jacobs-greenwood This is one of the many entertaining pairings of Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy; it's about two "wildcat" oil friends who become competitors and also get involved with two beautiful women, Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr. Frank Morgan also figures prominently as a competitor and partner.Directed by Jack Conway, with a screenplay by John Lee Mahin that was based on James Edward Grant's story, this slightly above average adventure romance drama received Academy Award nominations for its B&W Cinematography and Special Effects. Lionel Atwill and Chill Wills also appear.The plot is light fare: Gable is a tough guy who literally runs into tough guy Tracy, but the two become fast friends and scheme to drill for oil using someone else's money (Morgan's). If I'm not mistaken, this film features the scene where the two compete to see who can punch someone the farthest!They eventually strike it rich, and even partner with Morgan. Gable meets, falls in love with, and marries Colbert without realizing that she was Tracy's girl. But Tracy sucks it up and the two become big time oilmen until Gable's treatment of Colbert doesn't meet with Tracy's standards, and the partnership breaks up.Years later and successful again, Gable, still with Colbert, is working in New York with the beautiful Lamarr in his employ as a spy; Tracy has made his own success as well.Tracy also arrives in New York, visits his old flame Colbert, goes to Gable's office and assesses Lamarr, and then brawls with Gable to make him realize what he's got in Colbert. Tracy also testifies in court to help Gable out of a jam. Gable returns to Colbert and has this memorable, double entendre exchange:Gable: "you're going to stay here with me if I have to lick ya" Colbert: "of course I'll stay ... you can lick me if it'll help"The two, then the three (Tracy), and finally the four (Morgan) reconcile and are planning to work together to find oil again as the film closes.

Robert J. Maxwell MGM produced a good number of these pictures -- two pals driven apart (for a time) by a woman. In more than one case, Clark Gable was the raffish go-getter and his pal, Spencer Tracy, was the more grounded and less reckless partner.Here, the two are partners in a wildcatting oil drill in Texas in the earlier years of the century. They're both broke and have a lot of fun talking investors into funding their enterprise, stealing equipment, and celebrating when the oil comes in. It's the beginning of the automobile explosion and the oil is black gold. They also use oil in the production of lubrication, WD-40, plastic, cosmetics and ointment.The fly in the ointment is Claudette Colbert. She's a City Mouse whom Tracy deeply loves. But when she comes to Texas for a visit, seeking adventure, she runs into Gable first and the next thing, they're married. Tracy handles the news very well, but it sets up a competitive and unforgiving conflict between the two which is happily resolved at the end, when the principals march, arms linked, across the tawny hills of California's central valley, ready to start again as pals, and somebody mentions the place is called Kettleman Hills. Discovered in 1928, it was one of the biggest oil fields in California, now depleted of all but one half of one percent of its original oil.Well, there's hardly a dull moment in the movie. In fact, there IS no dull moment in the movie. There's always Gable glad-handing everyone, Tracy glowering, Colbert wondering if Gable really loves her, and Hedy Lamarr glowing with her incendiary sensuality. It's hardly worth repeating that Hedy Lamarr was not her real name. It's far to good to be true. Her actual name was Hedy Keester von Rauchen-Verboten. There's a lot of shouting and one good brawl before Gable and Tracy renew their bond. Fist fights are the only way that REAL MEN can resolve their differences. Can you imagine them sitting around and discussing their opposing values? "How do you feel about my stealing your girl, Square John?" "Oh, I don't know. I -- I feel all EMPTY inside. (Sob.)" You'll love it.

vincentlynch-moonoi This is one of my favorite films with either Spencer Tracy or Clark Gable...and here you have both! And one of my favorite scenes -- Gable and Tracy meeting for the first time on plank across a muddy street and then both getting soaked in mud -- is a classic. And, the film has another very necessary ingredient -- Frank Morgan, whose role sort of holds the whole thing together.Gable and Tracy play two oil wildcatters who steal drilling equipment from Morgan. After a few false starts they strike it rich and than cut Morgan in for a percentage of their business. The fun is in following their cyclical ups and downs along the way in both oil and a woman -- Claudette Colbert who intended to marry Tracy, but then falls in love with Gable.This is a pretty interesting film where you can learn a bit about the climate of the wildcat oil business of the day. And, the plot here is pretty good, as well. The only place in the story where things fall down a bit is late in the picture with the courtroom scenes. The director hurried through this portion of the film so much that some of the actors talk so fast it's almost hard to understand them...although Tracy gives one heck of a soliloquy here.It's hard to say whether this is Gable's or Tracy's picture. Perhaps it is one of those rare cases where they really do share the load equally, and they have a great chemistry on screen (this is one of three they made together...but the last because the top billing contracts of both actors later made their appearing together a problem the studio couldn't solve). Gable is Gable. But it's interesting to note a very different Tracy here than the one you might have seen in "Boys Town" just two years earlier. Perhaps a bit more like the Tracy of "Northwest Passage", also in 1940.Claudette Colbert is wonderful here as Gable's wife. The odd star out is Hedy Lamarr, who by rights shouldn't have gotten equal billing with Gable, Tracy, and Colbert. She doesn't appear until after the halfway point in the picture, and in screen time comes in a weak fourth...frankly, Frank Morgan gets more screen time and is the far more interesting character. But, that's not the way Hollywood works. And I must say, at least in this picture, Lamarr stinks. She was a very attractive woman. Period.Excellent motion picture, and one that should find a place on your DVD shelf...it's certainly on mine.

DKosty123 This is a case of a film with an amazing cast being done well as a period piece but which is an aging piece of film. The version I watched seemed choppy in sequences, including the first encounter between Gable & Tracy where the first time Gable calls him Shorty was missing. As I kept viewing this copy, it appeared the sequences were choppy & I can't believe when this film was first released it was that choppy. The question is can it be restored or is there a better copy than the one I saw.This cast of 4 heavy hitters with Tracy, Gable, Hedy Lamaar & Claudet Colbert is almost bigger than the screen. Add in Frank Morgan & Chill Wills and you have to wonder why all these folks were available for the same film. While this is a good film, it could have been a little better.It is interesting seeing & hearing Spencer Tracy make a closing speech in court where he mentions conservation of oil years before the industry even had any programs about this. Especially being before World War 2 as because of Hitler, environmentalism was scrapped for the war effort in some ways. The war did produce some of the earliest recycling programs in the US.This movie is about Wild Catting for oil and how it really was back in the early days. This is the kind of world which no longer exists. In this era, nobody was too big to fail.