JohnHowardReid 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.

Richie-67-485852 Who doesn't like Edward G. Robinson? For that reason alone you will enjoy this movie as he brings his own unique acting style. The story captures a little glimpse of history on how it was at the beginning of our start-up years ago. The tale is similar to the Wild West in that there was much opportunity but little or no law. This is portrayed very well here emphasizing that money buys right and might but only so far. Take note that there was gold to be mined and some of it took time and minors get bored and restless about dreaming and want to start spending thus the gambling halls and saloons. They serve as a break from the daily trenches but with a catch many did not see coming. Honest and tired as well as drunk and bored miners can be cheated and cheating was more profitable, quicker and easier too. That is exactly what summons the need for law and order. In the early Western years, Marshalls and deputies were ruthlessly murdered anyway you could kill them with no one to stop the perpetrators until an equal force was brought to bear. We this in this movie when vigilante groups are formed and fight fire with fire. Enjoy this quick-moving and engaging movie with a nice sandwich and a tasty drink with a favorite snack to follow. There were many ways to make a living this be one of them. Enjoy

gavin6942 Mary Rutledge (Miriam Hopkins) arrives from the east, finds her fiancé dead, and goes to work for Louis Charnalis (Edward G. Robinson) at the roulette wheel of the Bella Donna, a rowdy gambling house in San Francisco in the 1850s.I liked that a character says that the Chinese are the "oldest civilization in the world", as it sort of foreshadows the statements about the Chinese in Hawks' "Come and Get It". While surely just a coincidence, this pro-Chinese attitude stood out for me.I also liked the use of the word "cuspidor", and hope I have some occasion to use it.What left me mixed was Robinson's gangster accent. He does a great accent, especially for a man who was not a native-born American. But do 1920s Chicago gangsters have the same accent as 1850s San Francisco gangsters? Robinson would have us thinking this is the case. I, for one, am not convinced.

Richard Burin 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.