Barbary Coast Gent

"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.