Uranium Boom (1956)
Ex-lumberjack Brad Collins (Dennis Morgan) and mining engineer Grady Mathews (William Talman) find uranium in the Colorado badlands. While Grady guards the claim, Brad goes to register it in town, where he meets and marries Jean Williams (Patricia Medina.) Returning to the claim, Brad learns that Jean was once Grady's fiancee. Grady, as one would expect, is somewhat put out and leaves the mine in Brad's hands, while he hooks up with a confidence man and engineers a scheme to break the back of Brad's somewhat rapidly-created mining empire.
Watch Trailer
Cast
Reviews
hyped garbage
Great Film overall
Good concept, poorly executed.
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
"Uranium Boom" came at the height of the Atomic Age in the 50s and is a story from the Sam Katzman/William Castle shop shot in Black and White on their usual modest budget.Brad Collins (Dennis Morgan) and Grady Mathews (William Talman) form a partnership to search for the valuable uranium used in the manufacture of Atomic Bombs. Mathews is a mining engineer and Collins is knowledgeable about the land. Along the way they pick up Navajo Charlie (Philip Van Zandt) who promises to make them rich.They find the "yellow rock" and despite interference from competitor Joe McGinnis (Bill Henry) and his crew, manage to keep their find. Brad goes to town to register their claim and while there meets the comely Jean Williams (Patricia Medina) who unbeknownst to Brad is the apple of Grady's eye. The two have a whirlwind courtship and wind up getting married.On returning to the claim with new bride in tow, Grady is shocked at the marriage and storms off and goes back east. Brad meanwhile becomes very rich and somewhat greedy by squeezing out rival miners. Grady signs over his share of the mine to Jean and then hatches a scheme to ruin Brad.Grady hires two confidence operators, Floyd Gorman (Frank Wilcox) and the sultry Gail Windsor (Tina Carver) to convince Brad that a railroad spur is being planned to run through the middle of the uranium mines. Brad exercises his options on the various claims by borrowing the necessary funds. Grady then returns and tells Brad that he is now broke and...............................................................Castle by this time had become a capable action picture director. As such, he keeps the story moving, throwing in a couple of fights between Morgan and Talman as well as, a brawl at the mining site. He does unfortunately, tack on a wishy washy ending that spoils the whole intent of the story.Dennis Morgan had been a popular song and dance man for Warner Bros. in the 1940s. This would be effectively his final feature film. William Talman would go on to lasting fame as District Attorney Hamilton Berger in the long running TV series "Perry Mason". And then there was Patricia Medina with those big brown eyes. She was married to Joseph Cotton for many years. I have to admit that I didn't recognize veteran actor Phil Van Zandt as the Navajo Charlie. He steals the picture.
I am adding reviews for all films I've seen that currently lack one, this I have just seen today, review follows... 'Two guys team up to stake a claim during a Uranium strike, they find a claim, one guy minds the find, the other goes to town to file the claim, when he returns he has married his partners girl! Its rather daft, and there are many unlikely events, but it's fast moving and fun to watch at little over the hour mark.' I caught it as it's a W.Castle film, can't say I'm familiar with any of the cast members. As I need to 'pad' I would add that I think you can see here examples of the W.Castle style that he would let rip in his horror films, he was a showman, and this is a 'showy' film, I think W.Castle completists will enjoy.