Flame of Barbary Coast

Plot synopsis:
Naive Montana cowboy Duke Fergus (John Wayne) arrives in San Francisco and visits the notorious Barbary Coast. He becomes smitten with the lovely star attraction of the fanciest gambling hall, "Flaxen" Tarry (Ann Dvorak), the "Flame of the Barbary Coast". He gets talked into gambling against the owner (and Flaxen's lover), card shark Tito Morell (Joseph Schildkraut). Predictably, Fergus gets cheated and loses all his money.
He sets himself to win Flaxen's affections and decides the best way to do it is to take over. He gets his friend Wolf Wylie (William Frawley) to teach him everything about gambling, including how to spot cheating. When he's ready, he sells all he owns and returns to the city to challenge Morell's rule of the Barbary Coast. He goes from casino to casino, challenging each one's resident poker champion to a heads-up game, starting with Morell. Duke wins every time.
Fergus then builds an opulent new gambling establishment, catering to the upper class. To make it a success, he needs to persuade Flaxen to come work for him, but she is initially not interested. Only when Morell offends her does she decide to accept Fergus's offer. And then the fireworks begin. Morell does not take the challenge lying down. In the midst of it all, the Great Earthquake of 1906 strikes, both Fergus' and Morell's businesses are destroyed, and Flaxen grievously injured. They rebuild and recover. Throw in a political battle, and someone gets the girl.

Tags: violence, romantic

Review:
Flame of Barbary Coast finds John Wayne as a visiting cowboy from Montana who makes and loses a fortune in a night and goes home busted.
He also finds the love of his life in Ann Dvorak, an entertainer at Joseph Schildkraut's place on the Barbary Coast.Schildkraut figures that Dvorak is his personal property.
As this is Republic Films and not Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer, the special effects are nice, but not near as good as those from MGM.
Yates could afford.The most interesting member of the cast is Schildkraut, a scion of the old Spanish aristocracy who's chosen to make his living on the Barbary Coast in the dens of iniquity there.
He's as in love with Dvorak as Wayne is, but likes his power and notoriety more.Yates took some liberties with San Francisco history in this one.
The MGM San Francisco did not bother mentioning any of the local political figures of the day, but Flame on Barbary Coast did and got it wrong.
Still the Duke's legion of fans will love him in this one and others will like Joseph Schildkraut..
Learn How To Make A Movie; Watch Flame of The Barbary Coast.
Actually, the cast is quite good and anyone interested in directing or photographing a movie should learn from the film.
Who cares if Ann Dvoraks singing was a little off, and who cares if John Wayne tried his hand at singing on a horse?
This movie is just good old fashioned campy entertainment with no foul words, no nudity, and in many ways the bad guy won when he said, "With Compliments of the House!" Anybody who doesn't like this movie is an old grumpy!.
All I cared about before watching the movie was that it was a western with John Wayne in it.
Duke Fergus (John Wayne) takes lessons from his professional gambler friend, Wolf Wylie (William Frawley), and ends up beating the professional gamblers in their own casinos.
Added to that is his love interest in Flaxen (Ann Dvorak), known as "the Flame of the Barbary Coast", who apparently has teased virtually every powerful man in town.
At the time of the story she is tied to Tito Morrell (Joseph Schildkraut), the most successful and notorious of the gambling house bosses.I liked the way Joseph Schildkraut played the classy, but devious, casino owner, Tito Morrell.
John Wayne's character, Duke, never came across as simple.
The time placement was subtle in the beginning and made perfectly clear as it became more important to the plot.I expected the climax of the movie to be the famous San Francisco earthquake.
The catalyst that brought about changes in San Francisco set up the final scenes for the main characters.
The true nature of everyone is shown in a final showdown between Duke, Tito, and Flaxen.I liked Flame Of Barbary Coast.
My only complaint is that the movie makes the Barbary Coast seem to be the most important part of San Francisco, and it is the only part of the city that is shown.
Joseph Schildkraut for the heart of Ann Dvorak and dominance of the San Francisco gambling scene.
John Wayne, Duke Fergus, is tagged "King of Luck", after breaking the bank in several casino saloons with the help of Ann Dvorak, as Ann 'Flaxen' Tarry, who says, "You've just been promoted".
The real gem of this movie is Joseph Schildkraut, as Boss Tito Morell.
But Tito is the one who really loves Flaxen, and always holds back from resorting to "fixing" The Duke as his cronies want to do.
And talk about obsession: the suitors of Flaxen still hang around even when it seems she will be paralyzed for life after the Great Earthquake (did San Francisco really have electric poles in 1906?!)--they hope the old trooper will return to the stage and awe their hearts, not to mention their libidos!
As Flaxen is whisked off in Duke's carriage to Montana, Tito has the best line: "Compliments of the House".....
Happy-go-lucky Montana rancher John Wayne comes to San Francisco, wins and loses a fortune in a night, and begins a competition with a sleazy gambling-hall owner for the heart of singer Ann Dvorak.
After some lessons from aging card-shark William Frawley, he comes back to town to win back the money and the girl.Another of the Duke's lightweight, nineteen-forties Republic pictures, this okay romantic melodrama features a likable Wayne performance, some fairly lavish sets and costumes, and a neat low-budget recreation of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906.This isn't the greatest or most memorable of John Wayne vehicles, but it's not the worst either..
These two slides in the power point show the lines that were present then.I think that the level of electric service shown in the film was a little advance for 1906, most would not pick upon that.
Just think what kind of movies John Wayne could do in 2005 with just a few of today's effects.
"Duke Fergus" (John Wayne) is a cowboy traveling from Montana to the Barbary Coast of San Francisco when he happens to meet a young woman named "Flaxen Tarry" (Ann Dvorak) along the way.
He also meets a man by the name of "Tito Morrel" (Joseph Schildkraut) who happens to be in love with Flaxen and owns the nightclub where she works as a singer.
Although Flaxen helps Duke win a small fortune that night gambling, he soon loses all of his money to Tito in a card game and has to go back to Montana completely broke.
Lesser John Wayne vehicle with Duke playing a character named...Duke.
Set in early Twentieth Century San Francisco (a popular setting for many movies made during the classic Hollywood era), Duke plays a gambler who falls for a saloon singer (a miscast Ann Dvorak) and crosses swords with accented villain Joseph Schildkraut, who believes the lady belongs to him.
Dvorak, about ten years past her prime (career-wise not looks; she was still lovely) was a poor fit for a sultry singer that turns men's heads.
Dvorak also has remarkably little chemistry with John Wayne.
The villain in a John Wayne movie needs to be intimidating.
A, Dvorak pretty, and never acquired big star status, but most likely, one that the Republic studio could afford and Virginia Grey, Clark Gable's girl friend for many years." I Love Lucy"'s landlord has a comic turn here.
Nominated for two Academy awards for music and sound, this romance is a lightly entertaining drama about a Montana cowboy who arrives at a notorious section of San Francisco to collect.
John Wayne and Ann Dvorak give glint in the eye performances, if slightly less than fully committing, but it surpasses its B-Movie status thanks to Joseph Schildkraut's performance as Morell, the casino owner, who stands out with his nuanced performance, scheming, yet respectful.
Musically it is charming with a handful of pleasant show numbers and there are some good effects depicting the 1908 San Francisco earthquake which raises this melodrama by half a notch to average viewing..
In 1936 MGM made a marvellous film called "San Francisco" about a saloon owner and his romance with a singer set around the 1906 earthquake.
In 1945 "Flame of Barbary Coast" takes the same characters and even the same setting.
But this time instead of Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald, we have John Wayne and Ann Dvorak.
Wayne is awful playing a character called "Duke", but he is "Olivier" in comparison to the woeful Dvorak.
For example:After the earthquake Wayne meets Schildkraut in the tent city that has been set up.
Dvorak takes Wayne on a tour of all the gambling houses and, despite the protests of all the owners, only has to wink at the dealers for them to allow Wayne to win $16,000.
"John Wayne,a pretty girl and an earthquake - phew!".
If you want to see John Wayne paddling in the Pacific Ocean with his boots off this may be your only chance.Pleasingly named "Duke" in "Flame of the Barbary Coast",Mr Wayne cuts a fine figure amongst the stone gamblers in the casinos as he goes to the big city to collect a debt from saloon owner Mr J.Schildkraut(looking unnervingly like TV's Sherlock Holmes Jeremy Brett).The two men turn out to be rivals for the hand of Miss A.Dvorak as chanteuse Flaxen Tarry.
This is a movie full of energy and movement.As Duke and Flaxen tour the gambling houses,winning - courtesy of her preventing the croupiers from cheating - a large wedge, they are followed by an increasingly noisy entourage like a conga line,bustling with excitement.Arriving back at Schildkraut's casino,Duke flashes his cash and buys everybody drinks.
The next morning he ill - advisedly accepts Schildkraut's challenge to a game of Stud and is cleared out,left only with a return ticket to Montana.Undeterred and in lurve with Flaxen,he takes poker lessons,sells up his herd and - with his card - coach on hand - returns to San Francisco to win his money back and his gal at the same time.
Republic make a surprisingly good fist of the 1906 earthquake,Flaxen is photogenically injured and Duke takes her off to Montana to get the good country air into her lungs.Mr Schildkraut is surprisingly sporting about the whole thing.Put this way,the movie might seem a little bit frothy and trivial,but it is given body by the performances of the leads,Mr Schildkraut in particular in a role that might have been written for Clark Gable,a charismatic mixture of charm and menace.
Perhaps not writ large on Mr Wayne's C.V.,"Flame of the Barbary Coast" is nevertheless an enjoyable,well - made and worthwhile movie.In it one can see the nascent wry,stubborn and sometimes wrong - headed persona Mr Wayne was develop so successfully and use for the rest of his career..
In Republic's musical remake of "San Francisco", the songs are mostly handled by Ann Dvorak, although Virginia Grey also has two or three.
This turn-of-the-century John Wayne adventure epic, "The Flame of the Barbary Coast," amounts to little more than a thoroughly average but nevertheless entertaining saga about gambling in San Franciso and the rivalry between the hero and the villain for the affections of the eponymous heroine who towers about all else as the star singing attraction.
Director Joe Kane never lets things get out of hand with a 92-minute running time, and the limited use of special effects to depict the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was pretty cool.
Long-time John Wayne stock company character actor Paul Fix plays a villain, while William Frawley is cast as a close friend of our hero who learns the basics of poker..
Romance, gambling, and natural disasters mix in this John Wayne comedy.
FLAME OF THE BARBARY COAST is a light romantic comedy featuring John Wayne in a starring role butting heads against chorus girl Ann Dvorak and eventually falling in love with her.
As with the other Republic westerns I've seen that Wayne made in the 1940s, this one has a likable lightness of touch that makes it a lot of fun to watch, and entertaining throughout.The theme of the movie is gambling and the various gambling interludes are handled in a well-paced way.
Joseph Schildkraut makes for a thoroughly imposing villain and his acting is of a much better class than is usual in a picture like this.
The film even manages to cram in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake as a sub-plot and the special effects in this scene are great fun.
The story takes place in San Francisco at the turn of the century, and I should have picked up on the date when it was mentioned but I never gave it a second thought.
It was the year of the great earthquake, 1906, and it figures somewhat prominently during the latter part of the picture, though it couldn't shake Duke Fergus's resolve to win the trophy he came back for.His nickname was the Duke, and even though he didn't use that name in very many of his pictures, John Wayne was Duke Fergus in this one, a Montana cowboy who wins and loses a small fortune of sixteen thousand dollars on his first trip to San Francisco to collect on a horse trade.
A newspaper reporter from the San Francisco Star called him the 'King of Luck' when he cleaned up at the Eldorado, and then partied his way up and down Pacific Street with winning hands at the competition.
Smitten with saloon gal Flaxen Tarry (Ann Dvorak), Duke winds up leaving town with a vow to return and make his mark after Tarry's main man Tito Morrell (Joseph Schildkraut) busts him at the poker table.It was cool to see William Frawley here as Duke's sidekick and gambling mentor Wolf Wiley.
Speaking of which, actor Marc Lawrence probably has one of the shortest ever credited film appearances here, actually counting down his thirty seconds of screen time before the Duke shoots him for dirty dealing.Well the love triangle, if you want to call it that, between Flaxen, Tito and the Duke will keep you guessing how it will turn out right till the very end.
It's certainly fitting that Wayne is top-billed in FLAME OF BARBARY COAST.
Ann Dvorak co-stars here as Flaxen (a.k.a., Ann), the serial "beard" for nearly every rich "eligiable bachelor" in Old San Francisco, posing as the fuel for Wayne's title character "Flame" (at least for public consumption).
To drive home the point that FLAME is a thinly-veiled take on the Real Lives of the West Coast "Elite" of the Mid-1900s, screenwriter Borden Chase insists upon naming Wayne's character after his Real Life LITERAL "pet" name, Duke Morrison.
I love old Hollywood films, like this, but this movie was flat and uneven.
I was really hoping for a good mix, between 1935's Barbary Coast & 1936's San Francisco; but I didn't get that.
Directed by Joseph Kane, Flame of the Barbary Coast tells the story of a Montana cowboy named Duke Fergus(John Wayne), whom came to turn-of-the-century, San Francisco in hope, of finding fame and fortune.
He attempt this, by trying to outsmart, a crooked casino owner, Tito Morell (Joseph Schildkraut) out of his money.
Can 'the King of Luck' find a way to beat the house in cards or will Tito, gain the upper-hand and leave Duke to broke?
Without spoiling the movie, too much, I have to say, the first half was very entertaining, however, after the scenes, dealing with the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake; the film really lost focus.
The movie plays it, off, that he trying to help, the people of San Francisco, to reclaim, their streets, after years of corruption, but it comes off, as another way to seek vengeance on Tito.
It's seem like, Duke is just doing this, to gain, the heart of singer/dancer 'Flaxen' Tarry (Ann Dvorak).
Still, John Wayne did alright in the role, he was given.
However, I think, the villain in the film, Tito seem more like the good guy, than Wayne's character.
I love Joseph Schildkraut's acting in this.
If anything, the true bad guy in this film is Ann Dvorak's character, who comes across as materialism, greedy, and seductive.
John Wayne sound like a drunk yokel, when singing.
It's really, out of character for a John Wayne's western to have little to no fist-fights or gunplay.
Film is certainly worth a watch for any John Wayne's fan, but has limited lasting appeal to anybody else..
There are obvious parallels between the plot of this Republic film and the previous MGM "San Francisco.
Both involve a self-made Barbary coast kingpin, a prime female entertainer, and an ending precipitated by the 1906 earthquake and fire.
These include: "Frisco Kid(1935), "Barbary Coast"(1935), "Hello, Frisco, Hello"(1943) , and "Frisco Sal", released the same year as the present film.
Tito Morell, in the present film, is equivalent to Clark Gable's 'Blackie' in "S.F", both being self made men, with greater ambitions than their present casino on the Barbary Coast.
Ann Dvorak, as Flaxen, is equivalent to the role of Jeanette MacDonald in "S.F." There is no exact equivalent for John Wayne's character in "S.F." although the nob hill crowd, who want to take Jeanette away from Blackie for their opera house is reminiscent of Wayne's role here in trying to lure Flaxen away from Tito's casino, to his brand new casino.
It's saying that Tito and his casino belong here, whereas Wayne belongs back on his Montana cattle ranch, he misses so much.
Considering it's a John Wayne film, it already earns a respectable score from me.
Aside from his early B-movies and a few horrible mistakes ("The Green Beret" and "The Conqueror" come to mind), any John Wayne film is worth seeing.
However, "Flame of the Barbary Coast" is certainly among his lesser starring efforts.
I think part of this is because Wayne's bigger than life persona really isn't fully evident in this film--in fact, he seems like a bit of a chump in this one!
The film begins with Wayne coming to the Barbary Coast (a rough section of San Francisco) from Montana to collect a debt.
However, he takes one look at 'Flaxen' (Ann Dvorak) and is instantly smitten--and spends much of the rest of the film following her about like a love-sick puppy.
This one, however, spends most of the movie trying to one-up her unscrupulous boss (Joseph Schildkraut) and build an even bigger gambling casino where he wants the chanteuse, Flaxen, to perform.
The script is only fair and Wayne's support is sometimes weak (Dvorak and Schildkraut--who came off as too wimpy to be a good foil)--though William Frawley is very good in his role as Wayne's friend and mentor.
If you aren't, then it probably won;t do much to impress you.By the way, this is one of several films that portray the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.
Considering the film was made by a low-budget studio (Republic), its special effects were pretty good but not nearly as nice as films such as "San Francisco" by MGM or "Frisco Jenny" by Warner Brothers.