The Winning of Barbara Worth

Released Oct 14, 1926

1h 29m

Western

Romance

Drama

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Reviews

45%

Audience Score

50+ Ratings

During the construction of an irrigation system in a Southwestern town, an engineer and a local cowboy vie for the affections of a rancher's (Charles Lane) daughter (Vilma Bánky).

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Robert E. Sherwood

LIFE

Mr. King's direction is good all the way and the cast, with Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky, is considerably better than a Harold Bell Wright story deserves.

Oct 5, 2021

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

It wowed audiences in its day, mainly because of the exciting climax flood sequence.

Rated: B

Sep 30, 2014

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Gary Cooper, on his way to major stardom, plays a major role in this popular silent Western, directed by Henry King

Rated: B

Mar 31, 2012

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Pablo Villaça

Cinema em Cena

Alm de alar Cooper fama, este filme merece crditos por contar sua histria de forma simples, mas eficiente, usando bons efeitos visuais pra provocar tenso no espectador.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 29, 2004

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Audience Member

An undeniably charming & made by the numbers Western that stared the young Gary Cooper & Vilma Banky famous for the damsel in distress in Rudolph Valentino's Son of the Sheik 1926. A largely typical love triangle develops in the West with strong production values & solid direction from Henry King. The highlight of the film hands down in the somewhat Biblical Proportions Flood that hits the town. (If you can see past the model work it's great) it's an interesting curiosity.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Audience Member

The Winning of Barbara Worth is a decent but ultimately forgettable silent western. It's crafted well enough but the nail in the coffin for the film is that it just has nothing particularly special going for it. The characters are hollow as they carry out a rather generic love triangle. The antagonist is one-dimensional and unsympathetic. Even the climactic flood scene, while technically impressive, isn't really that memorable. The film marks Gary Cooper's Hollywood debut in the role of Abe Lee. To be fair, Cooper and his fellow cast members Ronald Colman and Vilma Banky do their best given what they have, but they're ultimately given so little that it really does not do much good. Like I said, the film is fine. It's entertaining enough to keep ahold of you for 90 minutes, it's just nothing special and would be overstaying its welcome if it ran any longer.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

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Audience Member

A 1926 silent-era western. The Barbara in question is the adopted daughter of a western pioneer. His plan to irrigate his area from the Colorado river is picked up by a New York financier. One of my favorite actors, Ronald Colman is the engineer set to head up the project. He immediately becomes a love interest for Barbara. His main romantic adversary though, is Gary Cooper; a local hometown boy with unresolved feelings for the lady. Everyone, however, is faced with a bigger problem. The corporate financier is playing hardball and cutting financial ties with the settlers. While I've always loved Colman, and always hated Cooper; that becomes less relevant being that this is a silent film. Acting is not the biggest conveyor in the storytelling. The film here was remarkably well-preserved; some of it shot in Nevada locations. Not a genre I will be investigating fully, but a fun one-off nonetheless.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

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Audience Member

Pretty good western-romance-epic that I never heard of. It's also a pretty full movie with a love triangle, an ambush by bandits, a sandstorm, a town being built in the middle of the desert, and a great flood. Gary Cooper is in it and looks like he should be in college.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

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Audience Member

Interesting cinematography and a very young Gary Cooper, but kind of a dull movie.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

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Audience Member

<i>The Winning of Barbara Worth</i> is one of my favorite films of the 1920s. Relying on facial expression, body-language, and sheer "mood" and "ambiance" to light up the screen and drive the plot, this silent stunner makes you re-appreciate classic actors (among them Ronald Colman in his prime and a young and rugged Gary Cooper playing the kind of role he'd later epitomize) and the times when acting was a skill and not just about aesthetics and voice-work. All this aside, however, aesthetically, it's a rather haunting film, filled with dusty scenes, wonderfully innovative and mood-intensifying uses of color-shading to indicate the time of day throughout the movie, and some witty quips and dialogue (you almost wish you could hear the actors let it fly themselves, as opposed to reading it on the screen, but it all moves so fast, you barely notice). When the bursting-dam scene arrives, you hardly know what to expect--and then are surprised at what was accomplished in a mid-'20s film. The reactions of the locals are as eerie as they are humorous. By today's standards, the plot, characterizations, and even events may seem a bit trite, if not borderline cheesy--the ending itself is a little too simplified, with Coop's character seemingly giving up Barbara without much of a fight--but all in all, it's great to see this film on DVD. Pay attention to the sound--you can actually here someone laughing in the background at various moments, making it feel like you're watching a modern comedy show with a laugh-track.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Henry King

Director

Ronald Colman

Willard Holmes

Vilma Bánky

Barbara Worth

Charles Lane

Jefferson Worth

Paul McAllister

The Seer

E.J. Ratcliffe

James Greenfield

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Synopsis

During the construction of an irrigation system in a Southwestern town, an engineer and a local cowboy vie for the affections of a rancher's (Charles Lane) daughter (Vilma Bánky).

Director: Henry King
Screenwriter: Frances Marion
Distributor: United Artists
Production Co: Samuel Goldwyn Company
Genre: Western, Romance, Drama
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 14, 1926, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 24, 2020
Runtime: 1h 29m

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