The Coast Patrol (1925) User Reviews

Make Way for Wray!

[JohnHowardReid · 7/10 · 15 June 2012]

By the humble standards of the independent "B", this is quite a noteworthy effort. Of course, most interest will now lie in seeing cult heroine Fay Wray in one of her earliest roles. Already, she is the focus of our attention, quite putting "other girl", Claire de Lorez, in the shade, and even focusing our attention away from hero, Kenneth McDonald. Only delightfully villainous Gino Corrado (who made his living playing waiters all through the sound period) can hold a candle to her, although hammy Spottiswoode Aitken makes a game (if misdirected) try!

Although William E. Wing's script was obviously written to accommodate a "B" budget, by the standards of independent Poverty Row, production values are really quite high and the direction by producer-financier Bud Barsky more than reasonably competent. He certainly makes good use of his real locations, even if the indoor scenes were obviously shot in a small studio with limited resources.

Great photography by Ernest Miller and smooth editing by Grace Harrison certainly help, but all told, it's chiefly thanks to Miss Wray that The Coast Patrol comes across as a superior "B" movie that definitely holds our interest. Top marks to Alpha for making such a good Kodascope cut-down available on DVD.

Moves Fast Enough to Make Audiences Overlook its Flaws

[Maliejandra · 6/10 · 16 August 2017]

The Coast Patrol was screened at Capitolfest in 2017 to a crowd ready to see some Fay Wray films, who was the spotlighted actress. It went over moderately well. The plot is only so-so but it never stops moving.

In a small coastal town, sophisticated Eric Marmont (Gino Corrado) runs a smuggling operation with Valerie Toske (Claire de Lorez). Young and naive Beth (Fay Wray) falls head over heels for Marmont even though he only sees her on the sly. Coast patrol agent Dale Ripley (Kenneth MacDonald) is onto him and lingers around town after he daringly rescues Valerie from drowning by jumping from an airplane. (Why she went water-skiing when she didn't know how to swim, I don't know.) Beth's father (Spottiswoode Aitkin) is over- the-top and plays several scenes like a stiff-jointed Frankenstein. In spite of its flaws, this movie is relatively entertaining.

Good example of a bad silent feature.

[WesternOne1 · 2/10 · 15 August 2017]

The story is all right, but there's too many problems to overcome. This is a real dirt-cheap quickly made programmer that minuscule producers like Barsky made for fast states-rights rentals. First, he is doing what these poverty producers often do, use standing sets from more prestigious studios, whether it's exactly what the story needs or not. In this case, though it's happening in America, the town looks like an Irish fishing village, circa 1810, complete with thatched roof cottages. The local hotel is supposed to be a small seaside resort, though the interior is all ancient castle-like, with a huge steep staircase. The "beach" is sand brought up to the very step of the front door, a huge, stony entrance that looks like it came off a cathedral. But the worst part of this film by far, is everyone's acting. it's ridiculously archaic and over the top, worse than your average Biograph effort. I thought it must be some kind of intentional parody, but it's not. We all know some of these actors, some very well, like Fay Wray and Gino Carrado, all who can act quite well and as sophisticated as needed. In must have been ordered this way by the director, Bud Barsky himself.