User Reviews

In the days of the gold rush, happy-go-lucky mine owner Joel McCrea rides into San Francisco for a little fun and ends up tangling with snooty big-wig Sidney Blackmer and his seductive mistress (?) Yvonne DeCarlo, who seek to control the whole state of California through bribery and intimidation.

The two leads have good chemistry. McCrea gives a pretty smooth performance and DeCarlo is very beautiful. There's a lot of good dialog and a decent pace.

One interesting sequence has McCrea getting shanghaied and thrown below the deck of an outgoing ship. Fighting his way off the boat, he's pulled out of the water by none other than Plan 9 From Outer Space's Tor Johnson! Overall, this was a fairly decent production with good costumes and sets, that plays like an episode of a TV series. Warner Brothers should have sprung for some Technicolor though.

One thing that I didn't like was the final scene's contention that a pretty and young villain, who's up to her neck in corruption and intimidation, should be absolved of all liability due to what - her beauty and the fact that she fell in love with the hero?!

Since The San Francisco Story stars Joel McCrea and its story involves vigilantes in the Gold Rush days, it will draw inevitable unfavorable comparison to the marvelous 1935 Howard Hawks production Barbary Coast. But that is no more fair than comparing the former's B-babe leading lady Yvonne De Carlo to the latter's top-class star Miriam Hopkins. Or the one-and-only Edward G. Robinson to dependable, if unexciting, character actor Sidney Blackmer, who takes over as San Franciso's head villain in this 1950's "B" Western. Every movie has to be considered on its own merits, and The San Francisco story is not without them, even if it only occasionally rises above the level of its mediocre production values. Though distributed by Warner Brothers, this movie was actually the product of independent production company Fidelity-Vogue Pictures, Inc., which produced only one other picture in its brief, undistinguished history. The San Francisco Story was cursed from the start by under-financing.

While the interior sets are pretty good, the exterior street scenes just look like a standard "B" Western movie town in most places, rather than what was the rather well-developed by the 1850's city of San Francisco. Even worse, the scenes of the country side are obviously arid Southern California around Hollywood rather than the lush Northern California valleys around San Francisco. Only the scenes around the docks are convincing. Again the costuming tends to be typical generic "B" Western gear rather than the antebellum clothing appropriate to the Rold Rush era. The uninspired score, composed of stock music, does little to enhance the dramatic impact.

Robert Parrish's flabby direction moves the story along at a snail's pace with too much expository dialog and not much excitement. Nevertheless, the picture has its moments. Excanges between the sardonic McCrea and his fatalistic mining partner and sidekick Richard Erdman provide a little snappy dialog. The climactic horseback duel with shotguns on a sandbar is certainly a unique touch. In the hands of a more competent director such as Raoul Walsh it could have been a top notch action scene. The best part of this picture is the sequence in which McCrea is shanghaied, barely escapes from a China-bound ship before it sails, then swims to refuge in a colorful dock-side saloon run by a one-eyed old hag, delightfully portrayed by the incomparable Florence Bates, and bar tended by bizarre giant Tor Johnson. More of this type of doings would have made for a much more enjoyable movie.

As it was, The San Francisco Story was mild entertainment. Not bad enough to be disgusted with, nor good enough to get excited about. This modest oater's greatest asset was McCrea's likable, laid-back persona. Best suited for his fans and those of us who will watch almost any Western that's above the Hoot Gibson level.

Before "Cry Danger" director Robert Parrish made his urban western outing "The San Francisco Story" with Joel McCrea and Yvonne DeCarlo, he won an Academy Award for Best Editing on the 1947 boxing movie "Body and Soul." During his twenty year career as a director, Parrish made variety of movies, among them gangster movies, World War II military movies, and westerns. "The San Francisco Story" evokes memories of the 1935 Howard Hawks' epic "Barbary Coast," but Parrish achieved more success with his tale about crime and corruption in the colorful city by the bay before California became a state. Clocking everything in at a short and snappy 80-minutes, Parrish and "Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion" scenarist D.D. Beauchamp, along with an uncredited western writer William Bowers, adapted the Richard Summers story ""Vigilante" and delivered an above-average, often entertaining, but clearly predictable little western about empire building. Veteran western star Joel McCrea gets himself (as well as his stunt man) tangled up in several knuckle-bruising fistfights in this black & white Warner Brothers release when he isn't trying to kiss and cuddle with his attractive co-star. Yvonne DeCarlo and McCrea later encored as a couple in "Border River" in 1954.

The chief asset of "The San Francisco Story" is the villain that actor Sidney Blackmer, who made a career out of impersonating Theodore Roosevelt, plays with such unctuous charm. As wily Andrew Cain, the well-tailored Blackmer owns San Francisco and De Carlo is his right-hand gal. A elegant portrait of her hangs behind the bar in the saloon. Initially, Ms. Adelaide McCall (Yvonne De Carlo of "Brute Force") and Rick Nelson (McCrea) don't hit it off on their first date. Cain sends her off with Nelson for a moon-lit carriage ride along the coast so that she can pick Nelson's brain. It seems that the last time that San Francisco suffered from vigilantes; Nelson was one of the chief architects of the vigilante movement. All Nelson wants to do now is work his mining claim until he lays his eyes on Adelaide. During their first night out in a buggy ride along the coast, Nelson riles Adelaide so she uses the horse whip on him and leaves him stranded. Later, she apologizes to Nelson in person, but he says something that she doesn't like and she has him shanghaied. Nelson awakens in the hole of a ship bound for Asia and fights his way out of it.

Interestingly, McCrea never brandishes his six-shooter in this oater as he romances DeCarlo and scheme with Blackmer. There's one very good twist about midway through the action when our hero tries to infiltrate the villains. Tor Johnson, who made a name for himself in the films of Ed Wood, has a small role here as a saloon bouncer.

There's the potential for another "Barbary Coast" or "San Francisco" here with the character of the power-hungry villain Sidney Blackmer who is determined to run the entire territory of California in the 1850's and the pretty vixen (Yvonne de Carlo) who is obviously more than just his house guest. When Joel McCrea shows up and is instantly entranced with her, there's enough possibility for romantic and political intrigue to make this better than it turned out to be. What remains is a western that falls into predictability that has a few moments of surprises and a delightful supporting performance by that charming scene-stealer almost forgotten today, Florence Bates.

Ms. Bates, who got instant audience attention as the social-climbing Mrs. Van Hopper (Joan Fontaine's employer) in the first quarter of "Rebecca", takes on a Marie Dressler/Tugboat Annie type character here, an eye-patched waterfront saloon proprietress who sells off her drunken customers to sea captains to be part of their crew. In just a few short scenes, she makes you want to see more of her, but sadly her role is rather brief. She would continue to work a few more years, but her untimely death in 1954 deprived us of her lovable presence. In a bit with no dialog, "Ed Wood" perennial Tor Johnson is instantly recognizable as her server.

Even with the pedestrian plot, there's the always dependable Joel McCrea and the delightfully lovely Yvonne de Carlo (crying for Technicolor!) to give it more interest. But they are overshadowed in the major roles by Blackmer as a seemingly Boss Tweed type power-shaker who has every California politician under his belt and wouldn't hesitate in turning them in for corruption if it would help save his hide. It is just sad that a film which has so much going for it ends up being rather ordinary when it could have been so much more.

Films where an all powerful megalomaniac is opposed by a lot of little people who need a leader to organize their opposition were a dime a dozen in the 'golden age' of Hollywood. In 1935, Joel McCrea costarred in one of numerous films about a wannabe kingpin located on the Barbary coast of San Francisco, called "Barbary Coast". His antagonist was played by the dramatic Eddie Robinson, who claimed he owned everything and everybody in SF worth owning. In the present B&W film, the considerably less charismatic Sidney Blackmer , as Andrew Cain, has taken advantage of the loose legal system in that time and bullying tactics to acquire most of the important businesses , as well as police and court system. Additionally, he has ambitions to elect puppet leaders, if not himself, to the state legislature, Joel McCrea, as Rick Nelson, saunters into town with his sidekick Shorty(Richard Erdman), for a change of scenery from his prospering gold mines. Old friend Captain Martin inquires if he's interested in joining a new vigilante committee, as SF badly needs one like the previous one of which Nelson was a member. Nelson declines, as he does later on repeated requests. As things turned out, it wasn't necessary for Nelson to join a vigilante committee to accomplish the goal of bringing down Cain and his cronies. Informally, he charged Cain with dirty dealing, inducing Cain to accept a dueling challenge. Very unusually, this duel took place while on horses, rather reminiscent of duels between knights in the Middle Ages. Each had a shotgun loaded with two cartridges. They slowly sauntered toward each other, apparently each deciding when to shoot. However, Cain had arranged a dastardly way to hopefully guarantee that he would win. Luckily, it didn't quite work, aided by Cain's inexplicable decision to gallop ahead, instead of immediately shooting at a prone Nelson. ....The token woman in the story is the beautiful Yvonne de Carlo, who is actually more than a token presence. She's Cain's moll, whom Nelson is immediately smitten with. She's also attracted to him, although slower to show it. Nelson takes her for a couple of moonlit buggy rides, and chances a passionate kiss or two, while she's still trying to makeup her mind who to follow in the future. Nelson sometimes gets some negative feedback in their dalliance, as when she slapped him hard while on a moonlight ride, and made him walk back to town. Then, she arranged for him to be mugged and shanghaied. Miraculously, he got out of that jam before the ship sailed, ending up at Sadie's seaside bar. Sadie was an old friend, who made some money procuring drunk seamen as crew for ships. Despite these setbacks, Yvonne eventually decided she liked Nelson better than Cain, and fumed when she read in the paper that Nelson had been murdered, presumably by Cain's agents. Fortunately, this turned out to be an exaggeration, but Nelson was plenty shook up about the bad wound he received. That wound healed mighty quickly! He vowed to kill Cain in retaliation. This is when the afore mentioned duel was arranged. Believing Nelson dead, Yvonne told Cain she was going to expose some of his bribing, etc. that she knew about, but thereby exposing her involvement in some of his schemes. Thus, she joined Nelson on his hit list. Fortunately for her, authorities decided to overlook her involvement , as she made known her intension of accompanying Nelson back to his mining business. If I were Nelson, I would be leery of her opportunistic tendency and temper..... As usual, McCrea was mostly laconic, lacking the in-your-face charisma of some of the other top western actors. Yvonne made great eye candy, as well as a feisty romantic interest for the hero, and she had more screen time than in most of her films. ...The film shows it's low budget status by a small independent company in several ways. However, it may be worth your viewing, as at YouTube, especially if you like Yvonne. Would have been nicer in Technicolor to see Yvonne's outfits. Otherwise, this wasn't necessary.

More of a drama than a western. Joel McCrea stars as Rick Nelson a successful miner in 1856. The Golden Gate city is wide-open with robbers and con artists. The local newspaper editor Jim Martin(Onslow Stevens)organizes a group of vigilantes to try a keep the peace. Nelson, a long time friend of the editor, is being persuaded to help the cause of justice and what is right. Political boss Andrew Cain(Sidney Blackmer)thinks of Frisco as being his personal domain. Rick becomes smitten with Cain's girlfriend Adelaide(Yvonne DeCarlo), one beautiful woman that knows how to influence men. Nelson must make a decision on who's side is he really going to work for.

Other players: Richard Erdman, John Raven, Florence Bates, Robert Foulk and Ralph Dumke.