Product Details

• Actors: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr, Frank Morgan
• Directors: George Sidney, Jack Conway, Rudolf Ising
• Writers: James Edward Grant, John Lee Mahin, Morey Amsterdam
• Producers: Fred Quimby, Louis Lewyn
• Format: Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 1.0), French (Dolby Digital 1.0)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: June 20, 2006
• Run Time: 119 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000F7CMP4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,338 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Boom Town" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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

Product Description

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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It is the closest real life movie of our early oil history April 7, 1999

By A Customer

Format:VHS Tape

The movie has a great cast with some of the best actors that ever graced Hollywood. You have action from the very beginning that holds your attention throughout the whole movie. You can feel the excitment of every oil discovery and the disappointment of every dry-hole. Boom Town has a story which is simple and is brought together with non complicated characters. The people wre all individuals, with there own ideas and had the guts and determination to risk everything to make there dream come true. I like to think, that was the way people were like in those days. If you like great acting and a movie of old adventure with a story that cannot be repeated in these modern times, then Boom Town is for the old fashioned of heart with romance in the soul.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Update for the Boom Town DVD by Rags to Riches Reviewer July 6, 2006

By Michael Ziegler

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Hollywood Movie Ever About the Oil Industry December 18, 2001

By Robert H. Chaney

Format:VHS Tape

This is without question the best Hollywood movie ever made about the oil industry. It truly captures the passion, excitement, adventure and pioneering spirit that has made wildcatting such a wonderful endeavor. It also portrays the extraordinary period in history that the early decades of the 20th century provided for the industry. A time when a man with a dream, desire, and some skill, combined with a bit of luck, could overnight become one of the richest and most successful people in America. Often after having persevered through a long period of bad luck and dry holes. The movie also appears to incorporate in fascinating pieces of the actual histories of a number of the great wildcatters of the era.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hawks + Cukor March 15, 2005

By Kevin Killian HALL OF FAME

Format:VHS Tape

I loved it, but I have to agree with the other reviewer who said that something gets lost when Clark Gable decides to go to New York and moves Claudette Colbert and little Jack with him.

The fun of the first part of the picture is replaced by an agonizing melodrama, which I also like, but it could have been two different pictures. The first movie would tell all about Gable and Tracy's friendship and their rivalry over Colbert--a kind of Howard Hawks male bonding movie. The key scene in this one would be the hotel room in the "boom town" in which Tracy and Gable strip to their underwear and Gable starts calling Tracy "Shorty," a nickname he hates but he loves to have Gable call him. The second film is more of a George Cukor story, for once Hedy Lamarr enters the picture as a Dutch lobbyist, this gives Claudette Colbert a whole lot more to worry about than scrubbing oil stains off Gable's overalls. Watching this picture recently I found myself more involved with Hedy Lamarr's role than I had been previously. She's not "brash" and "American" like the others actors (yes, I know Colbert is French but she has that American buzz thing going on) and she's languorous and moody, speaking of herself modestly as a "high class eavesdropper." But she's far from a bad actress, she's a bit more subtle than the other three (not to mention such certified hams as Chill Wills and Frank Morgan). Lamarr's scenes convince you that she was actually a very smart girl, didn't she invent the submarine or something in real life? You can see her brain turning over every possibility in Gable's long, lanky frame, and the glint in his dark eyes.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This movie is cut because....... June 24, 2008

By Tom C.

Format:DVD

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?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "Boom Town (1940) ... Gable/Tracy/Colbert/Lamarr/Morgan ... Jack Conway (Director) (2006)" October 23, 2011

By J. Lovins HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) presents "BOOM TOWN" (1940) - (119 min/B&W) -- Starring: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr, Frank Morgan, Lionel Atwill & Chill Wills

Directed by Jack Conway

Clark Gable as "Big John" McMasters and Spencer Tracy is "Square John" Sand both seek their fortunes in the Texas oil fields. They simultaneously fall in love with Elizabeth, but it's "Big John" who wins out. When both Johns grow rich on oil, "Big John" lets money go to his head, and he begins neglecting his wife for the yummy Karen, the precocious companion of businessman Harry Compton. "Square John", who still carries a torch for Elizabeth but doesn't want to see her heart broken, tries to buy off Karen; when this fails, he decides to ruin "Big John" financially. But when "Big John" is charged with violating anti-trust rules by the crooked Compton, "Square John" rushes to the side of his old pal.

Oscar Nominated for Best Cinematography (black & white) & Best Special Effects.

Special footnote: -- Clark Gable was anxious to do the film because his father had been an oil rigger, and Gable himself had worked on oil rigs in Oklahoma before becoming an actor ~ Boom Town saw the re-teaming of Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable - back together on screen for the first time since the scintillating 'It Happened One Night' (1934) ~ This is the third (and last) pairing of those two "mega-stars": Clark Gable & Spencer Tracy. They were to appear together on two previous occasions - 'San Francisco' (1936) & 'Test Pilot' (1938).

BIOS:
1. Jack Conway (Director)
Date of Birth: 17 July 1887 - Graceville, Minnesota
Date of Death: 11 October 1952 - Pacific Palisades, California

2.... Clark Gable
Date of birth: 1 February 1901 - Cadiz, Ohio,
Date of death: 16 November 1960 - Los Angeles, California

3. Spencer Tracy (aka: Spencer Bonaventure Tracy)
Date of birth: 5 April 1900 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
Date of death: 10 June 1967 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles

4. Claudette Colbert [aka: Emilie Claudette Chauchoin]
Date of Birth: 13 September 1903 - Saint-Mandé, Seine [now Val-de-Marne], France
Date of Death: 30 July 1996 - Speightstown, Barbados

5. Hedy Lamarr [aka: Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler]
Date of Birth: 9 November 1914 - Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]
Date of Death: 19 January 2000 - Orlando, Florida

6. Frank Morgan [aka: Francis Philip Wuppermann]
Date of Birth: 1 June 1890 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 18 September 1949 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California

7. Lionel Atwill
Date of Birth: 1 March 1885 - Croydon, London, England
Date of Death: 22 April 1946 - Pacific Palisades, California

8. Chill Wills
Date of Birth: 18 July 1902 - Seagoville, Texas
Date of Death: 15 December 1978 - Encino, California

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 4 Stars
Performance: 4 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 119 min on DVD ~ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) ~ (June 20, 2006) Read more ›