La conquête de Barbara Worth

A familiar title, as it was Gary Cooper's debut, I've always thought it was some sort of drama about settlers in which a fort or township called 'Barbara Worth' (as in 'Santa Barbara') gets saved at the end.

However Barbara Worth turns out to be the name of the heroine, and the plot proves more of a soap opera than an action movie, as Ronald Colman and Gary Cooper vie for her affection.

Who cares? Despite their combined star power, Colman has little to do, and Cooper even less. Vilma Banky is charming in the title role, but the personal drama proves remarkably uninteresting. What makes the film live is the superb photography by George Barnes and Gregg Toland - shown off to perfection in the beautiful tinted print available - and the flood created when the Colorado bursts its banks, engineered by special effects veteran Ned Mann, (best-known for his work in Britain for Korda during the 30's), who presumably also created the Dust Devil we see at the start.

There is no mention of the source of the music, but Gaylord Carter played his improvised score for a special showing of The Winning of Barbara Worth on January 28, 1971, and it's a recording of that performance which turned up on the DVD. The instrument was a 36-rank Wurlitzer Pipe Organ. Henry King and Frances Goldwyn were in the audience and both spoke after the film. I was there. Mr. King described his search for a desert that looked like a desert, after finding the Mojave in bloom. He also recalled hearing Gaylord Carter play the organ at the Million Dollar Theatre in Los Angeles in the 1920's, soon after Harold Lloyd recommended Gaylord for the job.

I cannot tell you how excited I was to find this DVD at my local library. I have the entire collection of Wright's books and recognized the title instantly. Amazingly, the director and screenplay writer took the story as it is in the book and relayed it beautifully. This is supreme acting when you can pretty well tell what's being said even before the words show up on the screen. BRAVO!!!! This would be a great story for the history buffs as well as silent screen aficionados. This is the first of many great films starring Gary Cooper and it is easy to see why he made it in the acting field. His rival for Barbara's hand is Ronald Coleman and what a dashing rival he makes! I was unfamiliar with the heroine but she too was a wonderful actress. This is a part of history I had not been aware of until I read the book. It is a must-see!

This is a great example of a silent film that captures some of the original pioneering spirit of those American settlers determined to make a go of it - even in the harshest of circumstances. Charles Lane is "Jefferson Worth" - a rancher who rescues orphaned "Barbara" (Vilma Bánky) and brings her up as his own daughter. Years pass and as she grows, so do the ambitions of the territory - and when a developer arrives with an engineering project that could irrigate the arid land, they jump at the chance. Problem is, the developer skimps on the construction of the dam, and so at the first heavy rainfall upstream it all goes a bit awry. Meantime, both the stepson of the crooked developer "Willard" (Ronald Colman) and her father's ranch foreman "Abe" (Gary Cooper) are fighting for the favour of "Barbara" and it's not long before everything comes to a head. Technically, the imagery is super - the film copes well with what must have been very intense sunlight, and the detail is perfect. Maybe just the odd too many inter-titles that can break up the pace a bit, but in the round it's a well made, enjoyable piece of cinema history with a decent story and lovely score from Ted Henkel played on the Wurlitzer to boot.

I must confess that even though I am a silent film enthusiast with quite a collection of silent films on DVD/Blu-ray (and a number of reviews of them on Amazon), I had never heard of THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH. Now that I have seen it the surprise is even greater. Made by Samuel Goldwyn in 1926 and featuring Gary Cooper in his first credited film appearance, this movie is an outstanding example of a late American silent film. Not a classic but a well constructed, well acted and well photographed film presented here in a pristine print with color tints and a score performed by legendary organist Gaylord Carter. The speed transfer is occasionally too fast but never enough to detract from what you're watching.

The director was Henry King who made the silent classic TOL'ABLE DAVID in 1921 and whose career lasted well into the sound era with other classics such as THE SONG OF BERNADETTE, TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH, and THE SUN ALSO RISES. The casting shows what silent films were truly capable of. Joining Cooper are Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky as the romantic leads which would have been impossible in the sound era as Hungarian actress Banky could barely speak English and Colman's voice was much too urbane to be believable in a Western setting. The story of Western boom towns and the building of a faulty dam which results in massive flooding is based on the novel by Harold Bell Wright and is still relevant today. Director King knows how to handle both the action scenes and the quieter moments which were his real specialty.

THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH was originally part of the 4 DVD set GARY COOPER: MGM MOVIE LEGENDS COLLECTION which was released back in 2007. In addition to BARBARA WORTH it featured 3 sound features THE COWBOY AND THE LADY (1938), THE REAL GLORY (1939), and the influential VERA CRUZ (1954) with Burt Lancaster and directed by Robert Aldrich. If you love Gary Cooper then by all means get that set for your collection. If you are a silent film enthusiast like myself or a fan of Ronald Colman and just want the silent then look no further. This Warner Archive DVD-R is the same copy that was released in the MGM set...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.