Old San Francisco (1927)

In San Francisco, a villainous land owner with underworld connections seeks to steal the property of an old Spanish family.

Director:

Alan Crosland

Writers:

Darryl F. Zanuck (by) (as Darryl Francis Zanuck), Anthony Coldeway (screen play) (as Anthony Coldewey)

Stars:

Dolores Costello, Josef Swickard, Anders Randolf

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Dolores Costello	...	Dolores Vasquez
Josef Swickard	...	Don Hernandez de Vasquez
Anders Randolf	...	Michael Brandon (as Anders Randolph)
Charles Emmett Mack	...	Terrence O'Shaughnessy (as Chas. E. Mack)
Warner Oland	...	Chris Buckwell
Angelo Rossitto	...	Chang Loo - the Dwarf (as Angelo Rossita)
Anna May Wong	...	A Flower of the Orient
Lawson Butt	...	Captain Enrique de Solano Y Vasquez - in Prologue
Walter McGrail	...	Vasquez's Grandson - in Prologue
Otto Matieson	...	Vasquez's Grandson - in Prologue
Martha Mattox	...	Mother - in Prologue
Tom Santschi	...	Captain Stoner - in Prologue

Storyline

The Vasquez family are one of the oldest families in San Francisco, but their day of glory is past and now all that remains of them are an old man and his granddaughter, the innocent Dolores. The villainous Chris Buckwell wants to steal their land and ranch from them, even using unfair means to get his hands on it. One of his employees' has a nephew who falls for Dolores, however, and together they make plans to save the ranch. Unfortunately for them, Buckwell has a secret and discovering it might prove dangerous.

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Plot Keywords:

spanish | asian | chinatown san francisco | mother daughter relationship | male female relationship | 

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Taglines:

Beauty at a Price in Chinatown! (original poster)

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Genres:

Drama | History | Romance

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

4 September 1927 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die letzten Tage von San Francisco

Filming Locations:

San Francisco, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Silent (alternate version) Mono (Vitaphone) (musical score and sound effects) (Western Electric Apparatus)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original credits include a music score, conductor and orchestra, despite the film being a silent film. The Vitaphone Symphony Orchestra played at the first-run performance in New York, and the credit was also in printed programs distributed to the audience.

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Quotes

Chris Buckwell: Do you want me to close your district - tighter than a Chinese drum!

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Alternate Versions

The print in the Turner library is a UCLA preservation print containing music and sound effects.

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Connections

Referenced in Anna May Wong, Frosted Yellow Willows: Her Life, Times and Legend (2007)

User Reviews

Decent

Old San Francisco (1927)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Fifth Vitaphone production from Warner is silent all the way through with the exception of some sound effects used in small places. The film tells the story of a Spanish family who moved to what would become San Francisco to set up their ranch but in 1906 an evil Chinese landowner (Warner Oland) tries to steal it away. The Spanish daughter (Dolores Costello) must try and save her land even though the odds are against here and all the fighting leads up to the famous earthquake. This is a decent movie at best, which works on some levels but is rather disappointing in others. This type of revenge story isn't anything new and had been going on as early as the Griffith shorts at Biograph. Storywise nothing new is really done here but a few nice things happen with the new setting of Chinatown. Today the racial stereotypes of the Chinese folks would be considered racist but what we see here was accepted in 1927. Costello is pretty good in the lead role as she brings some energy to her character that helps the film. Oland is also very good as the Chinese man who pretends to be white in order to try and steal the land. Charles Emmett Mack and Anna May Wong have supporting roles and are pretty good as well. I'm not 100% certain but the final earthquake sequence appears to have scenes borrowed from the Lon Chaney film The Shock, which was also set in San Francisco and featured the legendary earthquake. With that in mind, the final earthquake sequence really isn't that impressive but there are some newly filmed scenes mixed in of building burning and these effects look pretty good. The Vitaphone sound effects are all rather small and include a few gunshots early on, bells ringing and a few screams during the earthquake.