By Richard Harland Smith
Flowing Gold
Brief Synopsis
A fugitive from justice tries to get work in a western oil field.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Alfred E. Green
Director
John Garfield
Johnny Blake
Frances Farmer
Linda Chalmers
Pat O'brien
Hap O'Connor
Raymond Walburn
[Ellery Q.] Wildcat Chalmers
Cliff Edwards
Hot Rocks
Film Details
Genre
Western
Adventure
Drama
Release Date
Aug
24,
1940
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Suggested by the novel Flowing Gold by Rex Beach (New York, 1922).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 22m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
9 reels
Synopsis
While drifting through oil fields in search of a job, Johnny Blake, a fugitive from the law who has killed an oil company stooge in self-defense, saves the life of foreman Hap O'Connor when Collins, a drunken bully, tries to kill him. Hap recognizes Johnny as a wanted man and advises him to go back and face trial, but Johnny flees when the police come looking for him. Soon after, Hap quits his job and forms a partnership to drill for oil with Ellery Q. Wildcat Chalmers and his daughter Linda. Johnny comes to the fields to work for Chalmers' competitor, Charles Hammond, thus putting him at odds with Linda, who hates Hammond. However, when Johnny learns that Hap is Chalmers' partner, he quits his job to join Hap. After he is arrested in a barroom brawl, Johnny prepares to flee again while Hap fights a take-over by Hammond, working day and night to bring in the well before the option expires. All seems lost when Hap's leg is broken by a falling pipe until Linda persuades Johnny to stay and take Hap's place. As they toil in the fields together, Johnny also takes Hap's place in Linda's heart. On the day that the option expires, the well comes in and Hap returns from the hospital. When Johnny tells him that he and Linda are planning to be married, Hap insists that Johnny clear his name first and is on the verge of turning him in to the sheriff when lightning strikes the well and it bursts into flames. During the confusion, Hap allows Johnny to escape, but Johnny risks his life and sacrifices his freedom to return with the fire trucks and extinguish the fire. Arrested by the sheriff, Johnny returns East with Linda to face charges with every hope that he will be exonerated.
Director
Alfred E. Green
Director
Cast
John Garfield
Johnny Blake
Frances Farmer
Linda Chalmers
Pat O'brien
Hap O'Connor
Raymond Walburn
[Ellery Q.] Wildcat Chalmers
Cliff Edwards
Hot Rocks
Tom Kennedy
Petunia
Granville Bates
Charles Hammond
Jody Gilbert
Tillie
Edward Pawley
Collins
Frank Mayo
Mike Branigan
William Marshall
Joe
Sol Gorss
Luke
Virginia Sale
Nurse
John Alexander
Sheriff
Eily Malyon
English cashier
E. E. Clive
Mr. Naismith
Crew
Adolph Deutsch
Music
Leo F. Forbstein
Music Director
Bryan Foy
Executive Producer
Kenneth Gamet
Screenwriter
James Gibbon
Film Editor
Byron Haskin
Special Effects
Jesse Hibbs
Assistant Director
Sid Hickox
Director of Photography
William Jacobs
Associate Producer
Stanley Jones
Sound
Robert E. Kent
Contr to trmt
Hugh Macmullen
Dialogue Director
Tom Reed
Contr to Screenplay const
Hugh Reticker
Art Director
Jack Saper
Unit Manager
Howard Shoup
Gowns
Willard Van Enger
Special Effects
Jack L. Warner
Company
Perc Westmore
Makeup Artist
Film Details
Genre
Western
Adventure
Drama
Release Date
Aug
24,
1940
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Suggested by the novel Flowing Gold by Rex Beach (New York, 1922).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 22m
Sound
Mono (RCA Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
9 reels
Articles
Flowing Gold
When a character in Warner Brothers' oil rig drama Flowing Gold (1940) tells leading man John Garfield "You've got some chip on your shoulder," the response is pure Garfield: "Wanna try and knock it off?" An Academy Award nominee for his film debut in Four Daughters (1938) and a name-above-the-title star by the time of They Made Me a Criminal (1939), Garfield did not think much of this assignment and neither did his costar Frances Farmer, who had likewise honed her craft with New York's progressive Group Theatre. A remake of a 1924 Warners/First National silent, Flowing Gold was based on a novel by Rex Beach, whose 1906 bestseller The Spoilers was adapted for films five times between 1914 and 1955. As in They Made Me a Criminal, this films finds Garfield on the run from the law and earning a hardscrabble living as a roughneck, romancing Farmer, protecting oilman pal Pat O'Brien from unscrupulous rivals, and cheating death via a combination of pugnacity and raw courage. Vocal in his disdain for the film, Garfield reportedly went ballistic when he received a joke memo from studio head Jack Warner criticizing his "hammy acting" and threatening to replace him with Ronald Reagan. Though Farmer made little mention of the film in her in her memoirs, a scene from the 1983 biopic Frances (1982) starring Jessica Lange uses her dispiriting experiences on the set of Flowing Gold to illustrate the troubles the "Method" actress suffered during her brief time in Hollywood.
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
Flowing Gold
When a character in Warner Brothers' oil rig drama Flowing Gold (1940) tells leading man John Garfield "You've got some chip on your shoulder," the response is pure Garfield: "Wanna try and knock it off?" An Academy Award nominee for his film debut in Four Daughters (1938) and a name-above-the-title star by the time of They Made Me a Criminal (1939), Garfield did not think much of this assignment and neither did his costar Frances Farmer, who had likewise honed her craft with New York's progressive Group Theatre. A remake of a 1924 Warners/First National silent, Flowing Gold was based on a novel by Rex Beach, whose 1906 bestseller The Spoilers was adapted for films five times between 1914 and 1955. As in They Made Me a Criminal, this films finds Garfield on the run from the law and earning a hardscrabble living as a roughneck, romancing Farmer, protecting oilman pal Pat O'Brien from unscrupulous rivals, and cheating death via a combination of pugnacity and raw courage. Vocal in his disdain for the film, Garfield reportedly went ballistic when he received a joke memo from studio head Jack Warner criticizing his "hammy acting" and threatening to replace him with Ronald Reagan. Though Farmer made little mention of the film in her in her memoirs, a scene from the 1983 biopic Frances (1982) starring Jessica Lange uses her dispiriting experiences on the set of Flowing Gold to illustrate the troubles the "Method" actress suffered during her brief time in Hollywood.
By Richard Harland Smith
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
In 1924, Joseph De Grasse directed Anna Q. Nilsson and Milton Sills in another First National version of the Rex Beach novel produced under the same title (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1921-30; F2.1830).
