A big success at the time and it remained popular for a while afterwards, in part because it was such a great star vehicle: Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy as feuding oil wildcatters, who pal around and team up when they're not fighting, make and lose fortunes and both love the same gal (Claudette Colbert).
It's very easy to make and lose money in oil according to this film - Tracy and Gable make a fortune quickly, then Gable loses it via a flick of a coin, then Gable has nothing but bounces back, then Tracy loses his in a South American revolution but bounces back via Oklahoma, then they lose theirs again via financial machinations, then they get it back again.
Hedy Lamarr pops up in the third act as a vamp-but-not-really who temps Gable away from Colbert. Lamarr is good looking, but not much of an actress - watching her I kept having to remind myself "she invented blue tooth".
Colbert is bland, but then I'm not a fan - she reminds me too much of my grandma. Don't get me wrong, I love my grandma, but I don't think shes that vivacious opposite Clark Gable - far too marmish. I didn't like the character either for running off with Gable on night one even though she knew Tracy was in love with her.
Or was he? Tracy is meant to be in love with Colbert, getting upset when Gable roots around on her, but it's just as easy to read he's in love with Gable and gets upset when he goes to women.
There's some more camp value at the end when Gable goes to Colbert "I ought to lick you" and she goes "you can lick me if you like".
MGM's support cast stock company wasn't as strong as Warner Bros but there is Chill Wills, Lionel Atwill and Frank Morgan. The story is decent enough although at two hours is goes in too long - in particular once Gable and Colbert get back together for the second time at the end the film feels as though it should end but there's ten more minutes of this anti-trust hearing.
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