Paramount really did this B movie right. The script was well-thought out and the acting was, for the most part, terrific. The lone exception was Arline Judge, who seemed to be walking through her part with her jaw partially wired shut. Comic relief was amply supplied by William Frawley, John Dilson and, especially, Arthur Hunnicutt. Richard Arlen seemed to be inspired in this movie and Buster Crabbe was convincing as the bad guy. What a wonderful surprise this movie turned out to be.
10 Reviews
Wnjoyable even if it is by the book
dbborroughs30 May 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Richard Arlen is an out of work oil man who wanders into a county looking for its first oil strike. When he stumbles upon a location for a good strike he ends up clashing with bad guy Buster Crabbe and a couple of con artists, one of which is a sexy brunette whom he falls in love with. Low budget programmer is full of cheap sets and rear screen projection, which helps the film to exude a certain amount of charm. Things are helped along by a fantastic cast of supporting players, including Elisha Cook Jr and William Frawley, that manage to sell the silly bits. It's a rip roaring tale with enough action for a film almost twice its length. While it's probably not going to be one of your favorite films of all time, it will entertain the hell out of you and be one of those films you remember fondly enough to re-watch when you run across it a second time.
An economical Boom Town
bkoganbing12 June 2014
Richard Arlen was apparently a favorite player first of B film producers William Pine and William Thomas and later of A.C. Lyles who kept this man busy working through the Forties up to the Sixties. Never a major film name after the early talkies Arlen did some fine work in some good entertaining films. Wildcat which was a Pine-Thomas production for Paramount's B unit is an example of that work.
Driving along Arlen picks up a hitchhiker in Elisha Cook, Jr. and the two take a liking to each other. Arlen has been in the oil business for years, but always working for wages that someone else pays. He wants his own well and he's quite the promoter. He especially wants to beat out Buster Crabbe whom he worked for before and who stiffed him and others on wages. Crabbe and Arlen go into a race with adjoining wells to see who brings in a gusher, the winner gets $25,000.00.
Arlen may think he's an operator, but he's got nothing on William Frawley and his female come-on partner Arline Judge. When Cook is killed in an accident, she pretends to be his mourning sister in order to cut her and Frawley in on the well. But as these happen in the movies romance develops.
The obvious comparison to make with Wildcat is MGM's Boom Town on which a far more lavish budget was spent. Pine-Thomas did not have the lavish budget or the big name cat, but they did well in this economy conscious film, carefully integrating stock footage. They got good performances out of the ensemble cast, my favorite being William Frawley who turns out to have a sentimental streak in him.
Wildcat is still fine entertainment and Pine-Thomas brought home another economical winner.
Driving along Arlen picks up a hitchhiker in Elisha Cook, Jr. and the two take a liking to each other. Arlen has been in the oil business for years, but always working for wages that someone else pays. He wants his own well and he's quite the promoter. He especially wants to beat out Buster Crabbe whom he worked for before and who stiffed him and others on wages. Crabbe and Arlen go into a race with adjoining wells to see who brings in a gusher, the winner gets $25,000.00.
Arlen may think he's an operator, but he's got nothing on William Frawley and his female come-on partner Arline Judge. When Cook is killed in an accident, she pretends to be his mourning sister in order to cut her and Frawley in on the well. But as these happen in the movies romance develops.
The obvious comparison to make with Wildcat is MGM's Boom Town on which a far more lavish budget was spent. Pine-Thomas did not have the lavish budget or the big name cat, but they did well in this economy conscious film, carefully integrating stock footage. They got good performances out of the ensemble cast, my favorite being William Frawley who turns out to have a sentimental streak in him.
Wildcat is still fine entertainment and Pine-Thomas brought home another economical winner.
Entertaining B-Feature With A Good Cast
Snow Leopard6 April 2006
The good cast is one of the main pluses in this entertaining B-feature. It features a good role for Richard Arlen as the main character, and he is given good support by the likes of Elisha Cook, Jr., Buster Crabbe, and William Frawley. The story is rather formulaic, but the oilfield setting is used for some action and suspense sequences that work pretty well.
Arlen plays an ambitious would-be oilman who hopes to use a combination of leadership, hard work, and financial trickery to come out ahead in his rivalry with another driller played by Crabbe. Cook is quite good (and well cast) as Arlen's jittery but loyal partner, while Frawley and Arline Judge play a couple of confidence operators who get tangled up in the oil rivalry, making the plot a little more interesting.
The finale is an extended firefighting scene that works all right considering the low production values. Along the way, Arthur Hunnicutt and Ralph Sanford provide some comic relief that includes an occasional thoughtful moment. It's a solid combination, and while there's nothing that special about it, it provides some solid entertainment for a little over an hour or so.
Arlen plays an ambitious would-be oilman who hopes to use a combination of leadership, hard work, and financial trickery to come out ahead in his rivalry with another driller played by Crabbe. Cook is quite good (and well cast) as Arlen's jittery but loyal partner, while Frawley and Arline Judge play a couple of confidence operators who get tangled up in the oil rivalry, making the plot a little more interesting.
The finale is an extended firefighting scene that works all right considering the low production values. Along the way, Arthur Hunnicutt and Ralph Sanford provide some comic relief that includes an occasional thoughtful moment. It's a solid combination, and while there's nothing that special about it, it provides some solid entertainment for a little over an hour or so.
Maverick hits pay dirt
Chase_Witherspoon8 September 2012
Seasoned con-man Arlen teams up with the diminutive Cook and the two inadvertently discover black gold then trade their discovery for mining rights in the hope of making it rich. Meanwhile, card shark (Frawley) and his partner (Judge) roll into town and see an opportunity to swindle Arlen out of his fortune, but Judge begins to waver with respect for the labours of Arlen and his crew, and the budding romance that evolves.
Strictly B-grade fare is entertaining enough to pass the time, and the 68 minutes it takes to tell the story is ample. Arlen is a charismatic and professional leading man, Judge a feisty brunette and the supporting cast includes Buster Crabbe (no disrespect to Mr. Crabbe but watch for the scene in which he has fisticuffs with Arlen and takes a dive minus the punch) as a competing interest for the oil deposit and wily Arthur Hunnicutt as Arlen's trusted foreman.
There's a reasonably exciting climax and generally the film is well paced. Not too heavy, not too light, a reasonable prospecting tale with some likable characters and mild excitement.
Strictly B-grade fare is entertaining enough to pass the time, and the 68 minutes it takes to tell the story is ample. Arlen is a charismatic and professional leading man, Judge a feisty brunette and the supporting cast includes Buster Crabbe (no disrespect to Mr. Crabbe but watch for the scene in which he has fisticuffs with Arlen and takes a dive minus the punch) as a competing interest for the oil deposit and wily Arthur Hunnicutt as Arlen's trusted foreman.
There's a reasonably exciting climax and generally the film is well paced. Not too heavy, not too light, a reasonable prospecting tale with some likable characters and mild excitement.
To reach the oil, drop some dynamite down the well!
weezeralfalfa12 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This is an exciting story about wildcatters, searching for oil, and the obstacles they face. It's one of 4 films from the 1940s I am aware of that deals with this subject. Although they all include a 'gusher'(not really what you want, but looks dramatic) as one climax, and a oil field fire as a 2nd climax, otherwise the stories are quite different and worthwhile seeing. Unlike the present B film, of only 70 min., the others are A pictures, of 80 to 120 min.. The best known is 1940's "Boom Town", starring Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, in an epic treatment of the subject. Also released in 1940 is "Flowing Gold", starring John Garfield. Not an epic treatment, it deals with personalities. At the end of the decade, "Tulsa" is another epic treatment, and the only one shot in color. It stars feisty Susan Hayward. I have seen all of these multiple times. I found a copy of the present film at YouTube. It has many momentary skips, which I didn't find too distracting..........The main character is Johnny Maverick, played by frequent B movies leading man Richard Arden. Amazingly, his film career started with a bang, when he hit the gate of Paramount Studios with his motorcycle. While helping to patch him up, executives noted that he might make a good leading man for silent movies.......The leading lady is Arline Judge, who switches from a bad girl to a good girl near the end. Initially being paired with con man Oliver Westbrook(William Frawley, of later fame in the "I Love Lucy" TV show). Arline was attractive enough to land 8 husbands during her life!.........Buster Crabbe took time out from his "Billy the Kid" series, where he was the hero, to play the chief villain here, in Mike Rawlins, who headed a rival drilling team right next to Johnny's drill site..........This was the first of many film roles for charismatic 'down home' Arthur Hunnicutt. Just the distinctive sound of his voice was enough to tell you of his presence. Here, he has both humorous and serious roles. The distinctive Elisha Cook has a prominent role in the first half, as Johnny's partner, Chicopee, but dies in a oil rig 'accident' engineered by Rawlins.........The screenplay has Jimmy and Chicopee, two broke oil prospectors who meet accidentally, form a pair in searching for hints of oil below. They smell oil in a creek, near Antril Bend, which has posted a $25,000. reward for the first commercially successful well in its general vicinity. Johnny goes through some financial wizardry to buy a lease and get equipment to get started. In the process, he has to sell a half interest in the lease to Gus Sloane(John Dilson). Sloan picks as his foreman, an old enemy of Jimmy: Mike Rawlins, who will use fair and fowl methods of trying to stay ahead of Johnny. Rawlins stages several things to sabotage Johnny's progress. Johnny experiences another financial crisis and supply crises, mostly due to Rawlins getting the limited local supplies first. Rawlins buys the note Johnny gave to supplyman (Joe Campbell) and threatens to call it at midnight. Johnny can't meet that deadline unless his well produces oil before. Thus, he comes up with the(crazy) idea of dropping dynamite down the well, in hopes it will dislodge the water and sand above the oil. Incredibly, it works, and Johnny has a gusher! But, Rawlins sets fire to the oil and derrick. Johnny makes Rawlins try to put out the fire, but an explosion knocks him unconscious. Thus, Johnny, himself, tries, using a crane to try to cap the well. But, a pipe on the crane falls and pins him. Fortunately, Nan(Arline Judge) comes to his rescue, and he is able to maneuver the cap on the well. As Westbrook had guessed, she had changed her loyalty from Westbrook to Johnny. Since Johnny had previously made her his financial partner, she claiming to be the dead Nevins' sister, things were now set to make her his marriage partner, as their wells grew in number.
Polecat
wes-connors6 January 2008
News of an oil strike stirs trouble in a western town.
Flat broke, Richard Arlen (as Johnny Maverick) drives west, picking up, and partnering up, with prospecting hitch-hiker Elisha Cook Jr. (as "Chicopee"). Almost immediately, the two discover oil, on land owned by the country bumpkin "Smithers" family. Mr. Arlen writes John and Martha Smithers a check, to buy their oil-rich land, then schemes to cover its cost. But, old enemy Buster Crabbe (as Mike Rawlins) isn't about to let Arlen strike it rich without a fight. Additional arrivals provide further intrigue (William Frawley) and love interest (Arline Judge).
While "Wildcat" Arlen and many of the supporting cast are pleasant, this is an mostly dull story. An exciting scene occurs early on, which prematurely kills off the film's most endearing, up to that point, character. The tragedy is necessary for subsequent plot developments, which are anticlimactic.
Flat broke, Richard Arlen (as Johnny Maverick) drives west, picking up, and partnering up, with prospecting hitch-hiker Elisha Cook Jr. (as "Chicopee"). Almost immediately, the two discover oil, on land owned by the country bumpkin "Smithers" family. Mr. Arlen writes John and Martha Smithers a check, to buy their oil-rich land, then schemes to cover its cost. But, old enemy Buster Crabbe (as Mike Rawlins) isn't about to let Arlen strike it rich without a fight. Additional arrivals provide further intrigue (William Frawley) and love interest (Arline Judge).
While "Wildcat" Arlen and many of the supporting cast are pleasant, this is an mostly dull story. An exciting scene occurs early on, which prematurely kills off the film's most endearing, up to that point, character. The tragedy is necessary for subsequent plot developments, which are anticlimactic.
"We'll bring in that well if it kills every one of us!"
classicsoncall11 June 2012
Warning: Spoilers
An effective ensemble cast works well together here to tell the story of rival oil men operating a strike near Antril Bend. The first thing that got my attention was when Johnny Maverick (Richard Arlen) picked up hitchhiker Harold 'Chicopee' Nevins (Elisha Cook Jr.) and quickly shook him down for eighty cents to fill up his gas tank! That had to be good for about eight gallons I would think, and a lot cheaper than the mixed drinks going for a quarter each at Kelley's Rig. If you grew up anytime after 1990 or so, you would probably think that this was some crackpot's idea of wishful thinking.
Right out of the gate it looked like Johnny Maverick was going to con his way through the entire picture, but things take a serious turn when his partner Chicopee is killed in an accident that was rigged by villain Rawlins (Buster Crabbe in an uncharacteristic role). Another flim-flam man (William Frawley) sees an opportunity to work on Johnny's sympathy, and sends in partner Nan Deering (Arline Judge) to snag a stake in Johnny's claim. At that point you can pretty much see where this one is headed.
Whenever I see William Frawley I'm always struck with the same thought but I've never mentioned it, so why not do it now - no matter what picture I ever see him in he always looks the same. It's the opposite of the Dick Clark effect who never appeared to grow old, Frawley always looks like a crotchety but comical old coot, which served him well as Lucy's next door neighbor a decade after this film came out. I guess I'll have to catch him in something pre-1930 to see if he ever looked like he might have been young once.
Besides Frawley, you've got some good support here from the likes of Arthur Hunnicutt and Ralph Sanford who also lend a lighter note to the proceedings. Arlen's character gets his well in by the end of the picture and closes out with a smooch from Chicopee's 'sister'. If you like this kind of fare, you might try an earlier entry from 1936 called "Black Gold" with Frankie Darro and LeRoy Mason, or the more intense 1949 film "Tulsa" starring Susan Hayward.
Right out of the gate it looked like Johnny Maverick was going to con his way through the entire picture, but things take a serious turn when his partner Chicopee is killed in an accident that was rigged by villain Rawlins (Buster Crabbe in an uncharacteristic role). Another flim-flam man (William Frawley) sees an opportunity to work on Johnny's sympathy, and sends in partner Nan Deering (Arline Judge) to snag a stake in Johnny's claim. At that point you can pretty much see where this one is headed.
Whenever I see William Frawley I'm always struck with the same thought but I've never mentioned it, so why not do it now - no matter what picture I ever see him in he always looks the same. It's the opposite of the Dick Clark effect who never appeared to grow old, Frawley always looks like a crotchety but comical old coot, which served him well as Lucy's next door neighbor a decade after this film came out. I guess I'll have to catch him in something pre-1930 to see if he ever looked like he might have been young once.
Besides Frawley, you've got some good support here from the likes of Arthur Hunnicutt and Ralph Sanford who also lend a lighter note to the proceedings. Arlen's character gets his well in by the end of the picture and closes out with a smooch from Chicopee's 'sister'. If you like this kind of fare, you might try an earlier entry from 1936 called "Black Gold" with Frankie Darro and LeRoy Mason, or the more intense 1949 film "Tulsa" starring Susan Hayward.
Standard B-movie Fare
Signa8152 May 2009
Wildcat is a typical B-movie of the 40's. The plot is straight forward and largely predictable. For those not familiar with the term, wildcat refers to someone taking the risk of drilling for oil in unproven areas.
While there are no major stars here, there are some recognizable faces. Richard Arlen made a career of B-movies and plays the lead here as an endearing hustler. His main antagonist is Buster Crabbe of Flash Gordon fame. William Frawley (Fred Mertz of I Love Lucy) plays an unscrupulous card shark, that eventually shows some heart. Toss in character actor Arthur Hunnicutt, who is best known as a crotchety old-timer from westerns and 50's TV. Overall, a decent cast that does a fine, if unspectacular job of delivering the goods.
The dialogue is snappy in parts, but also lame in places. There are enough conflicts and action sequences to keep the story moving without bogging down. The characters cover a wide range. There is the flawed hero lead, the conniving femme fatale, a naive youth, a cold-hearted antagonist and loyal associates.
While this movie is mildly entertaining, there is nothing spectacular here. While the movie is shot in the present (1942,) it has a western flavor to it. So if you enjoy any of the actors or just want to see a "modern" western, it's not a bad way to spend 70 minutes.
While there are no major stars here, there are some recognizable faces. Richard Arlen made a career of B-movies and plays the lead here as an endearing hustler. His main antagonist is Buster Crabbe of Flash Gordon fame. William Frawley (Fred Mertz of I Love Lucy) plays an unscrupulous card shark, that eventually shows some heart. Toss in character actor Arthur Hunnicutt, who is best known as a crotchety old-timer from westerns and 50's TV. Overall, a decent cast that does a fine, if unspectacular job of delivering the goods.
The dialogue is snappy in parts, but also lame in places. There are enough conflicts and action sequences to keep the story moving without bogging down. The characters cover a wide range. There is the flawed hero lead, the conniving femme fatale, a naive youth, a cold-hearted antagonist and loyal associates.
While this movie is mildly entertaining, there is nothing spectacular here. While the movie is shot in the present (1942,) it has a western flavor to it. So if you enjoy any of the actors or just want to see a "modern" western, it's not a bad way to spend 70 minutes.
It's a man's world but sometimes the women oil the machinery.
mark.waltz1 February 2016
Warning: Spoilers
The prime-time soap operas, "Dallas" and "Dynasty" took place in the big corporate skyscrapers, but on occasion would visit the fields where the literal dirty work took place. Mentions of the days of wildcatting did occur (more on "Dallas" than "Dynasty"), but they took place long after the glory days of that part of the oil business.
This B programmer takes its audience into the world of the real wildcatters, here lead by Richard Arlen, a veteran actor who was playing leads in second features during World War II, mostly at the Pine-Thomas division of Paramount. These are enjoyable no nonsense men's films, missing nothing but the cursing and really rough behavior that the censors would allow.
Arline Judge, sounding like a young Barbara Stanwyck, is a femme fatal who pretends to be the sister of a deceased partner, laying claim to his estate. William Frawley is amusing as her partner in crime who is more interested in gambling and cheating the other wildcatters, than oil. Buster Crabbe is a shell of his handsome younger self and is lost among the antics of Frawley, the feistiness of Judge and the machoism of Arlen. Elisha Cook Jr. makes the most of a small role of the man tragically killed whose estate Judge tries to claim. Some gripping scenes of the dangers of this profession are documented, and it becomes very clear that people in the business wouldn't have it any other way.
This B programmer takes its audience into the world of the real wildcatters, here lead by Richard Arlen, a veteran actor who was playing leads in second features during World War II, mostly at the Pine-Thomas division of Paramount. These are enjoyable no nonsense men's films, missing nothing but the cursing and really rough behavior that the censors would allow.
Arline Judge, sounding like a young Barbara Stanwyck, is a femme fatal who pretends to be the sister of a deceased partner, laying claim to his estate. William Frawley is amusing as her partner in crime who is more interested in gambling and cheating the other wildcatters, than oil. Buster Crabbe is a shell of his handsome younger self and is lost among the antics of Frawley, the feistiness of Judge and the machoism of Arlen. Elisha Cook Jr. makes the most of a small role of the man tragically killed whose estate Judge tries to claim. Some gripping scenes of the dangers of this profession are documented, and it becomes very clear that people in the business wouldn't have it any other way.
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