| Barbary Coast | |
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DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Howard Hawks |
| Produced by | Samuel Goldwyn |
| Written by | Ben Hecht Charles MacArthur |
| Starring | Miriam Hopkins Edward G. Robinson |
| Music by | Alfred Newman |
| Cinematography | Ray June |
| Editing by | Edward Curtiss |
| Studio | Samuel Goldwyn Productions |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | October 13, 1935 (US) |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Barbary Coast (1935) is a period film directed by Howard Hawks. Shot in black-and-white and set in San Francisco during the Gold Rush era, the film combines elements of crime, Western, melodrama and adventure genres, features a wide range of actors, from good-guy Joel McCrea to bad-boy Edward G. Robinson, and stars Miriam Hopkins in the leading role as Mary 'Swan' Rutledge.
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On a foggy night in 1850, Mary Rutledge (Hopkins), accompanied by retired Colonel Marcus Aurelius Cobb (Frank Craven), arrives in San Francisco Bay from New York aboard the Flying Cloud. A gold digger of the other kind, she has come to wed the wealthy owner of a local saloon. The men at the wharf are more than happy to greet the 'white woman,'[1] but reluctant to inform her that her fiancé is dead, murdered most likely by a certain Louis Chamalis (Robinson), the powerful owner of another Barbary Coast establishment, the Bella Donna restaurant and gambling house. Mary is at first quite upset, but quickly pulls herself together and asks the way to the Bella Donna, with a look of ambition on her face.
Mary meets Chamalis and quickly agrees to be his companion, not only for economic reasons (as an attraction, she helps draw in customers), but for personal pleasure as well. Chamalis gives her the name 'Swan' and she becomes more or less his female escort. She accompanies him on promenades in town (the 'sinful' unwed couple is insulted in one scene by the mayor's wife) and he showers her with extravagant gifts. Their relationship sours rather quickly, however, and Swan is angered by some of Chamalis's destructive power-mongering. She does not, however, mind running a crooked roulette wheel and cheating the miners out of their gold.
Colonel Cobb, in the meantime, has opened a printing press, with the intention of starting a respectable newspaper for the people of San Francisco. He and his colleagues successfully print the first paper, which includes an article criticizing a recent unpunished murder by Chamalis and his entourage. When Chamalis finds out, he tries to destroy Cobb's newly acquired machine and threatens burning down the building, but is halted by Swan, who comes to Cobb's defence. Chamalis, nonetheless, demands that Cobb never print anything attacking him. The colonel unwillingly complies.
Time passes and Swan, disillusioned with her life in San Francisco, saddens. Her distant behavior irks Chamalis, who feels frustrated and stonewalled. One dreary morning she sets out on horseback. Later in the day it begins to rain heavily and she seeks refuge in a small seemingly abandoned cabin, where she meets a tall lonesome poet and gold miner named Jim Carmichael (McCrea). Swan is quite taken with him, but lies about her current situation after hearing his criticisms of the harlots and thieves of the city. He offers her his book of poems as a memento and she returns to the Bella Donna.
Later Carmichael decides to return to his home state New York and must pass through San Francisco. Unfortunately because of fog the ship will not leave for a few days. He encounters Chamalis' helper, Old Atrocity, who, remarking his bags of gold is happy to show him to a nice hotel and restaurant. Carmichael winds up at the Bella Donna and is surprised to find Mary working there. He is served a drugged up liquor and plays roulette at her table. He cannot retain his composure, vehemently insults 'Swan' and eventually bets and loses most of his money. The rest is pickpocketed.
Carmichael wakes up the following morning in the Bella Donna's kitchen. His eloquent speech impresses Chamalis, who hires him on the spot as a waiter. Carmichael's presence perturbs Mary, who would rather he depart, offering him money. An honest man, he refuses, wishing to earn the fare on his own.
Later Colonel Cobb leaves up a poster telling about a murder Chamalis' ordered and how the Bella Donna cheats customers. Seeing it, Chamlis' henchman "Knuckles" Jacoby shoots both the man who put it up and the publisher when he tries to defend him. Dying, Cobb orders his assistant to print the truth. A vigilante group is formed and soon hangs Knuckles.
Devastated on hearing the news of Cobb's death, Mary re-acknowledges her love for Carmichael, and works the roulette table so that he wins back the gold he previously lost. Chamalis finds out and is angry with her. He sets out to kill Carmichael, who is actually hiding in Mary's bedroom. The lovers decide clandestinely to leave together. They find a secret rowboat and attempt to board the ship in the harbor. It is a foggy night, and they have trouble seeing, but easily hear Chamalis pursuing them. He shoots and injures Carmichael and finally discovers them hiding beneath a pier. Mary begs him, as proof of his love for her, not to kill Carmichael. Chamalis agrees, but in an act of greater love allows her to go with him. A posse then arrives to punish Chamalis for all his crimes.
The movie is based on the bestseller The Barbary Coast (1933) by Herbert Asbury.[2] When the first draft of the script was submitted to Joseph Breen, he commented to Samuel Goldwyn that "The whole flavor of the story is one of sordidness, and low-tone morality."[3]
After months of revisions by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, the story changed from a story of an area of San Francisco where men came to find pleasure in drinking, prostitution, and gambling, to a love story.[4] Breen commented to Will Hays that it was now a love story "between a fine, clean girl" and a sentimental young man and that there was "no sex, no unpleasant details of prostitution" and contains "full, and completely compensating, value [...] the finest and most intelligent picture I have seen in many months".[5]
The New York Times's Andre Sennwald found the film entertaining.[6] Time felt it was "painfully uninspired".[7] Scholastic, a magazine for youth recommended the film for its "authentic background and characters of the days of gold-discovery".[8] Newsweek complained that the plot from the original book was thrown away.[9] Canadian Magazine assured Canadians that the film had "nothing to do with the cheap, tawdry 'coast' " from the novel.[10]Chicago threatened to ban the film. Goldwyn edited a few scenes and the film was allowed to be exhibited there.[11] The Chicago Legion of Decency condemned Barbary Coast. Interestingly, Bishop of Los Angeles, John Cantwell saw the movie with four other priests and enjoyed it, none found it immoral.[12]
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