Barbary Coast Gent

Honest Plush Brannon (Wallace Beery) is a con man in San Francisco's Barbary Coast. He is forced out after an incident with a rival. He cons into the private car of railroad tycoon Bradford Bellamy I. He uses this connection to further con the people of the burgeoning Gold Town.

This one relies on the plentiful natural charms of Wallace Beery. It's a little fun to watch him doing his constant conning, but it's not actually that funny. It occurs to me that he needs a partner. This needs to be a duo for him to play off a young protégé. It could give some real personal conflicts and higher stakes.

"Barbary Coast Gent" is an enjoyable but thoroughly illogical film. The ending, in particular, makes no sense whatsoever and the writers seem to have lost their minds!

'Honest' Plush Brannon (Wallace Beery) is a disreputable con man who lies even more than the average politician! After being tossed out of California, he manages to lie and fenagle his way into the hearts of some trusting townsfolk in Nevada. He quickly convinces them that he's a very rich man and folks all over town fall all over themselves trying to please him. Eventually, he comes upon a scheme to sell shares in a gold mine but, oddly, this mine might actually pan out and produce gold! But eventually his old rival arrives in town and steals all the money Brannon has raised from the locals for the mine. To hide this, Brannon comes upon a very novel, albeit insane, scheme to cover the loss until the mine, hopefully, pays for itself.

There are so many logical problems with this picture, but MGM and Beery were experts in making Beery's characters seem sweet and likable. In real life, according to Jackie Cooper's autobiography, it was all clearly an act and off screen Beery was an incredible jerk. Oddly, none of the people in the town in the film EVER seem to realize he's anything but a saint! Very watchable but also utterly ridiculous.

Wallace Beery was once one of MGM's biggest box office draws, but by the mid Forties he was reduced to B pictures of which Barbary Coast Gent is an example.

Barbary Coast Gent finds Beery a genial con man who has to flee San Francisco and his long time lady love Binnie Barnes and head for Nevada and the alleged precious metals that are to be found there. There's nothing alleged about the gold mine he accidentally finds. But what to do about it.

He certainly needs money and for once he uses his persuasive conning powers to get investors in on a real deal. But he's a guy who usually takes the money and runs and the real problems of mining prove to be formidable.

When former associate John Carradine blackmails him, Beery is forced to real outlaw ways robbing all kinds of places to make him the money that Carradine took. Rather stupidly he takes to using poetical verses left at every scene to identify him as a literate bandit known as Jingle Bill.

It all works out for him though, somewhat in the end. Think of the John Ford Three Godfathers and you'll know what happens to Beery.

MGM did provide Beery with some great players for a supporting cast with Henry O'Neill. Paul Hurst, Ray Collins and the best being Chill Wills as a laconic sheriff. Fans of Wallace Beery should enjoy this.

1944's "Barbary Coast Gent" was an MGM 'B' vehicle for faded star Wallace Beery, which also features his lesser known older brother, Noah Beery Sr. (father of Noah Jr. of THE ROCKFORD FILES), in their last appearance together. Wallace spent the silent era in Hollywood playing villains, suddenly becoming popular in talkies doing lovable rogues, as he does here, only six final films before his 1949 death (three years after the passing of brother Noah, both at age 64). Honest Plush Brannon belies his name, a San Francisco con artist who stays one step ahead of the law; former partner and card cheat Duke Cleat (John Carradine) tries to avenge himself for a two year prison term, and winds up with a bad left arm for his troubles. Hightailing it east from the Barbary Coast toward Denver, Brannon pulls off a successful con in the growing Nevada community of Gold Town before discovering real gold present, deciding to try his hand at being a legitimate financier. Duke Cleat unexpectedly reappears, gleefully making off with the town's money, forcing Brannon to replace the cash the old fashioned way by robbing Wells Fargo stages. For his impressive third billing, John Carradine enjoys only 5 1/2 minutes screen time out of the lengthy 87 (he had a busy year, appearing in a baker's dozen titles overall). His only previous experience with Wallace Beery was voicing actor Dell Henderson's President William McKinley in 1936's "A Message to Garcia," while the older Noah was a major player in three of Carradine's earliest titles, "Bright Lights," "Tol'able David," and "To the Last Man," always as a villain.

At the start of Barbary Coast Gent, "Lil" (Binnie Barnes) and "Plush Brannon" (Wallace Beery) are in San Francisco. Wallace, one of the larger than life Beery Brothers, had already won an Oscar for the Champ. Brother Noah is in this one too. Brannon gets kicked out of San Francisco for his shady activities, and moves on. On the train out of town, he teams up with Bradford Bellamy, owner of the train line (the classic character actor Donald Meek), and uses that friendship to his own advantage. It's ironic that Brannon's nickname is "Honest Plush Brannon" - he's always up to no good, which is why he's getting kicked out of town. And when he ends up in Goldtown, he uses that friendship with Mr. Bellamy to start more shenanigans. Brannon gets another film flam going, and he gets in deep. Watch for Ray Collins and Chill Wills. Chill Wills is the town sheriff, and there's also a sub plot with Bellamy's son and Miss Portia. Pretty entertaining western. The LOCATION tab here says this was shot at the Lone Pine hills, and we DO get to see some of the beautiful scenery there. Directed by Roy DelRuth, who had started in the silents. He directed some biggies in the 1930s and 1940s. They are all worth checking out on Turner Classics.