Docks of San Francisco (1932) User Reviews

Quite a neat little Pre-Code crime drama

[binapiraeus · 7/10 · 23 January 2014]

The docks of San Francisco, where the mobsters and crooks meet: but Belle, a girl with a heart too good for the robbery racket she's gotten into, wants to go straight - and her guy, Vance, pretends he wants to leave with her and marry her to live a quiet life in the country... But that, of course, is only a cover for the next bank robbery he's planning; and he's got no intention to let Belle get clean away with her 'ambitions' either.

So Belle is forced to take over the loot and take a young man hostage in his house up in the hills. But he manages to take her gun away from her, and so she thinks it's only natural that he'll turn her in to the police with the loot - while he, who's fallen in love with her, just wants to take her away to a safe place and give back the money to the bank. But of course, Vance and his friends spot them, and they're trapped in the lonely house while the gang waits outside to mow them down with a 'typewriter' (a Thompson gun, very 'fashionable' in the prohibition days). The police, as usual, don't have a clue; only when a worker from the phone company finds out that there might be something wrong up there in that house because the wires have been cut, he sends them on the trail, and a classic battle between cops and gangsters ensues.

The young man fights from within the cottage, while Belle tries to escape to get to the nearest house - but she's shot down by her own ex-lover, and after the gangsters are exonerated by the cops, she lies dying on the couch, with the young man she'd dreamed she would be able to 'go straight' by her side...

This may sound a bit like a kind of "Petrified Forest" for the 'poor'; but it's a little less melodramatic and philosophical and more realistic - one of the good points of a 'Poverty Row' movie. And it's certainly not a bad example, there are very good performances, especially by Mary Nolan and young Jason Robards as the romantic hero; and Mack Sennett's "Queen of Comedy" Marjorie Beebe as always adds a note of comedy and sex-appeal. And there's a message, too: the cops use just the same dirty methods as the robbers, bugging other people's apartments to listen in on their plans (and afterward being unable to trace the robbers), and as usual shooting first before asking questions - while on the other hand, on the 'wrong' side of the fence, there is a good girl who was made bad by the dirty environment of the Docks of San Francisco...

Rip-Roaring PreCode

[boblipton · 6/10 · 2 March 2019]

Mary Nolan has had enough of the rackets. Boyfriend John Davidson slaps her around and finally agrees. They'll both go straight and get married. While she's waiting for him to show up for the wedding party, he's busy robbing a bank.

This Poverty Row Pre-Code has a great opening with a party of rich people slumming at a dockside bar, where Jason Robards Sr. sort of get acquainted with Miss Nolan. This sets up the later scenes, and the scenes and physical acting are terrific. There are a couple of battles with the police that are as good as anything that Wellman had done in THE PUBLIC ENEMY.

The only downside is Miss Nolan's line reading. She was one of the most beautiful women in the movies, and the camera loves her; she had been a Ziegfeld showgirl, and that led into a movie career, but a great start in Germany and then appearing in WEST OF ZANZIBAR with Lon Chaney didn't help when sound came in. By 1930, she had left MGM and was appearing in Universal programmers, then onto Poverty Row. She made two more pictures after after that and died in 1948, aged 42.

Pretty good for a very cheaply made B.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 27 May 2021]

Although in modern times the term 'B-movie' has come to mean bad movie, back in the 1930s and 40s, a B wasn't necessarily bad...just short and economically made. This is because during this era of double-features, theaters were looking for cheap lesser features for this double bill. In other words, they'd show an A-picture (a higher quality and more expensively made film of at least 70 minutes in length) and the B (about 50-65 minutes) which was simple, quick and usually entertaining. Some were really bad....most were more like time-passers.

When I saw "Docks of San Francisco", I could quickly tell it was a B. It was made by an itty-bitty studio, lasted about an hour and was filled with unknown actors. Yet, despite this humble pedigree, it was entertaining...possibly, in part, because it was a Pre-Code film and filled with plenty of violence...and an amazingly downbeat ending.

The story is about a rather dim woman who has been manipulated by her no-good boyfriend into a life of crime. But she's sick of it and wants to go straight. How does a nice rich guy help her? Well, see the film!

I don't think this is one to rush out to see. But it is entertaining and well made for what it is.

Girls, guns and gangsters Poverty Row-style

[melvelvit-1 · 4/10 · 30 June 2010]

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.

Excellent little surprise

[searchanddestroy-1 · 16 December 2022]

I did not expect such a good surprise from such a B picture from the thirties. George B seitz, he is a director whose I don't know the filmography. I have seen some movies from him but not enough to have an opinion. Anyway, this one is not usual, the female lead is pretty worth analysing, watching in her fate, her story. This film is not long, and not boring, which is not the case for all feature with this length.... It's good to get, have access to such films, not all of them are lost; fortunately for gem searchers. I am in a hurry to see more of them. The ending, the climax is really better than most of films from this period.

Decent start, great ending, all over the place like Lombard Street in the middle.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 15 April 2020]

Mary Nolan truly gives a wonderful tough performance in this pre-code crime drama about a gangster's moll, trying to reform herself and falling for writer Jason Robards Sr. whom she was seen attempting to rob in the opening sequence. Nolan is quite a tough young broad, and for a forgotten actress, she truly gives a passionate performance. In fact, the whole set-up of this film is quite good, from showing a bunch of rich carousers in a low rent dive being hoodwinked buy a Max Davidson who pretends to be the bartender to Nolan's desperation to get away from mob king Max Davidson. however, Davidson won't let her go with a fight and this leads to an action-packed shootout at the end. It is a bit creaky in its pacing, but the dialogue is good and a good majority of the performances are above average. This won't be arrival of the Warner Brothers gangster films, but with a female anti-hero, that's an interesting twist that makes this unique in this type of scenario.

A decent plot but sub-par otherwise

[SimonJack · 4/10 · 23 March 2014]

This is a lower grade film – what people refer to as a poverty row production. It has a second tier of actors, none of whom perform very well. The direction is spotty in a very poor quality film. The only thing going for the film was its plot. It's just enough to keep one's interest. The film has some intrigue and good action in a couple of places. This is crime drama that could make a very good remake with a better cast, better direction and better production quality.

The lead actor in "Docks of San Francisco" is Jason Robards Sr. He had a long career in films and TV, though he never reached the level of success of his famous son, Jason Robards, Jr. The lead actress in this is Mary Nolan who had begun acting under her real name, Mary Robertson. She had a scandalous relationship early in her career, and a wild life with drugs and an abusive relationship – all of which helped her quick demise on stage and screen. She died in obscurity at age 42 from cardiac arrest.

John Davidson Stands Out As A Gentleman Gangster!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 3 July 2014]

As Imogene Wilson in the 1920s, Mary Nolan had been one of the most beautiful of the Ziegfeld Follies showgirls. People called her a raving beauty but also a raving nut and by the early 1930s she had exhausted Hollywood's patience - especially Universal's!! They had picked up the pieces when she had returned from Europe after yet more bad press forced her to flee!! I thought she was a pretty good actress who because of her beauty should have had employment for years to come but her volatile temperament, her bad choice of men and love of screaming matches in public places soon brought her career to a halt - at one point she was barred from the Universal set!!

"Docks of San Francisco" was from the lowly Action Pictures and her leading man was Jason Robards, stalwart of poverty row. Nolan plays Belle who along with Vance (John Davidson) have a criminal partnership in which they hold up and terrorize people around the seedy docks area of San Francisco. Belle longs to go straight and we first see her giving back the pay packet to one of her victims after she realises that the money will keep him and his family from starvation over Christmas.

John Davidson is the standout in this very taut, tight actioner: he plays Vance, a southern gentleman type gangster whose precise, clipped diction masks a criminal psychotic. He lulls Belle into a false sense of security with talk of wedding bells, picket fences etc, but on the night of her wedding literally leaves her holding the bag as he and his gang drive into the night.

She then forces affable novelist John Banning (Jason Robards) to take her with him to his cabin hideaway and in a scene almost plucked from "Bonnie and Clyde", the rest of the film focuses on a fierce gun battle between the desperate pair in the cabin and Vance and his machine gun toting cronies who easily surround the place. My copy is very short, just over 50 minutes and there is no film wasted on love scenes or forced humour. Marjorie Beebe as Belle's pal spends her time in a scanty camisole covered by a fur coat and Max Davidson, after a few seconds establishing himself as the local pawnbroker, returns to his flat and his real job - as an under cover policeman!!