"Big John" McMasters
Boom Town was an action adventure film carefully tailored for the screen personalities of Gable and Tracy, and for bigger box office appeal, MGM threw in Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr. It was MGM's biggest box office hit of 1940. It was the story of two oilmen, "Big John" McMasters portrayed by Gable, and "Square John" Sand, portrayed by Tracy, who team up in the early 1900s to find oil and wealth in Texas. Both men eventually become wealthy but Gable marries Tracy's girlfriend played by Colbert, much to the detriment of Tracy. Lamarr played Gable's secretary at his corporate oil company once Gable is a big oil tycoon. Gable and Lamarr have an affair but Tracy comes to the rescue of Gable's wife (Colbert) and forces Gable to keep his eyes on her. This was Gable's third and final film with Spencer Tracy and his second and last film with Claudette Colbert. Gable knew something about the oil fields since he had worked as an oilman with his father back in Oklahoma when he was a teenager.
MGM
Boom Town (1940)
Director: Jack Conway
Cast: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr, Frank Morgan, Lionel Atwill, Chill Wills, Marion Martin, Minna Gombell, Sara Haden
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