Review of Barbary Coast (1935) by Van R — 24 Nov 2009

Director Howard Hawks rarely made misfires, even LAND OF THE PHARAOHS was a great movie, but this Edward G. Robinson movie about the wild and wooly California coast during the gold rush era of the 1850s is curiously lackluster. Basically, it concerns a ruthless underworld boss, the mail-order bride that goes to work for him, and the innocent drifter that she falls in love with much to the chagrin of the crime boss.

As greedy Luis Chamalis, Robinson wears an ear ring and owns the biggest casino in San Francisco called the Bella Donna. Miriam Hopkins is Mary Rutledge and she has come on a square-rigged ship from New York to marry Dan Morgan, but she learns on her arrival that her fiancélost all his gold as well as his life at the Belle Donna gambling tables. Dan was a poor shot and poor shots do not live long in San Francisco. She refuses to leave town and winds up working the roulette wheel for Chamalis, the very same roulette wheel that brought about the death of her fiancé. Luis nicknames her Swan because she is as soft and desirable as a swan. Eventually, Chamalis demands love and attention from Mary, but she denies him these affections.

One day Mary takes a horse and rides in the country, but she is caught in a soaking downpour and takes refuge in a cabin. As it turns out, the man in the cabin has just settled in is a Jim Carmichael (Joel McCrea) and he is just passing through, too. This young prospector has dug sacks of gold out of the earth and is heading into town. No sooner does Jim see Mary than he falls desperately in love with her. He stumbles into the Bella Donna and loses all his gold on the roulette wheel. Mary feels guilty because she has cheated Jim, just as her fiancé was cheated. At the same time, Luis--who rules the town--with the help of a cold-blooded killer, Knuckles (Brian Donley) suppresses the local newspaper editor Col. Marcus Aurelius Cobb (Frank Craven) from publishing derogatory stories about him.

Things take a turn for the worst for Luis when Knuckles murders a miner Sawbuck McTavish (Donald Meek) and eye witnesses see him. Earlier, Luis got Knuckles out of a tight spot by calling in a favor from a drunken judge, but Knuckles is not so lucky this time around. Not only does he kill Sawbuck, but he also kills Cobb. The newly formed vigilante committee led by Jed Slocum (Harry Carey, Sr of ANGEL AND THE BADMAN) and his followers hang Knuckles on the spot and go after Luis. Meanwhile, Mary and Jim try to escape from the jealous Luis. Just as it appears that the hero and heroine are going to bite the dust, the vigilantes show up and prove the standard moral that crime does not pay and haul off Luis.

There is nothing particularly outstanding about this Hawks movie. The dialogue by two Hawks collaboraters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur is nothing special and neither is this movie. Hopkins makes an unsympathetic heroine until she falls from fellow New Yorker Jim. Walter Brennan steals the show as Old Atrocity, a sneaker grifter, who is never up to anything good.