Product Details

• Actors: Miriam Hopkins, Edward G. Robinson, Joel McCrea, Walter Brennan, Frank Craven
• Directors: Howard Hawks, William Wyler
• Writers: Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, Edward Chodorov, Stephen Longstreet
• Producers: Samuel Goldwyn
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• VHS Release Date: July 22, 1994
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302452988
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #329,164 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Although ranked below Howard Hawks's best films (and his best are as best as movies get), this atmospheric melodrama set in lawless San Francisco in gold-rush days has always been warmly embraced by repertory audiences. Miriam Hopkins is top-billed as Mary Rutledge, newly arrived by ship in a picturesque fog, only to learn that the fiancé she came to join has been taken suddenly dead. In short order, demure Eastern girl Mary has transformed herself into Swan, toast of the Barbary Coast and mistress of its highest-rolling gambler: Edward G. Robinson doing a ringleted 19th-century variant of his trademark gangster role. Eventually Joel McCrea, as a prospector with scant luck but a poetic streak, completes the requisite romantic triangle as ordained by screenwriters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.

Robinson was always a class act, and he brings a surprising, even moving, vulnerability to the role of a man with the power to have virtually anybody killed--but not to compel Swan to love him. The movie's other most memorable presence is Walter Brennan, stepping into character-actor stardom as a toothless wharf rat who tries--and hilariously fails--to live up to his own billing as "Old Atrocity." He'd have won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor if they gave such things in 1935. They started the following year and he was the first winner--for another Hawks picture, Come and Get It. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ADVENTURE ON THE CALIFORNIA COAST., January 27, 2003

By 

"scotsladdie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barbary Coast [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Miriam Hopkins plays beautiful Mary Rutledge who arrives in San Francisco in the 185O's to marry Dan Morgan - only to discover that he died mysteriously after losing his fortune to Louis Chamalis (Eddie Robinson), the powerful owner of the Bella Donna saloon. Mary works for Chamalis as a roulette operator: he falls for her, but she does not reciprocate his feelings. Then a handsome, well-bred Easterner named Jim Carmichael appears in the Bella Donna: Mary finds her man...Robinson's performance is not one of his best, but Hopkins is first rate and McCrea does an admirable job. William Wellman was originally assigned to direct this film which was originally supposed to team Gary Cooper with Gloria Swanson (!). This marked the first film in which Howard Hawks directed for Sam Goldwyn. In his second American film, David Niven is seen as as a Cockney sailor. The script was written by the esteemed team of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. In his first appearance in a Goldwyn film, Walter Brennan is seen as Old Atrocity (!).

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars barbary prose, March 21, 2005

By 

Mark L. Mckenzie (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Barbary Coast (DVD)

This film is a real find not for the main actors but for the bit players. Its really entertaining and captures the 1849 city by the bay in all its glitter and mud. It's nicely paced and except for some shots that seem a tad redundent the fog hides the mystery of the love affair. Walter Brennan is super and plays the old sawdust with a moral conflict. I enjoyed the whole story and for 1935 it seemed was ahead of its time. Worth a rental or for the price above to be a keeper :)

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joel McCrea; need I say more?, February 5, 2006

By 

Delilah - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barbary Coast (DVD)

All I have to say is this is one of THE most perfect films ever made! I mean, come on, how can you beat a movie that has all of the best main ingredients, ie.
~ Joel McCrea is all of his perfect glory!
~ Joel McCrea fawning over Percy Bysshe Shelley's writing in all of his perfect glory
~ A lovely period film with wonderful acting and actors!
~ Did I mention Joel McCrea? Oh, specially the line where he tells Miriam to read the book of Shelley and pretend he wrote it! Ooooooh, doesn't get any better than that!