In all likelihood the only surviving film starring early silent screen leading man Monroe Salisbury, this very old fashioned but enjoyable Northwoods melodrama begged the question of who were the real "barbarians" -- the "uncivilized" but proud trapper or the greedy capitalists out to use him? Better known today as a distinguished MGM character actor, director Donald Crisp had been taught by the best in the business: D. W. Griffith. And there is something Griffithlike about this moralistic melodrama of a young trapper, a veritable child of nature, discovering that the woman he desires is the daughter of an unscrupulous smelting tycoon out to destroy the land. Although Salisbury is about twenty years too old for his role (he produced the film himself) and the existing print badly is decomposed in places, The Barbarians still benefits from Crisp's fine compositions and must have been a beautiful experience when first released.
by Hans J. Wollstein
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