Flowing Gold

This small box office hit stars two likeable actors and one of the most beautiful women to ever star in the movies in Frances Farmer. She had a tragic life which was properly portrayed by Frances look-alike Jessica Lange. John Garfield at this point in time was churning out the same character over and over again; id est, the hard-boiled rugged type who has more than his share of hard knocks in life. Thus, he is suspiscious of everyone, out for himself and on the run from the cops. That is how the movie begins in our search to find the flowing gold, oil. This movie is essentially a poor man's Boom Town, that box office Smash that starred Gable and Tracy, Colbert and Lamarr. That said, it has its own originalities and a truly exciting finale where Garfield drives a truck across a land slide. Never boring but it never amounts to much either.

Oil-rig worker from Montana, on the run from police, finds himself out west; seems he's killed a man in self-defense and didn't argue too much when his fellow cell-mates made a break for it. A tough but friendly oil foreman takes him on, and together they work feverishly to strike a gusher or lose their lease on the land. An odd, somewhat dislocating mix of elements (noir, gangster drama, light comedy, romance) gets the film off to a convoluted start--even with self-assured John Garfield in the lead. Garfield is so casual about his toughness, his armor, that he walks through the picture almost gregariously, lightening the load. Pat O'Brien (with his large, handsome face, as if he were grandfather to George Clooney) is wonderful as John's first real friend, but Frances Framer is a walking question-mark as the love-interest. With her unhappy eyes and deep, husky voice, Farmer doesn't connect with the audience and never really gets into character, not that there's much of one (she welcomes a date with O'Brien but just as quickly falls for Garfield the same evening). The script, by Kenneth Gamet from a story by Rex Beach, is overly-complicated at the outset, but improves after it settles into a more conventional mode (the technical detail is a big help). The movie delivers a good time in the end, despite some outlandish circumstances and a bit of overplaying from the eccentrics in the supporting cast. **1/2 from ****

It is difficult to believe that, even in 1940, this story was thought original enough to support an "A" picture. Many Westerns have utilized it, with slight variations; sometimes its characters are involved with coal mining; here they are oilfield roughnecks, but that's about as different as it gets. As for the casting, John Garfield is a bit softer than usual, Pat O'Brien a bit tougher, Frances Farmer unremarkable. There is some decent comic relief by Cliff Edwards and Tom Kennedy: good thing, because this conventional melodrama needs all the help it can get.

Frances Farmer never looked lovelier in this adventure/drama about wildcat oilmen trying to beat the lease deadline and bring in an oil well. John Garfield once again is on the lam for a self-defense murder, hooking up with Pat O'Brien and Farmer's father (Raymond Walburn), and constantly apprehensive about the police looking to find him. You can guess what happens - a love triangle between Garfield and O'Brien for Farmer is inevitable. Some minimal comedy is provided by Walburn, Tom Kennedy, Cliff Edwards, and Edwards' fiancée, Jody Gilbert, but I greatly enjoyed some of the special effects, particularly the very exciting oil fire sequence near the end. At one point there's also a most impressive shot of a gusher coming in with the oil rushing towards the camera mounted on top of the derrick. I wondered how that was done without ruining the camera. Still, the stars make the movie worth looking into.

This movie reminds you of Boom Town, with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy fighting each other sometimes and then being friends again. That was an "A" picture and this one is a "B" picture. This one stars John Garfield and Pat O'Brien as two oil workers, who both fall in love with Francis Farmer. Garfield is wanted for murder and running from the cops but O'Brien won't turn him in. Garfield and Farmer are always fighting with each other but it's pretty obvious that their in love. O'Brien is also in love with Farmer but he's too late. Their isn't too much else to the plot and this was one of Garfield's lesser films. Pat O'Brien is his usual self and Farmer's career went downhill after this film.