Flowing Gold

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.

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.

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 ****

Another reviewer was right, this film seems a lot like the Gable-Tracy film BOOM TOWN, but instead stars Pat O'Brien and John Garfield. Like BOOM TOWN, this one is about the oil business and guys who love to gamble on whether or not they can make a strike. Ironically, this movie debuted only one week before BOOM TOWN and I assume both films, while similar, were created completely separately and didn't influence the other--but it sure looks like they are the same general plot.

The film begins with Garfield looking for a job in the oil fields. However, he has a secret--he's a wanted man. Despite this, O'Brien is impressed with Garfield and feels he's an honest man, so he decides to give Garfield a break.

Later, Frances Langford comes along and takes an instant dislike for Garfield. If you are familiar with films of this era, this can only mean one thing--they'll be head over heels in love by the end of the movie! The problem is that O'Brien as well is interested in Langford--creating a dilemma. Will Garfield stab his buddy in the back to get the girl or will O'Brien be a regular guy and step aside? It's all predictable but fun--the sort of film which Warner Brothers did so well. Light fluff, of course, but enjoyable fluff.

So of the two films, which is worth seeing? Well, I'd say it was a toss-up--both are about equally good (but far from great), though BOOM TOWN might be a tiny bit better. Of course, I might just feel this way because Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were in this film--two of my all-time favorites.

FLOWING GOLD (Warner Brothers, 1940), directed by Alfred E. Green, is not in reference about gold flowing above water, but about men working in the oil fields with oil being termed as flowing gold. Noted as being the studio's answer to a similar but bigger budget all-star two-hour production of BOOM TOWN (1940) starring Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr, FLOWING GOLD is of lesser scale (at 81 minutes), starring John Garfield, Pat O'Brien and Frances Farmer (on loan from Paramount) as main attractions. Though suggested on the story by Rex Beach, much of the plot strays from the author's novel and possibly the earlier 1924 First National Pictures silent production of the same name starring Milton Sills and Anna Q. Nilsson.

FORWARD: "OIL! Black, liquid gold flowing from the Earth ...! OIL! Stored by nature a million years ago - bringing to man a new civilization! OIL! Black gold, locked deep in the Earth, has challenged man's imagination. Man took up the challenge and sank steel shafts to tap the reservoirs of this strange power ... Flowing Gold -" For this new and updated adaptation edition, the story opens outside an oil company where Johnny Blake (John Garfield), along with other men, awaiting all night for the establishment to open at 7 a.m to apply for work. After spotting a couple of officers showing posters of him (WANTED FOR MURDER: John Alexander), Johnny runs away, ending up at another oil field miles down the road. Though Hap O'Connor (Pat O'Brien) a tough foreman, recognizes him as a fugitive from justice, rather than calling the police to have him arrested, Hap gives him the job in the oil fields instead. After Johnny saves Hap from getting injured or killed by Collins (Edward Pawley), a drunken crew member he just fired, Hap and Johnny form a bonding friendship. Because Hap knows of Johnny's murder history being in self defense, he tries talking him into giving himself up and face trial, but Johnny feels he would be found guilty anyway and having to serve a prison term. As Johnny finds another officer hot on his trail, he drifts away. Hap and his crew, including Hot Rocks (Cliff Edwards) and Petunia (Tom Kennedy), however, leave their present job out west for another oil field job at the Village of Eagle's Neck. While working under Ellery Q. "Wildcat" Chalmers (Raymond Walburn), Hap is reunited with the old man's daughter, Linda (Frances Farmer), who loves him. Later, Johnny enters the scene, working for Wildcat's opposition, Charles Hammond (Granville Bates). His meeting with Linda gets off to a bad start after assisting getting her stuck car out of the mud and nick-naming her "freckle nose." Now working for Hap, Johnny becomes Hap's best worker, until friction comes between them for their love of Linda. Others in the cast are Jody Gilbert (Tillie, the lady barber); Frank Mayo (Mike Brannigan); Virginia Sale (The Nurse) and John Alexander (The Sheriff).

Typical with totally familiar material throughout, FLOWING GOLD is agreeable entertainment from the old school of motion pictures, thanks to its fine cast and action oil field sequences. Pat O'Brien once more assumes his duty as one of those tough but "swell guys," as he did with John Garfield earlier in the prison melodrama, CASTLE ON THE HUDSON (1940) with Garfield as the prisoner and O'Brien as his caring warden. O'Brien and Garfield work well together, though their teaming is not as memorable as O'Brien's work opposite another movie wiseacre, James Cagney. It should be noted that O'Brien earlier co-starred in a similar oil-well themed drama titled FLAMING GOLD (RKO Radio, 1933) opposite William Boyd and Mae Clarke, with titles that could stir up confusion.

As much as the female lead for FLOWING GOLD might have been played by Warner Brothers' contract players as Ann Sheridan being the top contender, Priscilla Lane or simple-minded Gale Page, Frances Farmer gets her chance to act opposite John Garfield on screen for the only time. They were better known at that time for their stage production to Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy," which was later transferred to the screen in 1939 by Columbia Pictures starring Barbara Stanwyck and newcomer, William Holden. Though GOLDEN BOY did make an overnight star out of Holden, it would have been a wonder how the movie version might have turned out had Garfield and Farmer appeared in the screen version instead. This will never be known. Because Garfield and Farmer did appear in FLOWING GOLD could be the sole reason for this film's interest entirely, considering how they both perform well in a natural manner acting style. Raymond Walburn, Cliff Edwards, Tom Kennedy and Jody Gilbert lend loyal support in both straight and comedic performances to brighten up the situations.

Never distributed to video cassette but available on DVD, FLOWING GOLD did have its TV broadcast history first on commercial television during the after midnight hours late show presentations before going towards cable TV's Turner Network Television (late 1980s) and Turner Classic Movies where this and all of John Garfield/Warner Brothers features can be seen and enjoyed. (*** oil gushers).