Barbary Coast (1935)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Even though Barbary Coast came out after the restrictive Hays Code, it is one nasty movie! Imagine what they could have filmed if the censors hadn't been in play! Miriam Hopkins arrives in San Francisco in the 1850s. She thinks she'll get married and start a respectable new life. Instead, her fiancé is dead, and her only option to survive is to accept casino owner Edward G. Robinson's offer. She becomes his mistress and works in the casino to help drum up business. Joel McCrea is honest, kind, and a hard worker-everything Eddy G isn't-and it isn't long before Miriam falls in love with him. Will Eddy G let her go without a fight?The film feels like a pre-code movie, since the entire setting is in an unsavory part of town. There are drunks, gamblers, prostitutes, and criminals. There's violence, sex, and murder, and it's a very exciting ride! Many movies that take place in the mid-1800s are Wild West films, but in this different setting, it's interesting to see the still-rowdy behavior.The famous trivia to come out of this film is that it was one of David Niven's first movies. He plays a drunken sailor, but apparently you'll have to watch the movie a few times to catch him. I knew the trivia and still didn't spot him on the first go-around. If you like a little naughtiness in your classics, you won't mind watching this one over and over to try and see him!

Especially in the early decades of talkies, the rowdy Barbary coast of San Francisco was a popular story locale for Hollywood films. These often featured a self-made kingpin as the lead male and a young naive woman from the East, who becomes the star attraction of the kingpin's main business establishment, as the lead female. Some examples include "Frisco Kid", released the same year as this film, "San Francisco", released the next year, and the later Fox musical "Hello, Frisco, Hello". As kingpins go, Eddie Robinson's pugnacious, power-driven character: the colorful Luis Chamalis, is portrayed as an extreme version, claiming to own about everything and everybody worth owning in SF(no doubt a gross exaggeration).I'm very surprised that no one has noted the striking parallels between the plot and characters of this film with the later "The Sea Wolf", which again has Eddie Robinson hamming it up as a supertyrant, who knows his time as such is limited, but would rather go down with his ship than relinquish his all powerful position. In "The Sea Wolf", Ida Lupino serves as the equivalent of Miriam Hopkins(as Mary Rutledge) in the present film. Literary Alexander Knox and drifter John Garfield serve as a combo of the characters portrayed by Joel McCrea, Frank Craven and Harry Carry in the present film, who provide the most effective male resistance against the bully. Also, fog is a frequent feature of the outdoor scenes in both these B&W films.Eddie and Mariam together carry this film, both skilled in imparting great melodramatic intensity to their characters. In the first half of the film, Mariam's Mary('Swan' to Chamalis) appears to be the female equivalent of Chamalis's amoral hustler character. On the other hand, she appears to be the only person who can influence Chamalis to tone down his cruel and murderous deeds to maintain his status as the de facto boss of SF. Whereas Chamalis appears to be irredeemably evil, until the very end, when he knows his game is up, Mariam's character is eventually revealed as more complex. She can no longer stomach her role in cheating prospectors out of all their gold, and as the moll of a man as cruel and murderous as Chamalis. Thus, she eventually succumbs to the initially repulsed overtures of handsome, laconic, literary, native NYC prospector Jim Carmichael(Joel McCrea), who agrees to do menial jobs for Chamalis to earn a ticket back to NYC, after losing all his gold to Chamalis's fixed gambling wheel, hosted by Mary. Somehow, Jim detects a moral Mary underneath her facade as a cheating hustler. Whereas Mary initially mocks Jim's easy going poetic persona, she eventually accepts his offer to take her back to their native NYC. Naturally, Chamalis is opposed to this development.As is true in some other films, McCrea's character, who serves as the romantic lead, is not the lead male(a villain in this case), nor the main dramatic hero. True, he offers to provide Mary with an acceptable avenue of escape from Chamalis's world, but it's Jed Slocum(Harry Cary), as the leader of the vigilante committee, and Colonel Cobb(Frank Craven), as the newspaper owner-editor, who are the main heroes of the movement to destroy Chamalis's evil empire.Although Brian Donlevy, as Chamalis's chief bouncer and hatchet man:'Knuckles', doesn't have a great deal to say, this role catapulted his film career. A few years later, he would be McCrea's chief adversary in Cecil de Mille's epic western "Union Pacific". Charismatic Walter Brennan, as "Old Atrocity" is a significant player in Chamalis's operations, if he receives no respect. Besides charging outrageous sums to ferry new arrivals from ships to shore, he talks up Chamalis's establishment to prospectors.Apparently, he has a life-long history of criminal doings all over the US...Near the end of the film, 'Old Atrocity', Mary, and even Chamalis perform acts relating to Jim that offer a small measure of redemption for their evil doings. Knucles doesn't get a chance for redemption. The vigilante committee took care of him first, in a crackdown on Chamalis's empire.The background and very limited stage music is almost exclusively Stephen Foster standards, especially "Jeanne, with the Light Brown Hair". Foster composed most of his well -known songs from 1848-54. Only "Oh, Suzanna" was composed just in time for the '49ers. If this story takes place in 1850, "The Camptown Races", featured in one scene, would have been a current hit. "Jeanne" wasn't composed until 1854.

Barbary Coast (1935) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Masterful acting highlight this overlooked gem that features just about everything you'd want out of a classic from the Golden Era of movies. Miriam Hopkins plays a poor girl from New York who travels to San Francisco to marry a man she's never met but once she arrives she learns that he has been murdered. Since she didn't love him, she decides to team up with the man responsible for his death, a ruthless casino owner (Edward G. Robinson) who wants to keep the town under his rule. Soon the woman begins to have second thoughts after meeting young man (Joel McCrea) from her old hometown. Hawks has a big following today and many consider him one of the greatest director's of all time but I'm really not sure I'd join such high praise. I did find it rather strange that when people mention his work this title is often left out, which is too bad because I found this to be one of the most entertaining of his career even though he did take the picture over from William Wyler. Some have called this LITTLE CAESAR set during the gold rush and that might be a fair saying but you could also mix in another Robinson picture, THE HATCHET MAN. This film here is pulp entertainment from start to finish as we have three legends really giving it their all in a pretty good story that contains romance, action, drama, comedy and one masterfully directed sequence. This sequence takes place as a vigilante group is holding a trial while walking through some mud. The sound effects used here and the constant editing down towards the mud is priceless and will certainly remain in the viewers mind long after the film ends. Robinson dives head first into his role and really delivers one of the finest performances of his career. His scenes where the character goes mad or better yet, love struck, are priceless and really pack a nice little punch as he goes off the deep end. The evilness Robinson brings to the role was not only creepy but it added to the entertainment value just because it will also put a smile on your face. Hopkins is also terrific and manages to deliver a full performance full of all sorts of emotions. Her character goes through various stages and the actress captures all of them perfectly. Her and Robinson have wonderful chemistry and I was shocked to learn after the movie that the two hated working with one another on this film. McCrea is also terrific and plays the naive and soft-spoken character wonderfully. The supporting cast features the wonderful Walter Brennan, Frank Craven, Brian Donlevy, Harry Carey and Donald Meek. The film's biggest problem is the ending, which really felt added on but I haven't been able to find anywhere that it was forced by the studio. Why this film isn't better known is beyond me but there's enough packed in here for two movies so hopefully more people will check it out.

Apparently Sam Goldwyn picked the words Barbary Coast as a title then called in his writers and told them to write a story. That was the way they did things at Hollywood studios in the thirties.This is actually a pretty entertaining movie that catches some of the anything goes atmosphere of San Francisco in gold rush days.Edward G. Robinson is miscast (and has to wear some peculiar costumes) in his role as a bad guy but he gives it everything he's got and some of his scenes are quite effective. Miriam Hopkins is very good as a gold digger of the non mining kind and Joel Mcrea as her hearts desire spouts some poetic dialogue quite eloquently.Good drama of the typically Hollywood kind.