I realized very quickly that "Uranium Boom" wasn't a particularly good film when only five minute into the movie, two guys meet and decide to have a fist fight over who gets a hotel room! Such macho histrionics don't bode well for the story. And as for the story, it's set in Colorado in the 1950s and there is a Uranium rush...sort of like the Gold Rush of 1847. Lots of prospectors are trying to get rich and the two guys who were slugging each other a few minutes ago are now partners! Along the way, Brad (Dennis Morgan) and Grady (William Tallman) pick up a ridiculous guide, Navajo Charlie. Charlie is a whole lot of stupid stereotypes rolled into one...some offensive but mostly stupid.
Eventually the trio strike it rich. However, when Brad goes into town to register their big claim, he runs into Jean (Patricia Medina) and they fall in love and marry...and the courtship is whirlwind to say the least. But when they return to Grady and the claim, they realize that Grady is Jean's boyfriend...the one she hasn't yet told she was breaking it off with him. Ooops! Well, not surprisingly, Grady and Brad are no longer friends. Grady goes east and concocts a scheme to destroy Brad and Brad becomes the local Uranium baron...gobbling up all the land around him and making many enemies in the process. What's next? Well, who really cares? I know I didn't.
To say the characters are one-dimensional caricatures is putting it very succinctly. Morgan's character makes no sense, Tallman's character makes no sense and, thankfully, Philip Van Zandt (Navajo Charlie) just disappears from the movie and nothing more is said of him. Their arguments seem contrived, their actions seem inconsistent and you can't help but think the script could have used a re-write. Dull nonsense...and evidence that Morgan's star, once very bright, was now faded to be in such a sub-par B.
By the way, there's a second fight between Brad and Grady near the end. Watch as Grady jumps out of his chair to hit Brad...it's clearly not Tallman at all. In fact, again and again, it's VERY obvious they are using stuntmen...and not hiding them well at all. Sloppy and funny at the same time.
