Boomtown: Hollywood Looks art the Oil Boom

 

 

Boomtown (1940)

Directed by Jack Conway

MGM, 119 minutes, Not-rated

 

Boomtown spotlights Hollywood heavyweights Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, and Hedy Lamarr. Tracy was miffed that he got second billing, but the unexpected 1934 hit It Happened One Night launched Clark Gable’s star higher in the sky. Colbert, Gable’s costar in 1934, took a role originally written for Myrna Loy.

 

Some history helps understand this comedy/drama better. The novel that led to the script was set in Texas, but producers and director Jack Conway wisely changed the locale to Oklahoma. Remember studying the Trail of Tears in U.S. history? It involved the expulsion of 60,000 Native Americans from five Southeastern states in the years 1830-50. Some 13-16,000 lives were lost in the forced-march to lands in “Indian Territory,” allegedly theirs forever. If you’ve seen Killers of the Flower Moon or read the book, you know that “forever” didn’t last the 19^th century. Land rushes led whites to move into Indian Territory and statehood for Oklahoma* in 1907, just as an oil boom occurred. Coincidence?  

 

Boom Town is an oil-slicked Western that bypasses this sad history, but it’s historical in presenting a frenzy analogous to the California gold rush. Entrepreneurs, outcasts, and dreamers poured into Oklahoma hellbent on making a fortune. In many ways oil strike towns were more like the Wild West than the cattle drives of American myth. In both gold and oil instant towns, corporations and those who had money to invest carried off the biggest hauls. A few oil independent “wildcatters” also struck it rich–enough to keep more settlers coming. “Big John” McMasters (Gable) and “Square John” Sand (Tracy)–called “Shorty” by McMasters–are wildcatters with a record of dry holes and not much jingle in their pockets. They meet in a boom town and decide to double their chances by teaming up. They pull a swindle on equipment seller Luther Aldrich (Frank Morgan) for their futile first big attempt and have to skedaddle just ahead of the sheriff.

 

They scrap together enough money to pay off most of what they owe, but con Aldrich one more time. Luckily, they strike a large deposit. Not so fortunately, McMasters meets Betsy Bartlett (Colbert) at the bar of a hotel and the two have instant chemistry and  marry. Sand thought of her as sweet on him, but accepts his fate. He does, however, take a protective stance toward Betsy. When he catches McMasters dancing very closely with a barroom floozy, the two quarrel to the degree that they flip a coin over the oil field. Square John wins, but Betsy would rather be broke with Big John, and they ride off in search of another strike.

 

Things happen in a boom/bust cycle in which one has a strike while the other pumps (ahem) sand. Then the cycle reverses. That’s generally followed by another partnership, another spat, and another split. This continues until McMasters commands many wells and is so wealthy that he is courted to set up his business in New York. He even invites Sand to oversee parts of what becomes a vertical empire (bottom to top control over oil, equipment, refineries, outlet, and delivery transportation). In his New York office he also acquires a snarky, snappy, and very sexy secretary, Karen Vanmeer (Lamarr). He’s all Oklahoma libido and she’s all New York schemer. This time poor Betsy feels outclassed and hopeless. A close encounter with a pill bottle leads to a conspiracy between Betsy and Sand to ruin Big John via the Sherman Antitrust Act.

 

All of this sounds more serious than it is. Boomtown plays the rivalry for laughs more than regrets. Gable and Spencer are like two battling brothers who deep down take honor, friendship, nonchalance, and risk-taking more seriously than money. Above all, Square John wants Betsy to be happy. In some ways, the cast of Boom Town does for oil what the Marx Brothers did for Florida land speculation in The Cocoanuts.

 

A word of caution: This is at core a male-bonding film in which most women are “girls.” Lamarr’s role is that of a temptress and is unique in that she’s ruthless, not carefree. Gable and Colbert never made another film together. Read between the lines and you’ll figure out why.

 

Rob Weir

 

* Oklahoma derives from Choctaw words that mean “red people.” The “sooners” of sports team names is shameless. They were whites who moved into Oklahoma illegally in advance of lands opened in 1890.