Barricade (1939 film)

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Barricade
Barricade poster artwork
Directed by	Gregory Ratoff
Produced by	Edward Kaufman
Written by	Granville Walker
Starring	Alice Faye, Warner Baxter, Charles Winninger, Arthur Treacher, and Keye Luke
Music by	David Buttolph
Cinematography	Karl Freund
Editing by	Jack Dennis
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	December 8, 1939
Running time	71 minutes
Language	English
Budget	Unknown

Barricade is a 1939 action/comedy film directed by Gregory Ratoff and starring Alice Faye, Warner Baxter, Charles Winninger, Arthur Treacher, and Keye Luke.

[edit] Plot

A singer named Emmy (Faye) meets broken down journalist Hank Topping (Baxter) while travelling across Mongolia by train. A romance sparks, but is soon interrupted by a fierce group of murderous bandits. Fleeing, Emmy and Hank team up with others, eventually culminating in a fierce shootout with the marauders. If I recall correctly as a youngster of ten years, the Emmy and Hank team seek safety in a small fort or a antiquated country home located on barren lands. As the bandits approach, they hide in a basement level, protected only by a a floor-board cover. As the bandits enter the building, the baby of Emmy and Hank begins to cry, thereby revealing the location of the couple and their team. As the bandits begin to chop their way throught the floor boards, a rescue squad on motorcycles speeds over a nearby hill towards the building, then succeeding to rescue those trapped below the floor.

[edit] Behind the Scenes

The film was viewed as being so mediocre by 20th Century Fox that it was shelved. A year later, with actress Alice Faye's popularity booming, the film was released to expected sub-par success.

There were extensive revisions and retakes which eliminated actors J. Edward Bromberg and Joseph Schildkraut from the cast. The song "There'll Be Other Nights" by Lew Brown and Lew Pollack, recorded by Alice Faye, also was cut from the final print.