A social media post by retired journalist Jim Carroll grabbed our attention due to its subject matter - little-known movie from the 1930s.
"Just watched a 1937 movie I found on YouTube—'High, Wide and Handsome.'
The plot revolves around the discovery of oil near Titusville and the conflict between local oil producers and big money interests and the conflict between the railroads and pipeline developers.
Plus it’s a musical.
I never heard of it before.
Interesting flick but a little weird at times.
Stars Randolph Scott and Irene Dunn."
We reached out to Carroll to see if he wanted to write a review and he obliged.
Here is what he wrote.
"Just watched a 1937 movie I found on YouTube—'High, Wide and Handsome.'
The plot revolves around the discovery of oil near Titusville and the conflict between local oil producers and big money interests and the conflict between the railroads and pipeline developers.
Plus it’s a musical.
I never heard of it before.
Interesting flick but a little weird at times.
Stars Randolph Scott and Irene Dunn."
We reached out to Carroll to see if he wanted to write a review and he obliged.
Here is what he wrote.
Titusville and the birth of the oil industry were center stage in an old movie I stumbled onto this week. It was "High, Wide and Handsome," a 1937 film starring Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott and Dorothy Lamour.
I was surprised by this one.
I’ve seen the 1950s movie that starred Vincent Price as Col. Edwin Drake (Born in Freedom), but I never heard of (High, Wide and Handsome) until I saw an online reference and found it on YouTube.
It’s actually a musical by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern, but it’s also an action movie.
It’s like watching an old western, but set in northwestern Pennsylvania. This is not a movie for those who are going to be sticklers about historic details. There’s no Colonel Drake, no John D. Rockefeller, no recognizable names from the early oil industry at all. But I thought the film did an interesting job of portraying some overarching elements of the early oil days.
Drillers sink their first wells and the industry grows from primitive drilling methods to machinery. There is the dramatic growing national oil hysteria, and conflict as local oil producers fight with big money interests for control. There is also the conflict between the railroads and those who wanted to build oil pipelines.
A great movie?
I don’t know. It has its unusual moments, such as when circus elephants and acrobats come to the rescue of the small oil producers.
All in all, it was just cool to see a musical drama set in Pennsylvania’s oil region.
I was surprised by this one.
I’ve seen the 1950s movie that starred Vincent Price as Col. Edwin Drake (Born in Freedom), but I never heard of (High, Wide and Handsome) until I saw an online reference and found it on YouTube.
It’s actually a musical by Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern, but it’s also an action movie.
It’s like watching an old western, but set in northwestern Pennsylvania. This is not a movie for those who are going to be sticklers about historic details. There’s no Colonel Drake, no John D. Rockefeller, no recognizable names from the early oil industry at all. But I thought the film did an interesting job of portraying some overarching elements of the early oil days.
Drillers sink their first wells and the industry grows from primitive drilling methods to machinery. There is the dramatic growing national oil hysteria, and conflict as local oil producers fight with big money interests for control. There is also the conflict between the railroads and those who wanted to build oil pipelines.
A great movie?
I don’t know. It has its unusual moments, such as when circus elephants and acrobats come to the rescue of the small oil producers.
All in all, it was just cool to see a musical drama set in Pennsylvania’s oil region.
Above is a link to the 'High, Wide and Handsome.'
Below is the Vincent Price short film on Edwin Drake.
Below is the Vincent Price short film on Edwin Drake.
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