit with black pants and a light-colored overgarment. Throughout the film, she wears an assortment of stylish hats and some large pearl jewelry. This movie has such a dramatic love triangle which then expands to a square. It's interesting because although four people are involved, you almost can't call it a square because I say in a square both men have to be involved with both women and that's not really the case. Contrary to what the publicity shots will show you, there are many publicity shots where you've got Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable looking at each other and Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr looking at each other. That's not really the case. Spencer Tracy isn't interested in any woman except Claudette Colbert. There is an interesting part when he actually goes and in a very businesslike manner proposes marriage to Hedy Lamarr's character just because he's trying to get her away from the other Dom. But there's nothing personal with him. This is a very complex story which involves many potential moral issues because you've got two men in love with the same woman but that man remains a friend to the two of them and then the husband is hinted at having flirtations, if not affairs, with other women. Most notably, then this other real rival comes along, Karin, Hedy Lamarr's character, and she really is tempting him away, potentially even having a very serious extramarital affair with him. I would say that's implied. Earlier on, his wife catches him with this saloon girl. He's kind of dancing and drinking. That just seems like he was getting drunk and having a little too much fun. But with Karin, it's obviously an extended relationship. So I would say there's definitely an implication that that's actually an affair. Yes. And she seems like she's going to try to actually get him away from his wife and want to marry him. So it's interesting to look at movies like this which tackle some very serious and mature subject matter which were made during this time period of 1934 to 1954, which is the era during which the Motion Picture Production Code was law of the land in the Wild West of Hollywood, overseen by the Production Code Administration which was headed by Joseph I. Breen. This is commonly called the Hayes Code but that's inaccurate because Will H. Hayes was really a politician who was in charge of the larger political organization, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. The PCA was the on-the-ground organization which really did the work of self-regulation in Hollywood. And you can see it as an advisory board which got very little screen credit or credit in the newspapers but did the tough job of working with the filmmakers every step of the way to ensure that the movies were made right in the first place so censorship wasn't needed. So that's why I always refute the argument, oh that's censorship. No, it's not censorship. Censorship is if some board in Maryland decides to cut out scenes after the movie's been released. This was self-regulation because Joe Breen was a pal of the movie makers and he would meet with them at restaurants, in their offices, at a bar, and look at the script from the first draft and say, you know, be careful the way you depict this relationship. You can hint that there's an affair but it needs to be not blatant so that young children won't see anything that's inappropriate. It needs to be very tasteful and it can never look too good. You've got to always uphold the state of marriage. That's the most important part. We like to say some movies are like an opera. I think this one definitely deserves that because you've got the two friends in love with the same woman, the other woman, the man who thinks his wife is having an affair with the trusted friend. It happens in so many operas but she's blameless. I think the thing which code films share with operas is a strong message. It didn't always have to end in somebody being stabbed to death in movies like it usually does in opera but it shows that there are consequences to sin, to doing the wrong thing. Oftentimes in that they don't go as far in movies so that the stabbing isn't necessary to show the message. This movie I think is a great example of a very mature subject matter with many nuanced layers that's handled very tastefully. Because of that I think it's something that could be enjoyable for a lot of people because the whole thing about the oil business and the drama and the fire and all that, I feel like it could be really a man's picture. Then you've got these two really great strong female characters. So the romantic and family element could be more appealing to women. Definitely. There are even some really touching family scenes with their little boy. Yes. Such a cute little fella. There's something kind of interesting to note that whenever you see Clark Gable with children, in films he's really, really good with children. So it makes you kind of like him more. Especially with a character like this. He can't be that much of a brute because you can tell these young child actors really like him. So he has a gentle fatherly spirit which his son sees here. You see that also in Gone with the Wind and The Hucksters. I think the genuine friendship and relationship between the three main actors really comes across. The two fellows were pals. Claudette Colbert and Spencer Tracy were very close. Hedy Lamarr wasn't as friendly with some of the other people. Particularly Spencer Tracy didn't really like her. I heard that Spencer Tracy didn't get along very well with either of the ladies. I think it was Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. They were really friendly and the two men liked each other. I'm not sure how Clark Gable felt about it. I know his wife, Carol Lombard, was always sure to show up on the set on the days he was filming with Hedy Lamarr. Dressed to the nines to make sure that he wasn't... Can't blame her. But I think that animosity which Spencer Tracy had with Hedy Lamarr really is evident in a very powerful way. The way his character is also supposed to not like her. Speaking of this being made under the code and the subtlety, I remember very vividly the scene when he comes to see her. Not in great detail. I'd forgotten that he asked her to marry him. I just remembered there's some very clever allusions he's making in the dialogue. To red velvet curtains and to her being like a painted lady in the old wooden saloons. But it's very subtle. If you're really young, you won't get it. But it was kind of interesting. I didn't specifically know exactly what he was talking about, but it's just done in such a way that if you are a more mature audience member, you just kind of get the implication of what he's saying in it. But it's very tasteful and I just think it's very powerful. It's much better than if he was just calling her names or something. Yes. That's the thing that I think people don't necessarily realize about classic films if they haven't seen a lot of them. That's true. They think that either movies were squeaky clean family films like Shirley Temple movies or they got away with something. They were getting around the code. Not realizing that the movies which included the more mature topics were actually the ones which show the code the most. Those are the ones that the PCA worked on more intimately. Yes. And even things like the four-letter word in Gone with the Wind. That wasn't like, oh, the PCA wasn't looking. No, they argued and worked and compromised for months on every decision. And even if it was something that broke the code technically in letter, the spirit of the code was compromised. And sometimes that meant, all right, you've cut out almost everything. We'll let you keep that one thing. Because ultimately, it's not that we're the boss and you're our slaves or our employees. It was a partnership. It was working together. Kind of the real American spirit of democracy with elected officials. The PCA and Joe Breen especially was the only person who ever was able to do that job properly because he knew that it required compromise. The man who wrote the code, Martin Quigley, always said he never could have enforced it properly because he would have been too tough. He would have just been so insistent on every letter of it that they would have rebelled. And the people who followed Joseph Breen or his assistants weren't strong enough. So that kind of wisdom and insight and cleverness and making people think things are their own ideas, sort of like you see in Square John, the way he tricks his pal, Big John, into thinking things are his idea many times. That's kind of like Mr. Breen working with a filmmaker. They do it to each other, actually. I think that's a lot of the spirit of a true friendship like that. Sometimes you have to kind of pull it over on the other person. So this movie is a film I would recommend to any man, especially a man who thinks that maybe classic films are a little on the silly side or a little too mild. They're not manly or action-packed. I say give this movie a chance. You'll see that it's more mature and more daring than a lot of code films. Or at least what you think a lot of code films are. It'll give you a deeper understanding of what the Breen era really was and I think kind of a nuanced look into an important part of building America in the early part of the 20th century, the oil industry. And after watching this movie, I know you're going to want to see more films made with these four phenomenal actors. You can find this film in a nicely remastered black-and-white copy on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, many other streaming platforms, as well as on DVD from sites like Barnes & Noble, Walmart, and of course Amazon. It's just about two hours and it's a well-remastered action-packed film that you're sure to enjoy. Join us next time as we discuss a very different film, a charming musical romantic comedy about a globe-trotting foreign correspondent who wins back the affection of his long-suffering lady friend with the help of two charming little French orphans. Thank you for watching! Goodbye!