Duke falls for Flaxen in the Barbary Coast in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. He loses money to crooked gambler Tito, goes home and learns to gamble, and returns. After he makes a ... 1h 31min | Musical, Romance, Western | 28 May 1945
Director: Joseph Kane
Stars: John Wayne, Ann Dvorak, Joseph Schildkraut, William Frawley, Virginia Grey.
Larry Ceballos ... dance director
Watched online; ok print.
As a musical, it's well below enjoyable. All songs are performed onstage in 1900's Barbary Coast casinos, by one of two actresses: AD or VG. Soundtracks gives no indication of who performs what and whether it's dubbed or not. The dancing amounts to showgirls wiggling and strutting, except a tiny bit of tapping that was filmed from a distance.
The SF earthquake effects are pretty good, but no awards were issued. The film did get nom'd for Oscars in sound and music.
The script and acting is not good enough to make me root for AD choosing JW or JS, and she seems to lean toward JS until the very end. (I usually think JS is a terrific actor, so maybe script and direction should be blamed.) Both are relatively young here, and handsome, although JW is the more physical presence. Each of them cheats the other, so morally neither character is a better choice, although supposedly JW cheats JS after JS does so first.
So this gets my "don't watch again" rating.
Republic, dir. Kane; 5
