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Film · MGM · 1940

Boom Town

Boom Town

46Watch it awake.

They get rich on oil and the money is what knocks the friendship over.

Pass it on

The review

Oil is the job, and then it is the trouble. Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy strike it, fight over Claudette Colbert, and get rich enough to hurt each other. I believed the wells. Wildcatting is a real gamble, and 1940 made this a solid adult hit because people like watching a fortune come in.

The money does not leave the friendship standing. Nobody is saved by a speech about loyalty. If you have a partner at a job that can pay too well, you'll recognize the crack. It is not a family night, and it is not a moral pasted on after the strike. The strike is the damage.

Journal

Keep Boom Town in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 46. Yours can differ.

The glance

Household and Piety and Republic and Temperance and Stewardship are the thin ones.

  1. 9Industry
  2. 4Household
  3. 3Piety
  4. 7Courage
  5. 3Republic
  6. 3Temperance
  7. 5Truth
  8. 3Stewardship

Is a marriage, a parent, or a child a real life here, or just a prop?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

The Quiet Man

58 instead of 46

The Quiet Man is still a drama film, and it scores 58 instead of 46. What you gain is republic: A village with its own law.

The eight

  1. 9
    Industry

    The wells are the work, and the strike is what the whole plot hangs on.

  2. 4
    Household

    They fight over a woman, and she is the stake, not a house being built.

  3. 3
    Piety

    Getting rich enough to hurt a friend is not a place where either man stops.

  4. 7
    Courage

    Two wildcatters stake themselves on wells that can miss and ruin them.

  5. 3
    Republic

    A fortune between two men never turns into a debt owed to a town.

  6. 3
    Temperance

    The money keeps them wanting the next piece of each other's life.

  7. 5
    Truth

    The friendship does not survive the fortune, and the film does not fake it.

  8. 3
    Stewardship

    After the boom, the money is left and the friendship is not standing.

Live historically

Look at one work partner and ask what a sudden windfall would do to the two of you.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · Boom Town · 46IMDb

Live HistoricSee what matters.

Film · Warner Bros. · 1933

42nd Street

42nd Street

46Watch it awake.

The rehearsal is real work, and Berkeley still turns the girls into a pattern.

Pass it on

The review

Start with the sick man, not the pattern. A Broadway director is ill, a chorus girl has to go on, and the show must not close. Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Warner Baxter. The rehearsal is the work. This is the picture that announced the Warner chorus line, a hit in the year King Kong led. I believed the rehearsal more than the fame.

Busby Berkeley turns the girls into a pattern. The bodies are the machine. A house can watch it, and you can say that without sneering at the dancers' job. The job is real. The pattern is the sell. Opening night is a grind. A person is not a shape you repeat until the song ends.

Journal

Keep 42nd Street in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 46. Yours can differ.

The glance

Household and Piety and Temperance and Stewardship are the thin ones.

  1. 8Industry
  2. 2Household
  3. 3Piety
  4. 7Courage
  5. 5Republic
  6. 3Temperance
  7. 5Truth
  8. 4Stewardship

Is a marriage, a parent, or a child a real life here, or just a prop?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

San Francisco

58 instead of 46

San Francisco is still a musical film, and it scores 58 instead of 46. What you gain is piety: Tracy's priest wants the saloon king's soul, and he is not played as a joke.

The eight

  1. 8
    Industry

    The rehearsal is the work, and an ill director still has to open the show.

  2. 2
    Household

    No marriage or child is a life here; the company is only a company.

  3. 3
    Piety

    Nobody's conscience stops the night; the order is that the show must not close.

  4. 7
    Courage

    A chorus girl has to go on, and the ill director risks the show that remains.

  5. 5
    Republic

    The company owes the public a show that must not close, which is a crew's debt.

  6. 3
    Temperance

    The pattern trains you to want the next arrangement of the same bodies.

  7. 5
    Truth

    The illness and the girl who goes on are straight; the pattern makes bodies a machine.

  8. 4
    Stewardship

    A show stays open, and the dancers are left arranged as a pattern.

Live historically

Name the ill director's rehearsal before you let the Berkeley pattern be the whole story.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · 42nd Street · 46IMDb

For this house

Keep going

The next title is the one nearest what this house keeps, then the measure where it is thin. Nothing here is a crowd. It does not leave this device.

Ask Annie