Gold Is Where You Find It **½ (1938, George Brent, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains) – Classic Movie Review 10,094

Director Michael Curtiz’s ambitious 1938 Technicolor historical romantic drama Gold Is Where You Find It stars George Brent, Olivia de Havilland and Claude Rains in a story about a late 19th-century conflict in the Sacramento Valley between gold miners and their hydraulic mining equipment and the valley farmers whose land is being flooded.

Warner Bros assembles a classic cast and a classy director for what turns out to be a disappointing, all-too-familiar Western-style tale about feuding miners and wheat farmers, clashing over land rights, based on a story by Clements Ripley. However it must have respect as a fictionalised account of a significant real event – an ecological disaster still effecting California – as muddy sludge floods into the Sacramento Valley, destroying crops and homes, ruining land and water sources, and killing people. It’s gold and greed versus fruit and farming.

But in an obvious, over-used Romeo and Juliet-style romantic sub-yarn, Brent and de Havilland’s characters fall in love from the opposite sides of the fence: he’s a miner, she’s a wheat grower’s daughter. De Havilland plays Serena Ferris, the daughter of a prominent farmer, Colonel Ferris (Claude Rains). Serena falls in love with Jared Whitney (Brent), the mining engineer responsible for the flooding.

The film was released in February 1938 Warner Bros in a double bill with Penrod and His Twin Brother, with Billy Mauch and Robert J Mauch.

There’s still gold in them thar actors, though, and the reliable Curtiz directs at a fast pace. So the film is at least brisk and efficient, if unmemorable. Thanks to Sol Polito’s new three-strip Technicolor cinematography, Ted Smith’s production designs and Max Steiner’s orchestral music score, it looks and sounds good.

It is notable as de Havilland’s first appearance in a Technicolor film, her career being on the up and up. Her next is The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), playing Maid Marian, reunited with Claude Rains and Michael Curtiz.

The film was shot near Weaverville, California, and afflicted by torrential rains

Also in the cast are Margaret Lindsay, John Litel, Marcia Ralston, Barton MacLane, Tim Holt, Sidney Toler, Henry O’Neill, Willie Best, Robert McWade, George ‘Gabby’ Hayes, Russell Simpson, Harry Davenport, Clarence Kolb, Moroni Olsen, Granville Bates, Robert Homans, Charles Halton, Chester Grab, John Harron, Erville Alderson, Arthur Aylesworth, Dick Botiller, Jack Kenney, Milton Kibbee, Jack Mower, Douglas Wood, Bill Nestell and Wilfred Lucas.

Gold is Where You Find It is directed by Michael Curtiz, runs 94 minutes, is made by Cosmopolitan Productions and First National, is released by Warner Bros (1938) (US), is written by Warren Duff and Robert Buckner, based on a story by Clements Ripley, is shot in Technicolor by Sol Polito, is produced by Jack L Warner (executive producer), Hal B Wallis (executive producer), and Samuel Bischoff (associate producer), is scored by Max Steiner, with production designs by Ted Smith.

RIP Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland DBE (1 July 1916 – 26 July 2020), one of the leading actresses of her time (1935 to 1988), who appeared in 49 feature films.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,094

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com