Trailer
Plot summary
In 1850 the clipper ship Flying Cloud brings Mary Rutledge into San Francisco Bay, along with retired Colonel Marcus Aurelius Cobb. She has come to wed the owner of a gold mine, but the men at the wharf tell her that her fiancé has died, most likely at the hands of Luis Chamalis, who owns the Bella Donna, a gambling house. Chamalis takes her on, renames her Swan and gives her costly gifts. The pair fall out as she grows tired of the way he uses his power, yet she has no quarrel with the crooked roulette wheel she spins for miners' gold. Cobb buys a printing press and puts out a newspaper that criticizes Chamalis. Riding one morning, Swan takes shelter from rain in a cabin and meets Jim Carmichael, a miner who writes poetry.
Cast
- Roger Grayas Sandy Ferguson
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Barbary Coast (1935)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- After the first draft was submitted to censor Joseph Breen, who told Samuel Goldwyn the story was one of "sordidness, and low-tone morality", Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur spent months revising it, turning a tale of San Francisco drinking, prostitution and gambling into a love story.
- The Chicago Legion of Decency condemned the film and there were calls for it to be banned in Chicago; Samuel Goldwyn edited a few scenes, after which it was allowed to be exhibited there.
