Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Movie review - "Wildcat" (1943) ***

Enjoyable Pine-Thomas programmer, one of their best. Richard Arlen is very much at home as an oil man who tries to strike it rich. He fines a promising prospect, teams up with Elisha Cook Jnr, starts to look for oil.

It's a good story - Cook dies in an accident, Buster Crabbe is the villain, Arline Judge and William Frawley are two con artists who try to con Arlen by being Cook's sister. It's all good two fisted stuff like Boom Town. Frank McDonald's direction keeps things pumping along, Maxwell Shane and Richard Murphy's script is good, the acting fine.

There's some strong production value too - shots of oil rigs, some up high, a spectacular firey climax. I enjoyed it - it wasn't erratic in tone like many of the other early ones.

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