Absolutely the worst movie.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

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.

"Barbary Coast" is actually a character study, a love story set in 1850's San Francisco. It was a rough, brawling town in the days before law and order ruled the day, and here the town is run by Edward G. Robinson and his enforcer, Brian Donlevy. The lovers are Joel McCrea (tall and handsome), and Miriam Hopkins (short and pretty). Naturally, McCrea and Robinson cross paths before the picture is over.Nutshell: Hopkins gets off a boat looking for her fiancé, who was killed by Robinson. She then goes to work in the local saloon, owned by Robinson, and comes across prospector/poet McCrea while out riding one day. They are smitten. He is finished prospecting, having found much gold. He comes into town, stumbles across Hopkins in the saloon, and then things get tense and the action starts.You can almost fill in the blanks for the ending, but watch for Walter Brennan, who steals every scene he's in as a toothless no-account. The love scenes belong to Hopkins, who puts them over while McCrea is along for the ride. He always lacked acting range and this film is no exception. The action scenes are very effective and of a different sort, but this movie relies on its screenplay, which is very absorbing. I thought "Barbary Coast" was better than I expected and a cut above many actioners of the 30's.

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.

During the gold rush, Robinson runs San Francisco like a mafia boss. Enter Hopkins as a gold-digging young lady, who apparently is just about the only white woman in the whole city, given how the men react to her. The familiar cast also includes McCrea as an earnest young prospector, Donlevy as Robinson's hatchet man, and Brennan as an old guy named "Old Atrocity." Entertaining film has a decent story but is marred by acting that is either wooden or melodramatic, with Hopkins particularly guilty of the latter. It's fun watching Robinson play the heavy. Hawks does a nice job of evoking foggy San Francisco of a bygone era.