In this modest programmer B film, Wayne Morris and Preston Foster play a couple of oil roughnecks who each has a weakness that usually involves spending their hard earned money right after a pay day. With Foster its booze, over two drinks and he gets reckless and with Morris it's women, he'll blow all his money on a fling with a pretty one.
The Big Gusher has Foster going both ways, getting drunk twice and first spending his money on a worthless oil lease and then later when it might not be so worthless taking in waitress Dorothy Patrick as a partner and also getting equipment from the guy who sold him the lease in the first place Emmett Vogan on a sixty delivery deal.
When Patrick goes out to the camp to live with the boys the usual love triangle takes place. You'll have to see the film to see who she winds up with.
The film's real star is character actor Paul E. Burns who uses a divining rod to tell where there's oil, water, or anything you're searching for. The science is certainly a dubious one, but Burns steals all the scenes he's in with those deadpan expressions.
Wayne Morris after war service ended his contract with Warner Brothers and was now freelancing. I wouldn't be surprised if along with him came some of the background footage of Flowing Gold, the Pat O'Brien-John Garfield classic from a decade earlier. Some of the background might even have come from Boom Town from MGM.
The leads are good enough, but no one is ever going to mistake this one for the classic with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy.
The Big Gusher has Foster going both ways, getting drunk twice and first spending his money on a worthless oil lease and then later when it might not be so worthless taking in waitress Dorothy Patrick as a partner and also getting equipment from the guy who sold him the lease in the first place Emmett Vogan on a sixty delivery deal.
When Patrick goes out to the camp to live with the boys the usual love triangle takes place. You'll have to see the film to see who she winds up with.
The film's real star is character actor Paul E. Burns who uses a divining rod to tell where there's oil, water, or anything you're searching for. The science is certainly a dubious one, but Burns steals all the scenes he's in with those deadpan expressions.
Wayne Morris after war service ended his contract with Warner Brothers and was now freelancing. I wouldn't be surprised if along with him came some of the background footage of Flowing Gold, the Pat O'Brien-John Garfield classic from a decade earlier. Some of the background might even have come from Boom Town from MGM.
The leads are good enough, but no one is ever going to mistake this one for the classic with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy.