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Boom Town

Boom Town

Adventure · Drama · Romance · 1940

Two buddies who rise from fly-by-night wildcatters to oil tycoons over a twenty year period both love the same woman. McMasters and Sand come to oil towns to get rich. Betsy comes West intending to marry Sand but marries McMasters instead. Getting rich and losing it all teaches McMasters and Sand the value of personal ties.

Movie details

Boom Town

“Where Men Are Rough And Tough . . . And Like Their Women The Same Way !”

1940 Adventure · Drama · Romance 1h 59m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.0 / 10

Community rating

Two buddies who rise from fly-by-night wildcatters to oil tycoons over a twenty year period both love the same woman. McMasters and Sand come to oil towns to get rich. Betsy comes West intending to marry Sand but marries McMasters instead. Getting rich and losing it all teaches McMasters and Sand the value of personal ties.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Boom Town?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Jack Conway

Written by

John Lee Mahin · James Edward Grant

Clark Gable

Clark Gable

Big John McMasters

Spencer Tracy

Spencer Tracy

Square John Sand

Claudette Colbert

Claudette Colbert

Betsy Bartlett

Hedy Lamarr

Hedy Lamarr

Karen Vanmeer

Frank Morgan

Frank Morgan

Luther Aldrich

Lionel Atwill

Lionel Atwill

Harry Compton

Chill Wills

Chill Wills

Harmony Jones

Court is in session

Put Boom Town on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.