User Reviews

In 1848 the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican - American War, with the secession of territory from Mexico to the U.S. of most of the current southwestern U.S. (California, Arizona, New Mexico, any claims to Texas - as well as parts of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada). This was a war of conquest by the U.S., but to assuage American consciences fifteen million dollars was paid to Mexico for this territory. Only a subsequent bit of southern Arizona and New Mexico (known as the "Gadsden Purchase") was made as an addition in 1853 by the Pierce Administration, giving us the current southwestern border.

While the territory of Northern California (as opposed to the territory of Baja or Southern California - still part of Mexico) had always been a bit too far from Mexico City for proper control over local government, the change to Washington, D.C. - more than twice the distance and across a continent - further seemed to weaken national control of the territory. Moreover the population, being mostly Latino, was hostile to the non-Latino U.S. Government. It is in the next few years that California's so-called answer to Robin Hood, Joachin Murrieta, is continuing the Mexican War by his guerrilla/bandit attacks.

Under normal circumstances, it would have taken a generation for the U.S. to be really bothered by this. But in 1849 gold was discovered in California, and the world rushed in. Suddenly the territory had nearly one million population within a year, and demanded statehood. This would lead to the controversy about admitting California to the Union as an free state, and unbalancing the balance of the U.S. Senate. This in turn led to the Compromise of 1850 which enabled California to enter the Union as a free state, but guaranteed a fugitive slave act as a sop to the South. It put off the Civil War (or ignited the path to the Civil War) ten years later.

But for a big state, with wealth and population and size, California had a bad reputation. The towns of San Francisco and Los Angeles boomed in population - in particular San Francisco with it's immense harbor. But their governments were pitifully unable to maintain public order. Fires (arson caused) were frequent. So were killings, usually tied to robberies of the prospectors with more gold than sense. Judges and police were frequently paid off by gamblers and crime gang leaders. Finally, in 1851, the better elements of San Francisco put their foot down and formed a vigilante committee. They arrested several dubious characters, held stream-lined trials (where many legal niceties were ditched) and if the parties were found guilty (which usually happened) they were hanged in public. It sort of calmed things down, but then the continued prosperity of the state caused the same problems to reappear. In 1856 two incidents reignited the Vigilante Committee. First a local outspoken newspaper editor, James King of William, was shot and killed by a corrupt local political alderman named James Carey. Then a gambler named Charles Cora shot and killed a police official. Both men were arrested, given the drum-head trial, convicted, and hanged. The Vigilantes retained control of San Francisco for the rest of the next year before disbanding. They never had to make a third appearance.

Were they real heroes or a lynch mob? It still is debated. James King of William was right about the corruption and crime, but he was a "Nativist", and his attacks were also against Catholics, such as Carey (an Irish American) and Cora (an Italian American). Many of his fellows were also Protestants, and some may have had pecuniary interests in attacking the businesses controlled by the Catholics. So the real situation is not black and white, like this film suggests.

Edward G. Robinson's Luis Chamalis was based on Charles Cora, although the triangle with Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrae is from whole cloth. Col. Marcus Cobb (Frank Craven) is based on James King of William (although King of William was never reduced to such stunning superficiality as Cobb is for nearly a year). Robinson's grip on the whole of San Francisco is fictitious (Cora never had that much power). The leadership of the Vigilantes (Harry Carey) reflect the moral center of the Vigilantes movement that was unquestioned in American History books of the 1935.

It is a good film, with fine performances by Robinson, Hopkins, Craven, Brian Donleavy (who's physical appearance makes him look like the corrupt contemporary Mayor of New York City, Fernando Wood), and Brennan. McCrae is sturdy and acts well, but his role seems terribly naive. It is fun trying to locate David Niven as a drunken cockney sailor tossed out of Robinson's saloon (he recalled it fondly in THE MOON'S A BALLOON). Robinson's recollections of the film were downers in ALL MY YESTERDAYS: he had political disputes about the on-coming World War II with isolationists Hopkins, Carey, Craven, Brennan, McCrae, and director Hawks. Hopkins kept trying to upstage him and the others, until he let her have it before the cast and crew (who applauded him for it). He also felt the end was a let down. Quietly told by Carey and his associates it is time to accompany them to his neck stretching party, he quietly joins them, as though they have come to take him to deliver a political speech! Still the film merits an "8" out of "10".

Walter Brennan plays "Old Atrocity," and he brings a lot of comedy to this lively drama doing his signature old codger (never mind he was 41 at the time). Also fun, of course, is the MacArthur/Hecht screenplay, which actually manages to capture the outlaw feeling of Gold Rush days at the Golden Gate. Moody lighting and foggy sets help.

But I enjoyed "Barbara Coast" for something else entirely: the pairing of Edward G. Robinson and Joel McRea. Both are among the most attractive film actors of all time – but for reasons as different as they are.

Short (5'5"), dark, raised in Bucharest and New York City, Edward G. (for Goldenberg) Robinson looks nothing like a matinée idol. Nevertheless, he didn't just star in films, he commanded the screen, even when his co-star was Bogart or Bette Davis, James Stewart or Marlene Dietrich, Orson Welles or Barbara Stanwyck. He handled as wide a variety of roles as anyone, ever: He's famous for violent gangsters ("Little Caesar"), but he was every bit as good as a tragic lead ("Bullets for Ballots"); as film noir characters from villains ("Key Largo"), to dupes ("Scarlett Street"), to heroes ("Night has a Thousand Eyes"); in biography (Dr. Paul Ehrlich); in comedy ("Larceny, Inc."); and he was also a spectacular character actor ("Double Indemnity"). The list is almost endless-- except for musicals-- because his career spanned seven(!) decades.

I'll watch Robinson in anything.

Tall (6'3"), blond and blue-eyed, born in Southern California, Joel McRea is as gorgeous a man as ever faced a camera—but he had very little range. He could affect a few things-- steely determination, boyish charm, and thoughtful confusion were comfort zones-- but his face almost never changed except to smile a bit from time to time. Never mind; he was a precursor to very, very long list of pretty boys who became competent actors, from Valentino through Erroll Flynn and Steve McQueen to Brad Pitt.

I'll watch McRea in anything, too.

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.

Enjoyable adventure is filmed at a lively clip and delivers a fine entertainment. A bit heavy on the ham in a couple of places but entertaining nonetheless. Edward G.Robinson is fine as always although he should have rethought the earring. He is full of brio and shows his versatility but his costume does him no favors. He and Miriam are a fine pair even though he despised her offscreen. A good actress if a bit dithery she managed to destroy her starring career with cheap tricks and constant attempts to upstage her co-stars. The story goes that Edward G. became fed up with it and when the script called for him to strike her he was so frustrated with her shenanigans that he didn't pull the slap and sent her flying to the applause of the assembled crew.

During the gold rush, Robinson runs San Francisco like a mafia boss. Enter Hopkins as a gold-digging young lady, who apparently is just about the only white woman in the whole city, given how the men react to her. The familiar cast also includes McCrea as an earnest young prospector, Donlevy as Robinson's hatchet man, and Brennan as an old guy named "Old Atrocity." Entertaining film has a decent story but is marred by acting that is either wooden or melodramatic, with Hopkins particularly guilty of the latter. It's fun watching Robinson play the heavy. Hawks does a nice job of evoking foggy San Francisco of a bygone era.

When a woman arrives in San Francisco during the height of the Klondike gold rush to find her mail-order fiancé dead she takes up with a shady - and jealous - casino owner before falling for an honest prospector. Although he sports an ear-ring and walks around like he's waiting for the rest of his pirate fancy-dress costume to turn up, Edward G. Robinson pretty much just does his usual gangster routine in Barbary Coast. Not that there's anything wrong with that: his controlling mob boss Louis Chamalis, is actually given a pleasingly sly sense of humour and depth of character, and is also given the opportunity to go out with some class when he meets his inevitable fate. Director Howard Hawks creates a wonderfully evocative portrait of a muddy, fog-bound San Francisco filled with morally compromised larger-than-life characters. Recommended.

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 Eddie G isn't-and it isn't long before Miriam falls in love with him. Will Eddie 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!

I wasn't expecting much when I watched this, but It's pretty good. It's set in San Francsico in 1849 during the gold rush. It's got a great cast like Miriam Hopkins, Edward G. Robinson, Joel McCrea, Harry Carey, Brian Donlevy and Walter Brennan. It was also directed by Howard Hawks. Watch it if your a fan of the cast.

This is a surprisingly toothless historical drama that carries my interest through the entire film, but leaves me feeling unfulfilled. Reading up on it afterwards, Barbary Coast was adapted from a novel by Herbert Asbury that was far more lurid in its depiction of life in San Francisco in the early 1850s. Softened down to a film that could pass the Hays Code, we end up getting a decent little love triangle with a heavily sanitized look at a really rough town around it. The need to make the characters better than they should makes the bad guy less threatening, the good guy too pure, and the girl in between too ill defined for a real impact. It's not bad, but it just ends up blunted and unengaging by the end.

Miriam Hopkins plays Mary Rutledge on a ship that has made it around Cape Horn and arrives in San Francisco looking for her fiancé only to discover that he had recently been murdered by the local casino owner, Luis Chamalis (Edward G. Robinson). Mary had no affection for her lost love, having agreed to the marriage in the sole hope of getting rich, so she feels nothing against going straight to Chamalis and presenting herself to him as a conquest, despite his reputation relayed to her by the locals upon her arrival. Already you can see where some of these edges have been softened. Mary is the only attractive white woman most of these men have seen in months, and she presents herself to the head of crime in a lawless city. What does Chamalis do with her? He makes her run his roulette table, and that's it.

Chamalis and Mary form some kind of relationship, but it's unclear what it actually is. There's the professional side where he is her employer, but there's also some ill-defined personal side where Chamalis demands that Mary love him genuinely. I would guess that there's supposed to be some kind of sexual arrangement here, but, being produced under the Hays Code, it gets smoothed out to nothing but some thin melodramatic moments. He controls her, demands her love, and then sends her out to man the roulette table which she fixes so that gold miners looking to make it even richer can fill Chamalis' coffers.

After some time, Mary goes for a ride in the rain one morning and gets trapped at a small one room building removed from San Francisco where she discovers Joel McCrea's Jim Carmichael. Introduced really late in the film, about halfway through, Carmichael is just the best guy. He refuses to even remotely take advantage of Mary as she takes off her clothes to dry them before his fire. He offers her a ride into town, and they part ways having fallen in love. However, she has to go back to Chamalis and he's set to go back east with the gold in his saddlebag.

And this is where the movie's thinness begins to take a toll. Faced with a couple of days waiting for the tides and fog to be right, Carmichael goes to Chamalis' casino and discovers that Mary works there. This breaks him...for some reason. Yes, she did say that she was only visiting some relatives on a ranch instead of telling him that she worked in the casino, but he is so angry and gets so drunk that he bets everything he has on black and loses. Faced with no money, he sets out to get a job with Chamalis to crawl his way to enough money to pay for his ticket back home. His quiet acquiescence into his sudden poverty and diminished state feels odd, perhaps because Carmichael was introduced too late into the film without given enough time to really flesh out and become a character.

In the background of all of this is life in San Francisco under the thumb of Chamalis. Along with Mary on the boat at the beginning was Colonel Cobb, a newspaper man coming to the West to start a newspaper. After he's scared into playing Chamalis' game under the threat of destroying his printing press, he does nothing but print anodyne stories like the weather, ignoring the growing insurrectionary attitude for law and order in the city. When Chamalis's right hand man, Knuckles, kills Cobb in an altercation about a notice on his wall telling how Knuckles killed a man and got away with it, the town has suddenly had enough and begins forming a vigilante mob with Chamalis as the ultimate target. Chamalis' grip on the town is probably the best part of the whole movie. His obvious control over the local judge in a trial absolving Knuckles of wrongdoing is subtly delivered by Robinson and threatening at once. The growing antagonism between the power structures and the people is palpably manifested through the character of Sawbuck whose friend Sandy was shot in the back by Knuckles. His manic search for anyone to help him in a city cowed into submission is a sideshow in the film, but it ends up providing a strong impetus for action that defines the film's latter half.

What the final section of the movie amounts to is Mary seeking absolution from Jim for her part in robbing him blind by robbing Chamalis using the roulette table to do it, Jim getting to a ship to leave the city, Chamalis looking to get both Mary and Jim for crossing him, and the vigilante mobs coming for Chamalis. Even in Hawks' lesser works, he is able to manage the different pieces coming together in a climax quite well, and this is really no exception.

Ultimately, though, I find the movie a bit unsatisfying. A combination of softening the harder edges too much along with a thin third of a romantic triangle, Barbary Coast doesn't have the emotional investment necessary to carry through to the end. In terms of production, this reminds me of Hitchcock's Under Capricorn, a much better period piece long forgotten by most audiences because it actually spent the time to really flesh out its characters properly. Barbary Coast isn't bad, but it's ultimately a little forgettable.

I love the story about Sam Goldwyn who said that he bought the rights to the title, Barbary Coast, and then said to the writers hired to write a story with that title.

They gave him a story that made a pretty good picture. Edward G. Robinson is at his snarling best as a nineteenth century version of Little Caesar on San Francisco's Barbary Coast during the gold rush days.

Basically Miriam Hopkins has come to San Francisco to marry a newly minted millionaire whom she barely knows, but finds he's dead and fortune gone on her arrival. Since there was no real love involved, she doesn't have a problem teaming up with the man who probably had her fiancé robbed and killed, that being Edward G. Robinson.

It's a pretty lawless place San Francisco. It's been newly acquired by the USA in the Mexican War and it being one of the great natural harbors of the world, a perfect arrival point for people traveling by sea to the gold fields. And such law that's operating is pretty much operating for the town bosses. There is a scene where after Brian Donlevy, who's Robinson's chief henchman, kills a man a trial is held right in Robinson's gambling palace. It's an impromptu affair with a crooked judge who naturally finds Donlevy not guilty.

It's no wonder that certain citizens form a vigilante committee to restore some kind of justice to San Francisco. All part of the colorful history of that place. And that part of the film is well done.

Where Barbary Coast fails is in the romance department. Miriam Hopkins though a woman of conscience has a practical side to her. The weakness of the film is in Joel McCrea's performance. He's a prospector who having made his fortune wants to return home. He has a chance encounter with Hopkins and she takes a shine to him and McCrea doesn't know she's Robinson's main squeeze.

Now I'm a big fan of Joel McCrea, the most virtuous of heroes Hollywood ever produced. But in this one, he's not really virtuous as much as he's an idiot. Let's just say that I cannot understand why Hopkins wants anything to do with him. A much stronger character might have believably taken her from Robinson, but not McCrea in this film.

Barbary Coast was responsible for the first real notices of two prominent character actors. Walter Brennan had been knocking around for years, but he received his first real attention as a player as waterfront character Old Atrocity. And with minimal dialog, Brian Donlevy made his first real impression on film audiences as Robinson's strong arm killer.

It's entertaining, but I'd mute the sound when Barbary Coast turns away from the action.

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.

Given the array of talent assembled for this project, the result disappointed me. The script is funny and very smart, but Robinson's portrayal of an 1850s casino boss in San Francisco comes off poorly to me, especially as he basically struts and does the same act as his 20s gangster thing, but wearing puffy flamenco shirts. Hopkins is good, and very charming, in her role, which is the center of the film's plot and heart. McCrea is given a fairly one-dimensional lead. Seems to have been some confusion over what kind of film they were trying to make over at Goldwyn studios.

Thanks to a Sony Channel we have in the UK I was able to see this rather creaky but very watchable film. What more does anyone want but a poetic man of the West as played by the handsome, talented Joel McCrea and showing yet again how some directors were able to take his talent seriously ? I like to imagine Howard Hawks concentrated on him while leaving the scenes where the annoying Miriam Hopkins was left to Wyler who supremely showed off her shallow emoting in ' Old Acquaintance '. Contrary to what one reviewer says here whatever did Joel McCrea see in her rather than what she saw in him ? Edward G, Robinson is good as always and I disliked the irritating Walter Brennan who reputedly made life hell for Montgomery Clift on the set of Howard Hawks ' Red River ', and his ' acting ' in my opinion is unwatchable. So to sum up this film is a patchwork of both good and bad cinema, and for 21st C tastes may well seem archaic.

Censors had a profound influence in shaping movies during the Golden Age of Hollywood. No better example was Samuel Goldwyn's October 1935 "Barbary Coast." Joseph Breen, chief censor for the Production Code Administration (PCA), hated unredeemable characters in movies that made them out as heroes. When he received Goldwyn's initial script for the Howard Hawks-directed film, Breen rolled his eyes and described it as "one of sordidness, and low-tone morality." The adapted screenplay from Herbert Asbury's 1933's 'Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld,' was about the city's red light district in the 1850. A film industry trade magazine writer familiar with Asbury's book concurred with Breen, calling it "one of the filthiest, vilest and most degrading books that have ever been chosen for the screen."

Goldwyn hired several writers to assist Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur in delivering a screenplay the PCA would pass. Several rewrites sanitized the pair's first script, upsetting Hecht to the point he described it as "Miriam Hopkins (Mary Rutledge in the movie) came to the Barbary Coast and wandered around like a confused Goldwyn girl." Finally, after several months of going back and forth, changing "Barbary Coast" into a romance, Breen beamed to his boss Will Hays the script contains a "fine, clean girl," where there's no mention of "unpleasant details of prostitution." He described the screenplay "now has a full, and completely compensating, value, the finest and most intelligent picture I have seen in many months."

After viewing the final product, some contemporary critics saw just the opposite, with Time Magazine writing the movie was "painfully uninspired," while Newsweek said the plot in the original book was thrown away. Modern day reviewer Stacia Jones agrees "Barbary Coast" would have been a far different, and better, film if it had been made during the Pre-Code era, but "despite some general flakiness and the unmistakable hint of changes made to appease moralists, the script is pretty solid."

"Barbary Coast" is also known for the outrageous behavior Hopkins displayed to her leading man Edward G. Robinson on the set. Miss Rutledge (Hopkins) journeys to San Francisco to marry a rich gold miner she knows. Trouble is, he lost all his money to a casino owned by Louis Chamalis (Robinson) and commits suicide. The resigned Rutledge eventually works at the casino's crooked roulette wheel, where Chamalis falls for her. Robinson described working with Hopkins 'a horror." He claimed she was always late, keeping the film crew waiting, she repeatedly tried to upstage the other actors, and she was constantly haughty. Hopkins didn't read her lines as any actress should when Robinson's close-ups were filmed; she had a script girl stand in for her to read them while Edward always read his lines to her. For one scene, Robinson wanted to rehearse where he had to slap her in the face so he wouldn't actually hit her. She refused, demanding they just shoot it once with him really slapping her and then be done with it. Robinson wrote in his memoirs, "I slapped her so you could hear it all over the set. And the cast and crew burst into applause," apparently tired of Hopkins' behavior. The actress had to pick herself up from the floor, so hard was Robinson's slap.

Initially Walter Brennan, whose acting career saw him in brief roles, was given yet another short part in "Barbary Coast" as Old Atrocity, a regular presence in the district's saloons. Hawks loved Brennan's acting so much the director expanded his lines in several scenes where the actor's trademark excitability is on full display. The movie turned out to be his first significant role after ten years slogging in numerous Hollywood films. He began to get larger parts after the movie's release. "That really set me up," claimed Brennan, the winner of three Academy Awards, and is tied with Jack Nicholson and Daniel Day-Lewis for the most Oscars for an actor.

Also, a Romance that I actually can believe, which is rare for the 30s film, as the supposed golden age of the Romance Genre churned out a lot of pure crap. This isn't that. This is a story about a woman, trying to get rich, falling in love with a gold digger, but finding herself basically owned by a Saloon Keeper.

The Saloon Keeper, Edward G. Robinson, always brilliant, this character is in the mold of Al Swearengen, except without cussing. He's more than a saloon keep, he runs the town, only the town has had enough.

But what clinches the gold standard of a 10/10 is the ending, which is... a spoiler, better watch it for yourself.

This is one of the best stories of this era of film, watch it.

A historical melodrama western from Howard Hawks at Samuel Goldwyn Studios. Set during the 1850s in the gold rush period before California was admitted to the Union as a free state. It tells the story of a woman named Mary Rutledge (Miriam Hopkins) who was originally supposed to marry Dan Morgan, but only finds out that Dan Morgan was dead and that his property was destroyed. She now goes under the care of Louis Chamalis (Edward G. Robinson) who basically runs the town as a corrupt racket. As soon as Mary Rutledge becomes the main attraction by organizing the main table of the roulette wheel. She gets lost in the rain and falls in love with Jim Carmichael (Joel McCrea), a man from New York who came in search of gold and found it. It is a rare film from Howard Hawks and it might not have been his strongest of the films that he made in Hollywood during the Golden Age period. But at least it is worth a look at for the historical aspect of what went on during the period in the history of San Francisco. From the gold rush to the rise of vigilante justice that would consume the history for the latter part of the 19th Century. I adore Miriam Hopkins' performance for the remainder of the film.

I miss films like 1935's Barbary Coast. These are the kind of old-fashioned melodramas that have been driven to extinction. I am not entirely sure that this movie would have been the best kind of old-fashioned film, but it has all the elements that I come to expect from these type of films. For the most part, the film was very entertaining. There is a romanticized and somewhat crass love triangle that lays at the heart of the film. I like this unconventional (for its time) love triangle because it plays to the dark side. The cinematography really plays well to the tone and the atmosphere. There is an abundance of fog and that really gives a sense of mystery to the city of San Francisco, which was known as Barbary Coast to its citizens during the time period the film is set in.

This film was directed by Howard Hawks, who is known as one of cinema's greatest auteurs. It is not his greatest film, and I would even call this film a major B-production (which means it still is good, but not great.) This marks Hawk's first production with famed producer Samuel Goldwyn. For this movie, Goldwyn came up with the title and tasked two of Hollywood's best writers; Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur to create a story under that title. In addition to the love story, they created themes you could pull out of a Western. They created a tale about how you can survive in the lawless West.

There is this gold digger named Mary Rutledge (Miriam Hopkins) who arrives by boat to the shores of San Francisco to meet up with her mail-order husband. She comes to find out that he mysteriously died after falling in debt to a gangster named Louis Chamalis (Edward G. Robinson). Louis also happened to be the owner of the nightclub where Mary's husband owed debt to. Mary decides to get work as a roulette operator in the saloon of Chamalis. He admits to her that he has fallen in love with her, but she does not return his love. During one walk in a rainstorm, she falls in love after meeting gold prospector Jim Carmichael (Joel McCrea). Jim is on his way home with several bags full of gold he found. Chamalis is going to do all he can to grab that gold and make Mary love him the way he loved her.

The movie has several great performances to work with. Miriam Hopkins is a great actress, although stories have been told how hard it was to work with her. Maybe her personality worked well with the type of unsympathetic character she was portraying, because I could not stand her character for a long part of the movie and that is how it was meant to be. Edward G. Robinson gave a great, villainous performance. He looked every part of the villain type, even with that ugly-looking earring on his one ear. The rest of the cast including the likes of Walter Brennan and David Niven in a very early cameo role do a great job. The one thing that stood out to me the most was how women was portrayed. Hopkins portrays a character who is strong-willed and performs tasks that guys would do (remember this film came out in 1935.) This was a rarity for its time.

Barbary Coast is a lesser Howard Hawks film, but this is a legend we are talking about. The movie was still a very entertaining ride from start to finish. This film might even have the only rowboat chase scene in any movie ever released, so that is another reason why you might want to give this oldie a watch.

My Grade: B