Customer Reviews

Double Feature (Flame Of Barbary Coast / Santa Fe Stampede)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

FLAME OF THE BARBARY COAST: The Duke vs. Joseph Schildkraut for the heart of Ann Dvorak and dominance of the San Francisco gambling scene. Wayne is smart and strong, Dvorak is beautiful and unobtainable and Schildkraut is charming and both conniving and dignified. William Frawley provides guidance and laughs as Duke's mentor, Wolf Wiley. This is a classic love triangle/rivalry, the kind that has sustained literature down through the ages.

SANTA FE STAMPEDE: John Wayne, Ray "Crash" Corrigan and Max Terhune made several Republic Westerns where they played a group of friends known as the Three Mesquiteers. This is one of their better outings. Wayne is framed for a murder he did not commit and faces lynching at the hands of an angry mob. (The titular Stampede)Will his friends be able to save him in time? I'm not telling, but you probably know the answer. This is a fun Republic oater with decent action and some funny comic bits by Terhune and his ventriloquist dummy.

I have always been a big fan of John Wayne and thought I had seen all the movies that He had been involved in ,It was a nice suprise to get this selection along with Santa Fe Stampede. both were greately entertaining.

Gordon Burgess
Dartmouth N.S. Canada

A double dose of John Wayne for the price of one is a great idea to me. Flame of the Barbary Coast is a film from Wayne's time at Republic Studios. While it will not replace anyone's favorite Duke film it is a fun time. The plot is not the most original but I recommend this one. Wayne comes to town, losses his bankroll to a crooked casino and then fights back. He opens his own casino and steals the girl (of course there is a girl) from the bad guy. Throw in the San Francisco earthquake and you've got a movie. After all that you get a second feature. Looks like its a bargain.

Both movies were interesting. Life on the Barbary Coast was not a easy one and especially when you throw in an earthquake. San Francisco must have been a ripe roaring town around 1900 and shortly thereafter. The other movie deals with cattle drives and there conplex operation. Both give you glimpses of the "Ole" West and how life was in that day. Enjoyable.

FLAME OF BARBARY COAST and SANTA FE STAMPEDE are hardly considered the cream of the crop in John Wayne's body of work. One picture is after John Wayne rose to stardom, the other right before. They're both okay viewing, marked as they are by the Duke's distinctive broad-shouldered presence. I purchased this DVD. I ain't complaining.

There's no rivalry like a rivalry over a beautiful woman. When you get to the heart of the plot in John Wayne's turn-of-the-century drama, there sits Ann Dvorak all fine and beautiful. In 1945's FLAME OF BARBARY COAST, easygoing Montana rancher Duke Fergus arrives at San Francisco's Barbary Coast to collect a debt from an influential casino owner and, because of this and that - but mostly because of Flaxen Tarry the enticing dance hall chanteuse (Dvorak) - he ends up establishing his own casino right across the street. Duke Fergus is well on his way to clobbering all competition and getting the girl (having already hired her away from his rival), but then the great San Francisco earthquake strikes, and I guess there's nothing like a natural disaster to bring a man back down to earth.

I enjoyed this movie okay, even though it's nowhere near the Duke's best work. FLAME OF BARBARY COAST is a poor man's remake of SAN FRANCISCO. The production values here are decent but don't match that of the original classic. But I thought that John Wayne and Ann Dvorak are in fine form as the leads, even if they don't have much to work with in terms of script. There's a bit of suspense thrown in regarding Flaxen because you're never quite sure exactly where her allegiance lies. Also, Dvorak never was heralded as a notable singer, and her efforts here won't change anyone's mind. William Frawley has a very good supporting part as the wily cardsharp Wolf Wylie who mentors Duke Fergus in the game of cards. Joseph Schildkraut as the shady gentleman casino owner Tito Morell ends up with probably the most nuanced character in the film. The film stacks its deck by also featuring lovely Virginia Grey, although there's a pointlessness to her role as Grey never even comes close to stealing Dvorak's thunder. Grey does end up with a pretty amusing line she beamingly delivers to Tito several times as the man's prospects continue to dwindle: "This is going to cost you an awful lot of money." As the remaining star attraction of Tito's casino, Grey probably gets that big raise.

This second feature on this double bill is one of them diverting little films that you end up watching on those lazy Saturday or Sunday mornings, before you realize that, dammit, chores still need to get done. SANTA FE STAMPEDE is just one of eight B-movie westerns John Wayne would churn out for the Three Mesquiteers series under Republic Pictures, back when he was still a no-name cowboy actor in 1938, with STAGECOACH and superstardom still lurking around the corner. SANTA FE STAMPEDE, for a 55 minute running time, packs in plenty of plot points. And the way the action plays out, you'd think this was a cliffhanger movie serial.

The premise, when boiled down, goes like this: When Stony Brooke (Wayne) is framed for the murder of an old friend and his little girl, he and his two fellow Mesquiteers Tucson and Lullaby (Ray Corrigan and Max Terhune, respectively) attempt to corral the real finks. But several elements play a factor and flesh out the story. It starts with a newly discovered gold mine, and so bring on the claim-jumping. The movie makes no bones about the corrupt mayor being the mastermind of all the nastiness, and the Mesquiteers' old friend spells his own doom when he goes to deliver a petition demanding the ousting of the mayor from office. There's a sort of disturbing sequence in which two bad hombres cause a wagon carrying a screaming little girl to hurtle off the road. I can see why, in several presentations, this segment is heavily edited.

SANTA FE STAMPEDE doesn't trot out the standard animal stampede. I'd like to think that the "stampede" the film title refers to concerns what happens when otherwise rational people transform into a vengeful mob and become this wantonly destructive entity. Even for a low-budget B-western, this portrait of an out-of-control mob is harrowing. This little film has got some meat on its bones and, of course, John Wayne is front and center. It doesn't make sense, otherwise.