Oil Films


(Please note that the descriptions of these films were written by contributors to the Internet Movie Database 
Website: http://www.imdb.com/)     

1. There Will Be Blood (2007)

 

Set in the early 20th century, the film follows the rise to power of Daniel Plainview -- a charismatic and ruthless oil prospector, driven to succeed by his intense hatred of others and psychological need to see any and all competitors fail. When he learns of oil-rich land in California that can be bought cheaply, he moves his operation there and begins manipulating and exploiting the local landowners into selling him their property. Using his young adopted son H.W. to project the image of a caring family man, Plainview gains the cooperation of almost all the locals with lofty promises to build schools and cultivate the land to make their community flourish. Over time, Plainview's gradual accumulation of wealth and power causes his true self to surface, and he begins to slowly alienate himself from everyone in his life.

 

2. Syriana (2006)

 

A missile disappears in Iran, but the CIA has other problems: the heir to an Emirate gives an oil contract to China, cutting out a US company that promptly fires its immigrant workers and merges with a small firm that has landed a Kazakhstani oil contract. The Department of Justice suspects bribery, and the oil company's law firm finds a scapegoat. The CIA also needs one when its plot to kill the Emir-apparent fails. Agent Bob Barnes, the fall guy, sorts out the double cross. An American economist parlays the death of his son into a contract to advise the sheik the CIA wants dead. The jobless Pakistanis join a fundamentalist group. All roads start and end in the oil fields.

 

3. The Last Winter (2006)

 

In the Arctic region of Northern Alaska, an oil company's advance team struggles to establish a drilling base that will forever alter the pristine land. After one team member is found dead, disorientation slowly claims the sanity of the others as each of them succumbs to a mysterious fear.

 

4. The Deal (2005)

 

A political thriller steeped in illegal oil trading, the Russian Mafia, and governmental cover-ups.

 

5. Oil Storm (2005)

 

This docudrama outlines the effects of a severe oil and gas shortage in the United States, brought on by a hurricane damaging much of the oil infrastructure along the Gulf Coast. The drama is seen through the eyes of stock traders and analysts, a small business owner, government officials and news reporters.

 

 

6. Blast (2004)

 

A terrorist, Michael Kittredge (Jones), posing as an environmentalist protester leads a team of highly-skilled mercenaries to take control of an oil rig off the coast of California, intending to detonate an electromagnetic bomb over the United States, striking a sort of "new Pearl Harbor" attack on behalf of enemies to the nation. What Kittredge didn't count on is a tugboat captain, Lamont Dixon (Griffin), who survives an attack on his ship, and is soon recruited by an FBI agent (Fox) to infiltrate the oil rig and procure information about their plans... and if possible, stop them. In the process, Dixon meets an eager computer expert (Meyer) aboard the oil rig who helps Dixon even as he gets on his nerves and Lamont suspects he can't really trust him.

 

7. The Devil’s Tattoo (2003)

 

When a group of environmental activists board an oilrig to broadcast their protest to the outside world, they find the entire rig abandoned. A hidden video camera is discovered revealing that the entire rig's workforce has been gradually wiped out by an evil entity, which uses the bodies of the living and moves from person to person, leaving the host dead. Locked in a battle of survival, they begin their search for the spirit. What they don't know is that this spirit is now one of them...

 

8. Megalodon (2002)

 

Oil...the quest for it is unrelenting. The search for new reserves of the 'black gold' never-ends and leading the search is Nexecon Petroleum and its flagship-the largest drilling and refining platform ever constructed-'Colossus" located in the freezing North Atlantic waters off the coast of Greenland. 'Colossus' will drill deeper than any rig ever has, a fact that gratifies Nexecon CEO, Peter Brazier, but that has geologists the world over up in arms, concerned that delicate ocean floor fault lines could be disturbed with catastrophic effects. Skeptical news reporter Christen Giddings and her cameraman Jake Thompson are invited by Braziera to document the safety of 'Colossus.' The powerful drill tears through the seabed, striking a rich oil deposit. As the drill penetrates further, it ruptures a fissure that reveals a second 'mirror' ocean that has existed beneath ours for millions of years. An ocean teeming with prehistoric life. As the choking oil poisons the water, the frenzied creatures swarm for the surface. Colossus buckles under the onslaught. Brazier, Christen, and a team of engineers descend in Colossus' glass elevator to assess the damage and come face to face with the most powerful oceanic predator that ever lived. Carcharodon Megalodon. The giant ancestor of the Great White Shark. This eleven-ton 'killing machine' quickly stakes its territory in the waters surrounding Colossus with disastrous and horrific consequences, destroying and devouring anything in its path. Now fate will pull them together as they wager their changes of survival against the most fearsome creature that ever dominated the ocean, and pit the technology and machinery of man against beast. Megalodon...sixty feet of prehistoric terror.

 

 

 

9. Ablaze (2001)

 

Hoping to make a killing on the insurance money, oil refinery owner Wendell Mays decides to burn the place to the ground. His greed endangers the lives of the entire town as the fireball creates a spreading inferno threatens to engulf the entire city, and stretches the abilities of the fire department and the local hospital to their breaking points.

 

10. Avalanche (1999)

 

A helicopter pilot (Thomas Ian Griffith) work with a husband (C. Thomas Howell) and his wife (Caroleen Feeney) in the frozen North tagging foxes for the Environmental Protection Agency. When an avalanche hits the group, the husband is killed and only by the pilot's perseverance is the wife saved. Two years later, the wife takes on a corporation which wants to extend an oil pipeline across the tundra above Juneau. She is convinced that this will cause an avalanche on the town. Of course, she is rejected by the corporation executives. She recruits the pilot to try to aid her, but with no success.

 

11. The World Is Not Enough (1999)

 

After British oil tycoon Sir Robert King is killed in a bombing at the MI6 headquarters, his daughter, Elektra, inherits his fortune which includes billions of dollars worth of oil deposits in the Caspian Sea...and James Bond as a bodyguard. Her new wealth attracts international interest. But she has also attracted the attention of her father's killer. His name is Renard. A bullet lodged in his brain has rendered him unable to feel physical pain, and he has but only one reason left to live - revenge. There's only one man who can take the heat between a beautiful heiress, a malicious sociopath and his final diabolical plan. For the world's most famous secret agent, when the stakes are high and the danger hits too close to home, it is not just professional; its personal!

 

12. Operation Noah (1998)

 

The Christmas party at the headquarters of an oil company is harshly interrupted by a fax whose author threatens to blow up one of their oil platforms. Unfortunately not only crew members are on board the platform but some kids that wanted to bring their fathers some Christmas presents, too. Due to stormy weather an evacuation is impossible and the lowering of the bomb experts from a helicopter causes the killing of the head of the team. Now his trainee Lucky is forced to try the defusing of the bombs with the only help of one of the drillers...

 

13. Offshore (1996)

 

The story is set on an oil platform in the North Sea. We follow the employees and their, at times, difficult relationships both at work and in the spare time. The main line of conflict is between popular and smart union boss Torbjorn Lindbaek and the corrupt company boss Hroar Torgersen who wants to give the drilling contract to an American company run by his father-in-law. Of course Lindbaek and Torgersen have also had their share of disagreements in the past...

 

14. The Stars Fell on Henrietta (1995)

 

The setting is early America during the oil boom. An elderly, down on his luck 'oil man', Mr. Cox finds himself in the town of Henrietta. Using unconventional methods, he convinces himself and local Don Day that there is oil on Day's land. The financially strapped Day puts everything into finding oil...but at what cost?

 

15. On Deadly Ground (1994)

 

Posing as an environmental story about a corrupt oil company owner called Jennings, who will stop at nothing to open a new refinery in Alaska, this is just an excuse for another action film. Fists, feet, bullets and bombs galore as Forest Taft, a disgruntled employee, is chosen by an Eskimo chief as the savior of his people. Forest's mission is to prevent the new refinery going on-line before the land rights are returned to the Eskimos.

 

16. The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)

 

Jed Clampett and kin move from Arkansas to Beverly Hills when he becomes a billionaire, after an oil strike. The country folk are very naive with regard to life in the big city, so when Jed starts a search for a new wife there are inevitably plenty of takers and con artists ready to make a fast buck.

 

17. Storm Clouds (1992)

 

Bruce Becker, petroleum engineer takes a job in Kuwait as job opportunities at home in the US disappear. He is taken hostage and is used as part of the "Human Shield" prior to the first Iraq war. The real drama unfolds back at home as his wife and daughter struggle to come to terms with their rocky and often tempestuous relationship against the backdrop of their despair over the kidnapping of Bruce. The decision of the daughter, Jill, to get involved in drug trafficking almost leads to fatal consequences just as Bruce is to be released and brought home to them.

 

18. Killing Cars (1986)

 

In a complex story of automotive intrigue, oil barons, corporate finance, and international villainy, the inventor of an environmentally friendly car powered by energy cells becomes the target of killers. After Ralph Korda has given his patented world car to a German automaker for testing, he is confronted by ominous men, eager to get their hands on his patent. Evil Arab petroleum lords also want to stop this threat to the gasoline market any way they can.

 

 

19. Local Hero (1983)

 

Oil billionaire Happer sends Mac to a remote Scottish village to secure the property rights for an oil refinery they want to build. Mac teams up with Danny and starts the negotiations, the locals are keen to get their hands on the 'Silver Dollar' and can't believe their luck. However a local hermit and beach scavenger, Ben Knox, lives in a shack on the crucial beach which he also owns. Happer is more interested in the Northern Lights and Danny in a surreal girl with webbed feet, Marina. Mac is used to a Houston office with fax machines but is forced to negotiate on Bens terms.

 

20. The Intruder Within (1981)

 

Personnel on an oil rig near Antarctica discover a bizarre fossil that exerts a mesmeric influence over some of them and gradually regenerates into the horrible embodiment of an evil that has laid dormant since the beginning of time.

 

21. Urban Cowboy (1980)

 

Bud Davis is a country boy who moves to the city to visit his uncle. He starts hanging out at Gilley's, owned by Mickey Gilley himself. He takes a job at the refinery where his uncle works. He also meets Sissy, a cowgirl, and they fall in love and suddenly get married. And then their marriage is shattered when Bud sees Sissy allegedly seeing con man Wes, who teaches her how to ride the mechanical bull...and plans to rob Gilley's. When a bull-riding contest is announced, Bud decides to sign up. Can he win the contest and save his marriage to Sissy?

 

22. The Formula (1980)

 

A detective uncovers a formula that was devised by the Nazis in WW II to make gasoline from synthetic products, thereby eliminating the necessity for oil--and oil companies. A major oil company finds out about it and tries to destroy the formula and anyone who knows about it.

 

23. City on Fire (1979)

 

William Dudley (Leslie Nielson) is a corrupt mayor of a nameless Midwestern U.S. city who has allowed a chemical refinery to be built right in the center of town, far from any river, lake or reservoir. On one typical hot summer day, Herman Stover (Jonathan Welsh), a dangerously disturbed employee at the works has been denied an expected promotion and in addition, finds himself fired. He then decides to take his revenge against the works by opening the valves to the storage vats and their interconnecting pipes, flooding the area and sewers with gasoline and chemicals. It doesn't take long for this act of petty vandalism to start a fire, which starts a chain reaction that causes massive explosions at the refinery, destroying it and spreading a mushroom-cloud of flame that soon engulfs the entire metropolis! The drama focuses on a newly built hospital which, like the refinery and all civic buildings that went up during the mayor's crooked administration, is shoddily built and poorly equipped where the head doctor, Frank Whitman (Barry Newman), and his staff treat thousands of casualties from the city-fire while the city fire chief Risley (Henry Fonda) keeps in constant contact with the fire companies fighting a losing battle against the fires, and Maggie Grayson (Ava Garner), an alcoholic reporter/newscaster, sees it as her chance to make it nationwide with her coverage of the story of the 'city on fire.'

 

24. North Sea Hijack (1979)

 

A terrorist (Anthony Perkins) holds an offshore drilling rig and production platform for ransom in the North Sea. Folks (Roger Moore) a wealthy misogynistic eccentric, volunteers to send his crack team of soldiers in to stop the terrorists. With few other options available, the British Government reluctantly accepts his help.

 

25. W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975)

 

W.W. is a happy-go-lucky crook who makes his living robbing gas stations through the drive-up windows. The Dixie Dancekings are a country music band trying to get their first big break. W.W. crosses paths with the Dixie Dancekings when he hijacks their car (and them) to help him rob a bank. At first, the band resists. However, when they discover how much money they make, they begin helping out voluntarily in order to finance their big break. At the same time, W.W. takes a liking to them and uses his natural charm and smooth-talking ways to help them start down the road to stardom.

 

26. Oklahoma Crude (1973)

 

Its oil boom time in Oklahoma and Lena Doyle, a hard-bitten, cynical feminist has a fight on her hands: the big oil companies don't like the fact that she's working a potentially profitable wildcat rig. Reluctantly, Lena must accept the aid of her estranged father Cleon, and Mason, the man he hires to help. The three form an unlikely team: Lena hates men, Mason is out for himself, and Lena's father is trying to make up for a lifetime of neglecting his daughter. But together they take on the big guys and put up a terrific fight.

 

27. Five Easy Pieces (1970)

 

Robert Dupea has given up his promising career as a concert pianist and is now working in oil fields. He lives together with Rayette, who's a waitress in a diner. When Robert hears from his sister that his father isn't well, he drives up to Washington to see him, taking Rayette with him. There he gets confronted with his rich, cultured family that he had left behind.

 

28. Hellfighters (1968)

 

The adventures of oil well fire specialist Chance Buckman (based on real-life Red Adair), who extinguishes massive fires in oil fields around the world.

 

29. The Return of Mr. Moto (1965)

 

Sinister forces are behind the blowing up of oil wells in an attempt to gain control of key oil fields. Moto is assigned by British-based Beta Oil Corporation and the Foreign Office to discover who is conspiring to control the oil leases of the petroleum-rich emirate of Wadi Shammar. After an attempt on his life fails, Moto goes undercover disguised as a Japanese businessman and discovers a plot against the life of the Shahrdar of Wadi Shammar. Moto is aided in his efforts by beautiful Beta Oil secretary Maxine Powell and Police Inspector Jim Halliday.

 

30. The Wheeler Dealers (1963)

 

Henry Tyroone comes to New York from Texas with a lot of oil money to play with in the stock market. He meets stock analyst Molly Thatcher and the two fall in love.

 

31. Campbell’s Kingdom (1957)

 

Rugged Wildcatters...Fighting the Treacherous Might of the Canadian Rockies!

 

31.5 Moby Dick (1956) also a 1978 version

 

This classic story by Herman Melville revolves around Captain Ahab and his obsession with a huge whale, Moby Dick. The whale caused the loss of Ahab's leg years before, leaving Ahab to stomp the boards of his ship on a peg leg. Ahab is so crazed by his desire to kill the whale that he is prepared to sacrifice everything, including his life, the lives of his crew members, and even his ship to find and destroy his nemesis, Moby Dick.

 

32. Giant (1956)

 

Ambitious Texas-style scale epic that traces the rising and falling fortunes of two generations of Texans. Miscegenation, moral dissipation, racism, the oppression of women....a variety of topics are brought forth during the film's 201-minute running time. The core of the film is actually the relationship between Bick Benedict and his wife Leslie. It is through them that we follow the film's themes of generation, conflict and social change. However, it is Jett Rink whom audiences remember, particularly in the early scenes when he is striding out on his small piece of land or when he comes to tell Benedict that "my well came in big." He puts his oily hand on one of the white columns of Benedict's porch and, unemphatically crystallizes the theme of the film - the muddy thumb prints of materialism on the pillars of elegance and the coming of conflict between the aristocracy and the nouveau riche. "You should have shot that fella a long time ago," a friend says to Benedict about Jett Rink. "Now he's too rich to kill."

 

33. Destination Earth (1956)

 

The American Petroleum Institute presents "Destination Earth" Color by Technicolor... The cartoon begins by establishing the planet Mars, ruled by a dictator named Ogg. The Martians are small green guys with big noses and space helmets. The poor guys are herded by soldiers into a space-age coliseum where Ogg forces them to applaud as they hear his criticisms of problems with Martian ground transportation -- no good fuel and too much friction. A single Martian is sent to Earth to find a solution. The intrepid Martian crashes his saucer into a farm, sets forth into the city, learns about the glorious benefits of petroleum AND capitalist competition, steals a few library books, and heads back to Mars. He excitedly reveals the truths he's learned to the crowd in the coliseum. The crowd is fueled by the spirit of capitalism and the dictatorship breaks down instantly, to be replaced by the Oil Pioneers, the Oil Explorers, and new management. And we learn that a future with oil and competition is Destination Unlimited. I enjoy John Sutherland's educational cartoons, but this one is really a work of art. The animation is several cuts above his usual good work. Of course a lot of the difference has to do with the presence of Tom Oreb and Vic Haboush as production designers. And whoever animated Ogg (was it Ken O'Brien?) provides lush movement done in a very limited style.

 

34. Born in Freedom: The Story of Colonel Drake (1954)

In 1857 Edwin L. Drake is sent to investigate an oil seep in a creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania. After conferring with Dr. Brewer (the land owner) and Joel D. Angier (who devised a method of collecting oil using baffles), Drake reports back to James M. Townsend (Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, New Haven, Conn.) that it should be feasible to increase the yield beyond the 3 to 6 gallons a day Angier has obtained. Put in charge, and addressed by the courtesy title of "Colonel" by the company, Drake first tries to dig down to the source of the oil and is heckled for his efforts. Water entry causes failure, as it does to Drake's first attempts to drill to the oil with Billy Smith ("Uncle Billy"), an experienced salt driller. Overcoming many other obstacles, Drake's innovation to shield the well from water entry by using a drive pipe finally allows drilling to proceed until striking oil in August, 1859. His perseverance yields many barrels of oil a day, and immediately brings about the start of the oil industry.

 

35. American Frontier (1953)

 

A school teacher/wheat farmer is solicited by several oil companies for the rights to drill on his family's farm. After accepting an offer he realizes that North Dakota is again a new frontier in America.

 

36. Oily Hare (1952)

 

A Texas oilman fights Bugs over property rights to his rabbit hole.

 

37. Desperadoes of the West (1950)

 

A group of ranchers, led by Colonel Arnold (Cliff Clark) and Ward Gordon (Tom Keene as Richard Powers), are drilling an oil well but getting fierce opposition from an unknown gang of outlaws. Eastern promoter J.B."Dude" Dawson (I. Stanford Jolley), is behind the gang as he is out to prevent the co-op members from striking oil before their lease expires, so he can secure the property for his company. When Ward, with the help of Arnold and his daughter Sally (Judy Clark), arranges for a new driller to be brought in, the replacement man is killed and one of Dawson's men takes his place.

 

38. Tulsa (1949)

 

It's Tulsa, Oklahoma at the start of the oil boom and Cherokee Lansing's rancher father is killed in a fight with the Tanner Oil Company. Cherokee plans revenge by bringing in her own wells with the help of oil expert Brad Brady and childhood friend Jim Redbird. When the oil and the money start gushing in, both Brad and Jim want to protect the land but Cherokee has different ideas. What started out as revenge for her father's death has turned into an obsession for wealth and power.

 

39. Louisiana Story (1948)

 

A young Cajun boy named Alexander Napoleon Ulysses Latour spends his time on a Louisiana bayou. There he plays, fishes and hunts, worrying only about the alligators which infest its waters. The boy's innocent routine changes forever when his father signs a lease agreement with an oil company which brings a derrick into their corner of the bayou.

 

40. Gran Casino (1947)

 

After the mysterious disappearance of an oil well owner, one of his workers, Gerardo (Jorge Negrete) assumes the business management. Soon, the owner's sister (Libertad Lamarque) arrives from Argentina, and, believing that Gerardo killed her brother to keep the wells for himself, she starts working as a singer under a false name in the same casino her brother disappeared, in order to find out what exactly happened.

 

41. The Lone Hand Texan (1947)

 

Steve Driscoll arrives to help a friend who is trying to bring in an oil well. He finds that the well has been blown up and the workers have quit. He gets the workers back on the job and orders a new drill bit. When the drill bit is stolen he organizes the townspeople to invest in the well. But when the money is collected, a fake Durango Kid shows up to take it and flee.

 

42. Along the Navajo Trail (1945)

 

U.S. Deputy Marshal Roy investigates the disappearance of a government agent who has come to Dale's father's Ladder A Ranch. The bad guys want the land the ranch sits on because they know an oil pipeline is planned through this location.

 

43. Beyond the Pecos (1945)

 

Oil is discovered on the ranch lands causing the dormant Remington-Randall feud to break out again. Lew Remington (Rod Cameron) returns home to find himself embroiled in the struggle. The Randall faction is represented by Bob Randall (Eddie Dew), who is the unwitting tool of John Heydrick (Gene Roth) and his henchmen who have a vested interest in and gains to be made if the feud continues. Both Bob and Lew are in love with Ellen Tanner (Jennifer Holt) who tries to warn both men that they should work together to save the Pecos country from the crooks.

 

44. Man from Oklahoma (1945)

 

Jim Gardner, hoping to acquire the Pine Valley section around Cherokee City, Oklahoma, for the oil rights, instigates and renews an old time feud between the Lanes and the Whittakers as each family own half the valley. Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers take up the fight against Gardner and manage to settle the Lane-Whittaker feud.

 

45. The Tiger Woman (1944)

 

Greedy oil speculators, led by Morgan, are trying to force Tiger Woman and her band of warriors from their jungle home. Allen Saunders of Inter-Ocean Oil wants to develop the oil, too, but fights with Tiger Woman to stop the bad guys.

 

46. Death Valley Manhunt (1943)

 

Unknown to oil company president Ross, his man Quinn is pulling a swindle on the independent drillers. Quinn controls both the Judge and the Marshal. But when the Marshal is accidentally killed, Wild Bill Elliott is brought in as the new Marshal and things begin to change.

 

47. Wildcat (1942)

 

Wildcatter Johnny Maverick (Richard Arlen) and his pal, Chicopee Nevins (Elisha Cook, Jr.) are speeding toward Antril Bend, a small town in the oil region, that has offered $25,000 to the person bringing in the first oil well. They accidentally find oil on the town's outskirts, and Johnny writes a $4000 hot check for the property. He covers that by having Chicopee sell his half interest to oil promoter Gus Sloane (John Dilson) for $7000. Sloane hires a crew to start drilling on his half of the property, with Johnny's old enemy, Mile Rawlins (Larry "Buster" Crabbe) as his foreman. Rawlins sabotages Johnny's rig, causing Chicopee's death. Confidence man Oliver Westbrook (William Frawley) and his confederate, Nan Dearing (Arline Judge) hatch a plan to swindle Johnny by having Nan pose as Chicopee's sister. It works and Johnny makes Nan his partner. Another accident staged by Rawlins forces Johnny to sign a note to get money for repair. Nan falls in love with Johnny and abandons her plan to swindle him. As the note deadline approaches, Johnny learns that Sloane has purchased it as a means of taking over the well.

 

48. Boom Town (1940)

 

Buddies Big John McMasters and Square John Sand are fast-talking, wisecracking wildcatters who manage to con enough equipment and capital to develop their own oil fields, but their friendship is put to the test when Big John inadvertently falls in love with Elizabeth, Square John's longtime girlfriend. Eventually their friendship and partnership comes to an end on the flip of a coin. Years later, when Big John's interest in the beautiful Karen Vanmeer threatens his marriage too, Square John intervenes in an effort to save the marriage of his former friend - even if it means ruining him financially.

 

49. Flowing Gold (1940)

 

Johnny Blake, dodging the law on a false murder charge, gets work in the oil fields. His boss and friend Hap O'Connor turns on him when Johnny and Hap's girlfriend Linda fall in love. An oil well fire becomes the catalyst for their relationships.

 

50. The Devil’s Pipeline (1940)

 

A secretary sends a coded plea for help in her monthly report; two detectives investigate and find out that men are jailed on phony charges, forced to work in oil fields and then murdered if they try to escape.

 

51. Mexicali Rose (1939)

 

Carruthers has sold shares in a phony oil well and when Gene investigates he finds the well is a fake. Gene has a plan to recoup everyone's money. Pouring some oil in a recommended location gets Corruthers to drill a real well. Gene plans to let him know it's a fake and redeem the shares before the oil comes in.

 

52. Pete-Roleum and His Cousins (1939)

 

his 25-minute short (original running time at the 1939 World's Fair and in its theatrical bookings) was made by Petroleum Industry to be primarily at the NYC 1939 World's Fair, but was also available to theatres. Basically, a commercial but many theatres booked it since it was free, in Technicolor and was better than the majority of the 1939 shorts. The reason some people think there is gaps in the narration is because the original had two different interlocking sound tracks, one on the screen, representing the voices of the screen characters, and another in the rear of the auditorium, with the taunts and wise-cracks of an off-screen heckler. The DVD that exists is not only missing nine minutes of footage, it is also missing the second sound track. The story is a fantasy of the oil industry, employing 40 different characters. The story utilizes animated puppets in a, at the time, new way. The puppets were four inches high, had faces and bodies shaped like oil drops. They had flexible armatures and rubber skin faces that could assume any expression desired. It was photographed by a stop-action camera and the average production rate was fifteen feet of film a day. There is one central character, Pete-Roleum (as seen on the original title with a hyphen in the name), and he engages in a discussion with the heckling voice from the audience. Pete and his petroleum cousins quit the earth, which starts to drop back into ruin without the aid of oil in the human activities. The heckler sees his mistake and pleads for them to come back. This short was shown in many USA schools well into the 1940s and beyond. Howard Bay, of the Federal Theatre's Living Newspaper series, designed the sets and the puppets.

 

53. Git Along Little Dogies (1937)

 

Maxwell is trying to bring in an oil well and Wilkens is out to stop him. When his attempted robbery of Maxwell's payroll fails, he tells the ranchers who invested on Autry's advise that the well is dry. But Gene knows there is oil there and with everyone after him he heads for the well to try and bring it in with dynamite.

 

54. Black Gold (1936)

 

A bunch of good guys trying to find oil while a bad guy tries to get it for himself. It has the usual pack of thugs who throw their weight around. A crusading union type guy trying to pull the others together when the going gets tough.

 

55. Oil For the Lamps of China (1935)

 

An American, working for his oil company in China, disregards all but the company's interests.

 

56. The Oil Raider (1934)

 

Wildcatter" Dave Warren (Buster Crabbe) and his crew are trying to bring in a new oil well. Dave gives troublemaker Simmons (Max Wagner) a good thrashing and orders him off the site. In order to complete drilling Dave borrows $50,000 from investment banker J. T. Varley (George Irving) and also begins a romance with Varley's daughter Alice (Gloria Shea). Varley suffers market reverses and knowing that Dave is about to strike oil hires Simmons to wreck the rig so he can foreclose and take over.

 

57. Cyclone Kid (1931)

 

Rancher Harvey Comstock (Lafe McKee), whose cattle are being rustled, is killed by a shot through an open window. Joe Clark(Ted Adams), the killer, heads the rustlers and with inside help from Comstock-cowhand Pete(Blackie Whiteford), plans to buy the Comstock ranch cheap. Foreman Steve Andrews(Francis X. Bushman, Jr.), who loves Comstock's daughter Rose(Caryl Lincoln),finds oil on the ranch. Both he and young Buddy Comstock (Buzz Barton) are captured and taken to a hacienda by the gang. Buddy frees them and they and a posse rescue Rose from Clark and his gang.

 

58. Untamed (1929)

 

When her rich oilman father is killed, Bingo, raised in the wilds of South America, inherits the company. Her guardians Ben and Howard send her to New York for civilizing but on the way she meets Andy, wonderful in every way but wealth. He can't live off her money, he says, as he turns to Marjory. Uncivilized Bingo, who hits anyone she disagrees with, shoots Andy in the arm. Now it's okay for him to marry her.