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"You must be mad too." -- Hopkins
"No, it's much worse than that--I'm stupid. Love's the only thing I've thought of or read about since I was knee high. I've always dreamed of meeting somebody and falling in love." -- Joel McCrea
Howard Hawks and the wild Barbary Coast of San Francisco during the gold rush proved a perfect match in a film which rarely gets talked about when the director's name comes up. The script by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur allowed him to expound on the disillusionment of men about women, as fabulous 1930's star, Miriam Hopkins, arrives in San Francisco a lady, and becomes unrecognizable to even herself when she sells her soul for riches. Alfred Newman's score and Ray June's photography turned back time to create the bawdy atmosphere of those early days of San Francisco when fortunes were won and lost overnight, and law and order did not exist.
Perhaps because films like The Stranger's Return and The Story of Temple Drake are not available to moviegoers today, Miriam Hopkins sort of runs neck and neck with Nancy Carroll as the biggest star hardly remembered today. There are glimpses here of how fabulous she could be, however. Mary Rutledge (Hopkins) arrives by ship on New Year's Eve with a load of prospectors hoping to strike it rich, only to discover the man she came to marry, for wealth, Dan Morgan, has been killed. Refined, but with a steel inside, she decides to stay and find her gold elsewhere. It will lead her straight to the Bella Donna gambling house, and a pact with the slimiest man in San Francisco.
Edward G. Robinson is Louie, the "Little Ceasar" of the Barbary Coast. He is also the man responsible for the death of her would-be husband, via his henchman, Knuckles (Brian Donlevy). Louie knows she'll bring all that gold back into the casino where it will never leave San Francisco and they strike a bargain of sorts which has nothing to do with love. Naturally the crass Louie falls in love with the Swan running his crooked roulette wheel, however, and jealousy reigns supreme. Her newspaper friend tries to write about the need for real law, and only her intervention with Louie keeps him up and running; until he's had enough, but too late. His murder will fans flames all over town, and it isn't long before a group of vigilantes decide in favor of real law and order. This is no Ox-Bow Incident, however; in Hawks' world, the vigilantes were the good guys.
The drama of all this is good, but what elevates the film is the romance of Joel McCrea and Miriam Hopkins in the second half. Hawks may have been jaded, but like most men disillusioned, he was a romantic at heart. His wary and jaded men always seemed to end up with the girl somehow, who either reformed or turned out to be on the up and up in the end. Hopkins does a subtle and wonderful job of becoming more feminine than her life at the Bella Donna allows her character to be upon meeting the innocent McCrea. McCrea, for his part, gives Cooper a run for his money as the easygoing prospector who reads poetry and falls instantly in love with the beautiful girl Mary no longer believes herself to be. Walter Brennan is terrific once again as a crusty old-timer who keeps finding ways to give McCrea back part of the money he loses to Hopkins at the roulette wheel.
An exciting and romantic getaway as the vigilantes close in on Louie, and Louie closes in on Mary, culminates in a wonderful ending which will delight moviegoers. While it is missing the bite so prevalent in many films from this director, an atmospheric setting and fine stars make this a real treat for fans of Howard Hawks. It is also a chance to see the fabulous Hopkins in a lead role; even though she's got the burner on low here, to fit with the story. A must for film connoisseurs.
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