Barbary Coast (1935)

Producer: Samuel Goldwyn. Copyright 15 October 1935 by Samuel Goldwyn. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Rivoli: 13 October 1935. U.K. release: November 1935. Australian release: December 1935. 10 reels. 91 minutes.1960 re-issue title: Port of Wickedness. SYNOPSIS: Robinson plays the owner of a crooked gambling saloon on San Francisco's notorious Barbary Coast in the gold-fevered days of the 1850s. Miriam Hopkins in his protégée, Joel McCrea her rescuer.NOTES: Some movie historians claim this film marked David Niven's debut. In actual fact, this was his second speaking part. Without Regret came first.COMMENT: Few actors contributed more to the mood of a Hollywood suspense entry than Edward G. Robinson. He rarely played romantic roles, and even on the right side of the law, he was tough. As a heavy, he invariably came across as extra mean. His role in Barbary Coast is typical. The picture also figures as a typical Goldwyn production in its unstinting production values, its vigorously staged action and high level of cinema artistry. Ray June's excellent camerawork was justly nominated for an Academy Award, but lost out to a movie that wasn't even on the ballot paper: Hal Mohr's A Midsummer Night's Dream.In short, Barbary Coast presents an appealing, lavishly-staged melodrama, full of period flavor and dramatic incident, compellingly directed and fascinatingly enacted by a top-flight cast that could only have been assembled during Hollywood's most exciting era.

A mediocre Hawks entertainment, on his usual theme of tough, displaced men and women falling in love, with a very strong cast but a rather trite and badly-paced storyline. Miriam Hopkins is the self-consciously tough broad who pitches up in Gold Rush-era San Francisco, and allies herself to casino owner Edward G. Robinson – who has a really funny, ever-present curl trespassing onto the right hand side of his face – only to fall for soppy poet Joel McCrea. To get an idea of just how sanitised the movie is, it's worth noting that Joseph Breen, the head of the Hays Office, thought the original script was the filthiest thing he'd ever read, but regarded the film as absolutely charming. There's some wonderfully poetic Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur dialogue in the opening exchanges ("However soiled his hands, the journalist goes staggering through life with a beacon raised" – just beautiful), but it dries up alarmingly quickly, while the story degenerates into tiresome bickering, before reinventing itself as a gruesome love letter to vigilantism. Breen seemed to espouse a strict pro-death-penalty, anti- double-bed viewpoint that's difficult to get on board with nowadays. (I'm also not sure what the form is on everybody celebrating the arrival of a "white woman" - seems a bit racist.)There are a few atmospheric shots in fog-shrouded San Francisco – though conveying the sweep of the burgeoning town is never even attempted – but the real selling point is the performances. Hopkins gives one of those faintly wooden, sub-Stanwyck, but nonetheless intriguing performances combining genuine, even enrapturing emotional attractiveness with the ability to be a bit irritating, while both Walter Brennan and Robinson make the most of familiar roles: Brennan a hoarse crook with an eyepatch and a quietly-emerging conscience, Robinson a menacingly-mewling tough guy who doesn't really understand how love works. McCrea is cast in one of those parts that can come off as unbearably smug (I'm thinking of Leslie Howard's horrendous role in The Petrified Forest), while the script asks him to swallow some rather questionable plot developments, but he's not bad, playing more fey and sensitive than was usually required. There's also a very funny bit part for J.M Kerrigan, who shines as a drunk judge in an incongruous, inappropriate but riotous comic interlude. Barbary Coast never really manages to clamber over its main obstacle – a disjointed, at times slightly tedious story – but some very nice acting and the odd good line or arty shot make it worth a look, especially for fans of the director.

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.

Somewhat run-of-the-mill period piece combining characters and story points probably seen to better effect elsewhere. I could accept E. G. Robinson in his role as a swaggering casino owner in his puffy shirt and earring (and severe sidechops), and he leavens his evildoing with a little bit of pathos in his yearning for a woman who will love him for himself. Poor sap hasn't learned that having people shot in the back is a poor way to impress a woman. Miriam Hopkins does a fine job, mostly, but she sometimes uses her eyebrows to punctuate her dialog a little too much. Hawks should have told her to tone down the brow action a little. The opening sequence as the ship pulls into a fog-enshrouded San Francisco Bay is beautifully shot.