Docks of San Francisco (1932)

Barbary Coast, San Francisco. The gangster moll Belle gets deeply entangled with gangsters led by her boyfriend Vance. The professional writer John Banning understands why Belle got ... See full summary »

Director:

George B. Seitz

Writer:

H.H. Van Loan

Stars:

Mary Nolan, Jason Robards Sr., Marjorie Beebe

Cast

Cast overview:
Mary Nolan	...	Belle
Jason Robards Sr.	...	John Banning
Marjorie Beebe	...	Rose Gillen
John Davidson	...	Vance
William Haynes	...	Reggie, the Detective
Max Davidson	...	Max Ranovich, the Detective

Storyline

Barbary Coast, San Francisco. The gangster moll Belle gets deeply entangled with gangsters led by her boyfriend Vance. The professional writer John Banning understands why Belle got involved with these criminals. Banning tries to help her get out of that seedy life. However, It is not easy. A lot of action and violence ensues before Belle eventually succeeds.

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Plot Keywords:

lost film

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 February 1932 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ta katagogia tou San Frantziskou

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ralph M. Like Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

64 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

User Reviews

Girls, guns and gangsters Poverty Row-style

A gun moll seeks to escape her sordid existence...

Dockside doxie Belle dreams of a rose-covered cottage but her gangster boyfriend Vance isn't buying it and tells her so one night in a waterfront dive. When he drives his point home a little too hard, a slumming swell, novelist John Banning, leaves his party and knocks Vance cold before disappearing into the night amidst a shoot-out. Vance later promises to make an honest woman of Belle but she ends up on the lam with a satchel full of money when he's wounded in a shoot-out with police during a bank heist. Belle serendipitously kidnaps Banning and he takes her to his secluded mountain cabin but their blossoming romance is nipped in the bud when Vance and his gang surround them. A siege and two shoot-outs ensue -with tommy guns, too- and everyone's wounded, some fatally...

DOCKS OF SAN FRANCISCO may sound like gay porn but it's girls, guns, and gangsters Poverty Row-style as Action Pictures tries to live up to its name with a topical underworld pot-boiler whipped up for notorious Mary Nolan on a budget of about a buck-fifty. The former silent screen star's looks were beginning to fray a bit by this time but that befit her shabby character and she talked tough, too, insisting "I'm going' straight and I'll never see a rod again for the rest of my life!" (that's what the gay who got religion said). It's obvious Mary meant it when she confessed "I'm tired of packin' a rod" because she sure had a limp-wristed way of handling one (any 10 year-old could get a gat away from her) and she almost manages to mangle the romantic angle even more than puffed-up stuffed shirt Jason Robards Sr. Character actor John Davidson's bony frame and "Phantom Of The Opera" visage made Vance a pretty creepy cartoon character and there's a William Haynes in it, too, but he's not the gay one. The mushy stuff's just dopey drivel but the rest moves at a fast clip and although it's not very good, DOCKS OF SAN FRANCISCO isn't as bad as it could have been thanks to veteran director George B. Seitz doing what he could with next to nothing. Seitz began his career directing serials like THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE in the teens and ended it with MGM's ANDY HARDY series in the forties.