Flowing Gold (Warner Bros.) (1940)

ADVANCE PUBLICITY — ‘FLOWING GOLD’ x Still FG101; Mat 210—30c TRIPLE STAR TEAM — John Garfield, Frances Farmer and Pat O’Brien as the adventuresome trio who roam the Texas oil fields in search of “Flowing Gold.” The screen version of the Rex Beach novel will show at the Strand. ‘Flowing Gold’ Dynamic Action Film for Strand The Strand Theatre will continue its new season parade of film hits so auspiciously begun with “All This, And Heaven Too,” “My Love Came Back,” and “They Drive By Night,” with “Flowing Gold” starring John Garfield, Frances Farmer, and Pat O’Brien. The screen transcription of Rex Beach’s widely read novel is to have its local opening on Friday. The locale of the dynamic action-drama is Texas’ great oil fields, the sprawling strip of land where men ruthlessly fight to capture flowing gold — the rich black oil that has lain in waiting since prehistoric time to gush geyser-like into the air. Against this vivid background is painted the enthralling story of love, greed, and high adventure. John Garfield and Pat O’Brien are seen as itinerant oil workers who meet and fall in love with Frances Farmer, beau tiful daughter of their eccentric prospecting employer. In a series of swiftly-paced scenes the pair saves the girl’s wells from conniving rivals, and again come to her rescue when the wells are set aflame. The likeable trio are well suited to their parts, Garfield and O’Brien having had a great deal of experience in rugged, virile, roles, while Miss Farmer will be remembered by many filmgoers as the lovely outdoor heroine of Edna Ferber’s “Come And Get It’, a hit of several years ago. The eagerly-awaited film includes such names as Raymond Walburn, Cliff Edwards, the late Granville Bates, Jody Gilbert, Tom Kennedy, and William Marshall in its supporting cast. Proof of the film’s technical accuracy lies in the fact that an actual oil well was built for the production. Alfred Green directed from Ken Gamet’s script. THE CAST Johnty Blake =i. Linda Chalmers .................... Hap O'Connor 22... “Wildcat” Chalmers ............. “Hot Rogge? %..088 8... ar % Joe ohh ks JOHN GARFIELD Lean a FRANCES FARMER Dayne es Kase oes PAT O’BRIEN ae Raymond Walburn cee ee Ae Cliff Edwards ies ator Tar Tom Kennedy UNS eee Granville Bates OT Se uh Sea Jody Gilbert A lites a eee Edward Pawley PRE REE MRK sx Frank Mayo a PY eae William Marshall ee oid ba Kigigss sacs sinsnt e ASS RNR at Virginia Sale Ri righ Seg rs So John Alexander PRODUCTION Directed by ALFRED GREEN Original Story by Rex Beach; Screen Play by Kenneth Gamet; Associate Producer, William Jacobs; Director of Photography, Sid Hickox, A.S.C.; Art Director, Hugh Reticker; Dialogue Director, Hugh MacMullen; Film Editor, James Gibbon; Gowns by Howard Shoup; Sound by Stanley Jones; Makeup Artist, Perc Westmore; Special Effects by Byron Haskin, A.S.C. and William Van Enger, A.S.C. Exploitation and Publicity Follow on Alternating Pages ——— THE STORY Johnny Blake (John Garfield), misfit and drifter, is forever hiding from police, having killed a man in self-defense. The young fugitive saves the life of Hap O’Connor (Pat O’Brien), gruff though kindly oil foreman. The pair later meet in the Texas oil fields as employees of “Wildcat” Chalmers (Raymond Walburn) eccentric prospector and father of Linda (Frances Farmer) whom Johnny and Hap both love. When Hap is seriously injured Johnny takes over and successfully drills oil. In a smashing climax wherein Johnny eludes an avalanche to save the burning wells, he and Linda realize that their only chance for happiness lies in exoneration, and unafraid, they face the future together. Frances Farmer Is Center of Triangle In Flowing Gold’ Did you ever hear the one about the Farmers’ daughter, Frances? She’s the girl who was accused of slinging mud at Hollywood, and on her return had to sprawl flat in the muddy streets of a movie town in her first picture, “Flowing Gold”, opening at Strand Theatre on Friday, in which she plays the center of a romantic triangle which is completed by John Garfield and Pat O’Brien. Moreover, this was only one of the many rough-and-tumble scenes she had to play in the lusty saga of the Texas oil fields. She took it good naturedly because her conscience was clear. Still FF8; Mat 110—15c FRANCES FARMER To a reporter Frances Farmer said, “The screen is naturally a more important medium than the stage for the simple reason it reaches more people. The legitimate theatre is my hobby and sometimes it is very easy to become more enthusiastic about hobbies than work.” Miss Farmer hails from the state of Washington which is noted not only for its delicious apples but also its beautiful girls. She entered the University of Washington and worked her way through as a movie usherette, tutor, radio artist, and dramatic coach. She graduated with honors and soon after won a popularity contest conducted by a local newspaper. The prize was an extensive trip through Europe. When she returned to New York City, she was tested by Paramount studios and signed to a contract. Many movie roles followed. In 1937 Clifford Odets was casting his play, “Golden Boy,” and when he saw Miss Farmer on the screen, he im mediately started negotiations to obtain her for the leading feminine role. The play was a hit for two seasons. But she’s back in Hollywood for keeps now, Frances avers. “Flowing Gold” is an outdoor story of men and women who wrest adventure and oil from the depths of the earth. O’Brien Stars in Lusty Saga of Texas Oil Wells The gruff, rough roustabout oil well foreman starring with John Garfield and Frances Farmer in “Flowing Gold”, which opens at the Strand Theatre next Friday, is movie favorite Pat O’Brien, who has established some sort of record with his long list of starring roles since he first took Hollywood by storm in ‘Front Page”’. On the “Flowing Gold” set recently, Pat reminisced about the days when sledding wasn’t so smooth—when he was willing to give up what seemed a promising legal career to pound Broadway pavements, hound managers and producers and live in stagnant theatrical boarding houses, fighting for his “break”. Pat said, “I had tired of contracts, torts and common law. I had set out to be a lawyer because my father and mother had always thought their son should be one.” But after a family conference, he was given the necessary fees and expense money to enter the Sargent School of Drama in New York City. In the following years, prospects seemed pretty glum, as meals were skipped as often as not. For a while he shared a hall bedroom with another chap who wanted to be an actor, named Spencer Tracy. They paid $5 a week for the room, when they could scrape together Real Oil Well Built For Flowing Gold Expensive sets in Hollywood usually conjure up something like a DeMille version of a Babylonian bathroom, but dull, drab and ordinary as the oil well which was’ constructed for “Flowing Gold” looks, it represents an investment of $80,000 to Warner Bros. Erected at the 300-acre studio ranch in Calabasas, the well is entirely practical, (except for oil) complete with steam press boilers, lifts and drills, pipe, etc. It even includes the small “‘taperscrew,” the safety patent device from which Howard Hughes has derived much of his fortune. It would have been possible to lease a well in one of the nearby oil fields for the picture, which stars John Garfield, Pat O’Brien and Frances Farmer, at the slightest fraction of this cost, but the script calls for the well to be fire-blasted and the risk of the conflagration spreading would have been too great. The film is sceduled to open on Friday at the Strand Theatre. $5. When they couldn’t, they’d usually moved in with other actors until side jobs would turn up. One friend of those days to whom Pat is eternally grateful is Frank McHugh. Frank introduced Pat to a pretty little actress who is now Mrs. O’Brien. Pat isn’t depressed when he thinks of those days. He gets a boot out of them. Claims that every knock and experience had its compensation. Now, Pat’s thoughts occasionally go toward retirement. A happy retirement, Pat said, comes when one has “lined his walls with pictures, his mind with memories and his life with friends.” Screen Tough Guys Co-Star at Strand They may murder people, beat them up, foreclose mortgages, frame boxing matches, slap women in the face and talk back to policemen, but underneath these acts of violence you will find these screen tough guys are the nicest people in the world. Two very good examples are Pat O’Brien and John Garfield, starring with Frances Farmer in Warners’ “Flowing Gold”, a thrilling saga of the Texas oil country and the men who roam it in search of oil, which opens at the Strand Theatre next Friday. O’Brien can be as tough as anybody, as he is in “Flowing Gold’, but he doesn’t throw a scare into the people who work with him. He has yet to hear anyone on the lot call him “Mr. O’Brien.” He’s Pat to the boys. A young actor who is famed for his down-to-earth ways and rough mannerisms, if necessary, is John Garfield. He actually is a quiet spoken fellow, the pet of the writers on the lot with whom he lunches most of the time. He takes their “gags” with good grace, which is proof of his amiable nature, since no gags on the face of the earth can be so telling as the ones thought up by the brilliant wits of the scenario department. Garfield Leads Group New York Group Theatre graduates have been following John Garfield into Warner Bros. pictures in increasing numbers. Featured with Garfield and Pat O’Brien in their current vehicle, “Flowing Gold”, is Frances Farmer of ‘the Group.” Miss Farmer starred with Garfield in the New York Group Theatre. Still FG54; Mat 209—30c MEN WHO BATTLE FOR OIL often battle each other. Pat O’Brien has John Garfield down but not out in’ this scene from “Flowing Gold,” which goes into the Strand Theater on Friday.