Big John McMasters, an oil wildcatter, builds a fortune with his partner — and their friendship is tested by money, ambition and love.
In Boom Town (1940), Clark Gable plays Big John McMasters, who teams up with Square John Sand, played by Spencer Tracy, to drill for oil. The two men strike it rich, lose it, and strike it rich again, and their partnership is complicated by their shared feelings for Betsy Bartlett, played by Claudette Colbert, and later by Karen Vanmeer, played by Hedy Lamarr.
Gable and Tracy make a wonderful team, with Gable as the bolder, more reckless of the pair. He plays Big John with energy and charm, a man who loves the gamble of wildcatting as much as the fortune it brings.
Boom Town is a lively, big-scale adventure, and Gable’s Big John is at its heart: a man who learns, through success and failure, what friendship is really worth.