Old San Francisco
About Old San Francisco
Chris Buckwell (Warner Oland), boss of San Francisco's Tenderloin, persecutes the Chinese while hiding that he is himself part Chinese. He wants the land of Don Hernandez Vasquez and sends the lawyer Michael Brandon to buy it. Brandon's nephew Terrence meets Vasquez's daughter Dolores (Dolores Costello). Vasquez refuses the offer. Buckwell causes the old man's death, and Dolores swears revenge. When she learns Buckwell's parentage she pushes his brother, a dwarf, to expose him. Buckwell seizes her and Terrence. The 1906 earthquake kills him and frees them.
Cast & crew
More about Old San Francisco
Alan Crosland directed. Darryl F. Zanuck supplied the story, Anthony Coldeway the screenplay, and Jack Jarmuth the titles. Hal Mohr photographed it. Hugo Riesenfeld wrote the score. There is no spoken dialogue. Warner Bros. released it with a Vitaphone disc of music and effects, the fifth Warner feature to carry that accompaniment. It opened in New York on 21 June 1927 and went into general U.S. release on 4 September 1927. The running length is also given as 7,961 feet.
Themes
Background
The story is set in the Tenderloin before the earthquake and fire of 18 April 1906. The film uses that disaster as the punishment of the villain.
Making
Crosland shot a silent picture and Warner added the Vitaphone track in the studio's first year of synchronized features. He directed The Jazz Singer later the same year.
Look
Hal Mohr shot the rancho, the Tenderloin, and the earthquake scenes.
Music
Hugo Riesenfeld wrote the synchronized score. Vitaphone discs carry the music and the sound effects. No one speaks.
Preservation
Prints are at the Library of Congress, George Eastman House, and the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, with the Vitaphone soundtrack. UCLA restored it with the Library of Congress and the Museum of Modern Art.
Notes
- Charles Emmett Mack, who plays Terrence, died in a car accident six months before the release. This is his last film.
- Angelo Rossitto plays Chang Loo, Buckwell's brother.
- Anna May Wong is in the cast.
- Warner Bros. reused earthquake footage from this film in The Sisters (1938).
- A month after the general release, on 6 October 1927, the same studio opened The Jazz Singer, with spoken dialogue.
Scenes
- Buckwell sends a lawyer to buy the Vasquez grant.
- Dolores learns he is part Chinese and turns his brother against him.
- The 1906 earthquake brings the house down on Buckwell.
Influenced
- The Sisters (1938)
Also available
- Library of Congress
- George Eastman House
- Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
- Warner Archive Collection DVD (September 15, 2009)
