The Winning of Barbara Worth
About The Winning of Barbara Worth
Barbara Worth is orphaned as a child when her parents die crossing a California desert, and Jefferson Worth (Charles Willis Lane) raises her while planning to irrigate the land. Fifteen years later engineer Willard Holmes (Ronald Colman) and cowboy Abe Lee (Gary Cooper) both want the grown Barbara (Vilma Bánky), and Abe sees that she loves him only as a brother. Holmes's employer, James Greenfield (E. J. Ratcliffe), will not pay to reinforce the works meant to divert the Colorado. The project breaks and the valley floods. Barbara chooses Holmes for what he does in the flood, and he promises to come back and marry her when the desert is green.
Cast & crew
More about The Winning of Barbara Worth
Henry King directed Frances Marion's adaptation of Harold Bell Wright's novel. Samuel Goldwyn produced it, and United Artists released it on October 14, 1926, at 89 minutes (9 reels, 8,757 feet), on a budget Wikipedia gives as $1 million. Viola Lawrence edited, and Ted Henkel wrote the score.
Themes
Background
The story follows an irrigation scheme that would turn a desert settlement into farmland by diverting the Colorado, and the flood that comes when the works are left weak.
Look
George Barnes, Thomas Branigan, and Gregg Toland photographed the Imperial Valley and the Black Rock Desert. The flood sequence is the large set piece.
Music
Ted Henkel wrote the music for this silent film, which uses English intertitles.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- Paul McAllister plays the Seer. Clyde Cook is Tex. Erwin Connelly is Pat Mooney. Ed Brady is McDonald.
- Sammy Blum plays Horace Blanton, Fred Esmelton plays George Cartwright, and Bill Patton plays Little Rosebud.
- Gary Cooper replaced Monte Blue as Abe Lee.
Scenes
- Barbara's parents die trying to cross the desert, and Jefferson Worth takes her in.
- Greenfield's unreinforced works give way and the valley floods.
- Abe Lee sees that Barbara's feeling for him is a sister's love.
Influenced by
- Harold Bell Wright's novel The Winning of Barbara Worth
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) by Henry King.webm)
