Review of Flame of Barbary Coast

. . . harboring a certain Breed of Men, and they recognized John Wayne as their closeted cautionary tale. It's certainly fitting that Wayne is top-billed in FLAME OF BARBARY COAST. Ann Dvorak co-stars here as Flaxen (a.k.a., Ann), the serial "beard" for nearly every rich "eligiable bachelor" in Old San Francisco, posing as the fuel for Wayne's title character "Flame" (at least for public consumption). To drive home the point that FLAME is a thinly-veiled take on the Real Lives of the West Coast "Elite" of the Mid-1900s, screenwriter Borden Chase insists upon naming Wayne's character after his Real Life LITERAL "pet" name, Duke Morrison. (Many "Wayne" fans know that after Ma Wayne--Mrs. Morrison, that is--dumped his sickly dad, a depressed middle schooler Marion Mitchell Morrison--the future "John Wayne"--renamed himself after the Morrison Family Mutt, "Duke.") Ironically, as "Duke Fergus," Wayne pulls off a feat he never accomplished in Real Life, by talking a native English Speaker--Flaxen (the equivalent of "Anybody's" in WEST SIDE STORY: the gal those boys more DC than AC "passed around" when necessary to present a "beard" to their folks or others)--into a position of Permanent Beardship by agreeing to marry him. That the American Rich People Party's Patron Saint--Wayne--had three Foreign Brides is a point not entirely lost on this year's heir apparent ARPP standard bearer, Donald Trump.