Uranium Boom (1956)
*** (out of 4)
William Castle's melodrama takes place in Colorado as Brad (Dennis Morgan) and Grady (William Talman) decide to go in together to look for uranium. They finally strike it so Brad goes to town to file the claim when he meets Jean (Patricia Medina) and they fall in love. The only problem is that Grady also loves her so he turns his back on both of them. Soon Brad and Jean are rich but Grady enters the picture again to teach them a lesson.
URANIUM BOOM is pure "B" movie material, which is what you'd expect from director Castle and producer Sam Katzman. If you're looking for some sort of hard-hitting drama then you'll probably be disappointed but if you're looking for a fast and cheap but ultimately fun movie to waste a hour on then there's certainly much worst out there.
I must admit that there were all kinds of flaws with this movie including a really awful love story but at the same time the thing kept me entertained from start to finish. I think in a lot of ways the film is a rip-off of THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE and especially the early scenes with the men out looking to become rich. All of these scenes were fun and I thought the cast was good enough to keep you glued to what's going on.
The film starts off with one of the worst fist fights that I've ever seen but once we get into the desert things pick up and especially a few scenes with some bad guys. As the film moves along we get into the drama with the third character coming back into play and I thought this too was fun in its own way. It certainly helped that Morgan, Medina, Talman and Tina Carver were so much fun in their roles.
The film was obviously done with a very small budget and the picture certainly wears its "B" quality on its sleeve. With that being said, the film clocks in at just 67-minutes and it kept me entertained through each of them.
