La bataille de l'or

I rarely say this, but this film would have been much, much better if the very quickly spoken narration at the beginning of the film was removed or done better. In fact, the first time I tried to watch this film, I turned it off due to the horrid introduction. Likewise, the ending narration and its amazing sappiness would also be best if it were removed altogether. These sickeningly preachy bookends to the movie really take what is a decent film and sink it.

The film itself is actually based on real events. It seems that in the 1870s and 80s, hydraulic mining was literally blowing hilltops off in order to extract gold. Using high pressure hoses, the ground was washed away--often flooding the farms in the valleys with sediment or water. For more about this, do a Google search--I found it all moderately interesting. The famous Edwards Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company case decided the legality of a company basically destroying the surrounding area to extract gold or other precious metals.

The first thing that you'll probably notice about the film, other than the horrible opening narration, is the garish color. The print shown on Turner Classic Movies is usually the best available, so I assume no pristine prints survive. Instead, the colors are very gaudy and rather gross. See the film and you'll know what I mean. Despite being made by Warner Brothers, who also made amazingly beautiful color films during this era (such as THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and THE SEA HAWK), this Technicolor just looks yecchy--probably due to the ravages of time. It could use a restoration to sharpen the picture as well.

The film is made up of two camps--the farmers (represented by Claude Rains and his friends) and the miners (represented by the likes of Sidney Toler). Rains' side is obviously in the right--the miners are creating an environmental disaster area and have no regard for the financial damages they are causing the farmers. However, nice guy George Brent still works for the mine, as he runs one of the three mines in the area. How he is able to justify the mine owners' actions AND try to be friends with Rains and his family (including his practically perfect daughter who any man in the film or audience would adore, Olivia de Havilland) is sure tricky. However, over time, the mine owners' tactics get worse and ultimately it's all heading for a big showdown--either in the courts, in all-out war or both.

The film has a really nice cast--with lots of fine actors. In addition to Rains, Toler, Brent and de Havilland, there is a long list of character actors who make the film worth seeing. George Hayes (in an appearance just before he became known in the credits as "Gabby"), Tim Holt, Henry Davenport, Barton MacLane, Henry O'Neill, Willie Best (in a role that does not cast him as an idiot, thank goodness) and Russell Simpson (among others) may not be household names, but for old movie nuts like myself, they are familiar friends.

Overall, the film is educational and entertaining--but also a bit predictable and formulaic. But, if you can somehow ignore the start and finish, you may find like I did that the film IS worth seeing.

A number of reviewers fault the casting of George Brent in this film. In defense of Warner Brothers, at the time that this film was cast Flynn wasn't quite Flynn yet, and George Brent was a reliable first lead in costume dramas. It's true that I see more sparks between Mickey and Minnie Mouse than between George and Olivia in this film, but the casting must have seemed a good idea at the time. Recall that Warners seriously considered George for the lead in Captain Blood.

The film is entertaining to old timers for the casting of so many old reliable and familiar faces. I wish Willie Best had had a chance to play a serious role just once.

George Hayes was obviously transitioning to his Gabby persona, previously he had specialized in villainy.

Not much distinction to this routine western, aside from the fact that it introduced Olivia de Havilland to the screen for the first time in technicolor. Unfortunately, neither her role nor the film itself are ever able to rise above the routine dimensions of a weak script. George Brent stars as the miner in conflict with de Havilland's rancher father Claude Rains.

It takes place in the 1870s and has a narration at the beginning and end that tells us this was meant to be an important little "epic" for the Warner studio. Despite some solid scenes of mining operations and an agreeable enough cast that includes Tim Holt (as de Havilland's brother), Margaret Lindsay and Sidney Toler (before his Charlie Chan days), the story itself is a weakness guaranteed to produce yawns long before the rambling tale reaches an action-filled finish. But by then, you're not likely to be paying too much attention.

Of all of the early ingenue roles de Havilland had at Warner Bros., this is definitely one of her weakest. It seems that when she wasn't playing opposite Flynn, she had no real leading man. Charisma between her and Brent is sorely lacking.

Jared Whitney (George Brent) is the manager of a hydraulic gold mine in 1880 California, but his position is complicated when he falls in love with Serena Ferris (Olivia De Havilland), the daughter of landowner Colonel Ferris Nclaude Rains), who is opposed to the mine.

Gold Is Where You Find It is only notable because it's and early Technicolor film and it's the only film I've seen where George Brent got top billing! Brent acquits himself well in the lead, but one thinks Errol Flynn may have been better suited to the part.

The Technicolor scenery is lovely, as is Olivia De Havilland. Claude Rains and Margaret Lindsay are wasted in supporting roles, while Michael Curtiz directs very well. Barton MacLane gets a good part as the treacherous mine foreman, and there's a spectacular flood sequence at the finale.

Coming in at a brisk 94 minutes, it's looks as though big chunks were cut out of the film, as Marcia Ralston is prominently billed in the cast but is seen very little in the film. Overall, good fun.

Although she might admit to it now, but not back in her salad days, one of the reasons that Olivia DeHavilland's films are so well remembered from her days at Warner Brothers was the sheer expense of them. She did do her share of sound stage shooting, but as often as not Warner Brothers would cast her as the heroine in their expensive period costume dramas. She certainly did them well, though she wanted better parts. Even films like Anthony Adverse and Gone With The Wind added to her reputation. But these films and Captain Blood, Dodge City, The Private Lives Of Elizabeth And Essex and The Adventures Of Robin Hood are what we remember of her early period and one of the reasons she's better known than a lot of her contemporaries today.

One that was less known and I suspect because she did not have Errol Flynn as her leading man is Gold Is Where You Find It. This is a western feud story set in 1879 in California thirty years after the Gold Rush. It's not hard rock Fortyniners panning for gold out of the stream any more. Huge mining concerns are using hydraulics to create mudslides that are ruining the crops of landowners large and small. The biggest of these is Claude Rains whose grain crops like everyone else's is threatened by the mine owned by Sidney Toler whose foreman is Barton MacLane.

Into the lives of all of them comes mining engineer George Brent from the east and he makes an impression on all, on MacLane's skull and on the lives of Rains's children Olivia DeHavilland and Tim Holt. He gets caught right in the middle of the feud coming to a boil. Do we doubt where he's going to end up?

Michael Curtiz directed Gold Is Where You Find It with the usual Curtiz supply of action. There's a climax involving a battle between the miners and the farmers that's exciting and well done. The costumes and sets reflect a good eye for the period. In fact Curtiz probably decided all this needed was Errol Flynn and he got him next year for Dodge City.

Though she hated making the costume epics, these films have survived and part of the reason they have survived is Olivia DeHavilland is so darn good in them. Sadly this film is not out so one has to wait until TCM broadcasts it. It's worth the wait.