Oil! The ebony lifeblood of American industry...and of mighty fortunes made and lost. In search of one of those black-gold fortunes, two bare-knuckle wildcatters dream, scheme, team up and square off in the make-or-break frenzy of a Texas Boom Town. In this pyrotechnics-filled film classic, the only things bigger than the adventure are the four stars: screen giants Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy as the oilmen and Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr as the women in their tumultuous lives. As the foursome struggle through the personal upheaval of love and loyalties, wealth comes a gusher ? and a rig bursts into a screen-filling inferno that could turn dreams to dust. No wonder Boom Town boomed at the box office, too, as the biggest moneymaker of 1940.
There may be a pair of impressive ladies in the cast, but don't be fooled--Boom Town is a cool love-hate buddy movie from the get-go. Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy are oil wildcatters who meet during a Texas strike, take an instant dislike to each other, go into business together, tussle over a woman, break up, reunite, etc., etc. The film spans years, and various parts of the continent, as each man gets rich and goes bust with regularity. Claudette Colbert, re-teaming with It Happened One Night co-star Gable, is the woman who comes between them, and Hedy Lamarr presents a more exotic temptation later on. Another star here is the dialogue by veteran screenwriter John Lee Mahin, which--despite the wild, credulity-bending twists in the story--is chockfull of salty, slangy talk. The early scenes in the Texas town are crammed with believable oil jargon and great period touches (such as an entrepreneur who charges money to walk on planks across a muddy street). Director Jack Conway (Saratoga) gets the roughneck appeal of the material, and a sequence involving an oil fire is a knockout. Gable and Tracy, who had worked together so memorably in San Francisco, are a terrific match: Gable is all straight-ahead gusto, declaiming every line, as Tracy underplays to crafty effect. Nice supporting parts for Frank Morgan and Chill Wills span the entire movie, which ends, curiously, in a courtroom and a speech about capitalism. --Robert Horton

Customer Rating:
Summary: DEE
Comment: My parents told me about this classic. I enjoyed it a great deal; however, I would like to know if it comes in DVD format. Usually when I order movies I don't check if it is in VHS or DVD and have always received DVD -- so I never thought to check it. Please advise, because I'd like to order one for my parents. Thank you.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: This movie is cut because.......
Comment: The reason they cut these old movies is because if 3 people find something offensive, the studios do not want a frivilous law suit on their hands, so it's it's just easier to cut the film to appease the minority of people. Older movies were not politically correct, and as a result, out come the scissors and let's snip away! Yet today's movies try to offend everyone when it comes to sex and drugs, but that's o.k. because it appeals to the 15 year old movie goers. Something wrong with this picture?

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Customer Rating:
Summary: "Big John" Gable vs. "Shorty" Tracy.
Comment: Along with "Call of the Wild", this is my favorite Gable film(not excluding "Gone with the Wind", made just a year before). They have the similarity that we are in a frontier wildcat situation, looking for some treasure: gold in one case, oil in another. There is an air of tremendous excitement and optimism, which Gable epitomizes. In one case, Gable has wisecracking Jack Oakie and later gorgeous Loretta Young as companions in the search for gold. In the other case, Gable teams up with an enthusiatic Spencer Tracy and later with gorgeous Claudette Colbert.
This is one of the last films Gable made before the tragic death of his wife, Carol Lombard, and his entry into WW II. After that, Gable seemed a changed man on screen. It is also his most autobiographical film, as before his film career, he joined his father as an oil man.
This film , an epic about wildcatting in the early oil industry, invites comparison to the later film "Tulsa", with the same theme. Native Oklahoman Chill Wills is the only actor I am aware of who was in both films. In both cases, the excitement begins with a gusher. Later, there is a spectacular oil field fire that threatens to wipe out fortunes. But the later film lacks anyone with the sizzling chemistry between Gable and Tracy, and also lacks the befuddled humor of Frank Morgan. However, If you enjoyed "Boomtown", you should check out "Tulsa". Susan Hayward is the tough-as-nails wildcat, with Chill Wills as the occasional narrator. But, it tends to drag in places.
The initial meeting between Gable and Tracy, going opposite ways on a one way plank that serves as the pedestrian bridge across a muddy water-soaked road in a wildcat town, reminds us of the initial meeting between Robin Hood(Errol Flynn) and Little John(Alan Hale) in "The Adventures of Robin Hood", in which they try to knock each other off a log crossing a stream. In the present case, the incident ends in a draw, when they both dive into the mud as bullets begin to fly around them. Tracy's initial offense at being dubbed "Shorty" by Gable is soon grudgingly withdrawn when they share a room together. However, woe be to anyone else who parrots Gable in calling him Shorty!
Comparison with the prior Gable film "Wife vs. Secretary" is also in order. In both films, Gable acquires a knockout single woman, who nearly costs him his marriage, as an indespensable assistant in his business. The difference is in the personalities of the women. Harlow's character respects his marriage enough not to encourage an affair, though appearances sometimes fuel rumors. In the present film, Heddy Lamarr's character is a snake who admits to Tracy that she is determined to seduce and marry Gable. Happily, Gable eventually dismisses Lamarr and wife Colbert forgives him.
The ups and downs of Gable's and Tracy's oil businesses, together or separately, and their flip-flopping relationship constitute much of the substance of the film. Tracy makes a memorable epic speech at Gable's anti-trust trial, which serves as the basis of a reconsiliation and a hopeful final scene. This speech should have been quoted in T.J. DiLorenzo's book:"How Capitalism Saved America", in which he argues that anti-trust legislation has done much more harm than good.
I wonder why the color DVD poster for the main feature shows Gable smooching Lamarr rather than Colbert? and why the color poster for the special features shows Tracy and Lamarr together(which occurred for only a few minutes in the film). Is Lamarr considered such a superior beauty that she totally outranks Colbert? Not to my mind.
The special features include a look at some Hollywood stars, including Gable, in their off hours. The quality of the main feature on this DVD is excellent.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Who is....'That other woman??
Comment: Boom Town is a darn good movie about those maverick 'wild/catters' turned loose upon the tundra of those windswept plains of Oklahoma...you can read from other reviewers just how good this MGM vehicle generated...perfect casting makes this film what it is: Clark Gable-Spencer Tracy-Claudette Colbert-Frank Morgan and Chill Wills...ohh, ohh, best eye candy of all....luscious Hedy Lamarr...WoW...is she a head/turner or what!!...every scene she was in, she had my rapt attention...she was a headliner from her European roots filming in the Czech/Republic before those Nazis marched into Prague in 1939, thank goodness she emigrated and MGM put her under contract, no one and I mean no other female actress, can come close to this exciting actress who had.."IT"...oops, watch this wonderful movie [DVD] and see for yourself....Hedy-Hedy-Hedy.... :-)...SSGT CHRIS SARNO-USMC FMF

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Update for the Boom Town DVD by Rags to Riches Reviewer
Comment: The new DVD sharpens the film up considerably. The Theatrical Trailer is included along with a cartoon and Hollywood short that don't have much of anything to do with this great film. As before, I mentioned that I had hoped that all the film would be put back together and although this is a little better there is still some cutting, including the Oklahoma Indian Land Deal Peace Pipe smoking scene which is still missing here. This film was the biggest money maker in 1940. It won an academy award for special effects and deserved it. Why can't we have the whole production on film? Anyway, I still recommend the film for entertainment value. They don't make films for pure fun anymore but this was one of them.

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