Ruth Chatterton was a very versatile actress who deserves to be re- discovered. She was at home in every genre - drawing room comedies ("Charming Sinners" (1929), "The Laughing Lady" (1930)), "weepies" ("Sarah and Son" (1930), "Frisco Jenny" (1932)) and contemporary dramas ("The Rich are Always With Us" (1932), "Female" (1933)). Her greatest triumph was "Dodsworth" (1936) where she played a completely different role as an older woman trying to cling on to her lost youth. "Frisco Jenny" was Chatterton's favourite role. Even though it was only a variation on her own "Madame X" role, she gives a marvellous performance as Jenny, who was required to age from a young teenager to an elderly prostitute. Although they got off to a bad start she and director Wellman ended up great friends.
Jenny Sandoval's father (Robert Emmett O'Connor) owns a flourishing saloon on the Barbary Coast. She and Dan McAllistar, a piano player are having an affair and just as she confesses all to her father, the San Francisco earthquake erupts. Jenny finds Dan's name among the lists of the dead but determines to keep her baby, doing everything she can to give Dan all he needs.
She becomes a Madam with a roster of girls, who she hires out for parties and conventions. J. Carroll Naish has a small part as a gambling cheat who is killed by Steve Dutton (Louis Calhern) on the eve of his party. Calhern is at his oily best as the villain - not only does he let Jenny take the blame for the murder but he also persuades her to give up her beloved son to a wealthy family. She plans to retire when Dan is older and take him on an overseas trip, but when she visits, she finds he has forgotten her and regards his adopted mother as his real one. (Cloying Buster Phelps plays Dan as a child. A little of him goes a long way.)
Jenny then renounces her good intentions and rises to become a top bootlegger, although she secretly keeps a scrapbook of Dan's achievements through the years. When Dan (Donald Cook) runs for District Attorney, Steve threatens to tell him the truth about his parentage but is killed by Jenny, who then stands trial for his murder. There is no happy ending in this film as Jenny goes to her death without revealing to Dan that he is her son.
This film could have been run of the mill but William Wellman's direction makes it special. With the role of Dan McAllistar, James Murray had one of his last parts of note before alcohol made him unemployable. Noel Francis, a beautiful Follies showgirl, who should have had a bigger career, has a showy role at the beginning of the film, as Rosie, a mercenary saloon girl.
Highly Recommended.
Jenny Sandoval's father (Robert Emmett O'Connor) owns a flourishing saloon on the Barbary Coast. She and Dan McAllistar, a piano player are having an affair and just as she confesses all to her father, the San Francisco earthquake erupts. Jenny finds Dan's name among the lists of the dead but determines to keep her baby, doing everything she can to give Dan all he needs.
She becomes a Madam with a roster of girls, who she hires out for parties and conventions. J. Carroll Naish has a small part as a gambling cheat who is killed by Steve Dutton (Louis Calhern) on the eve of his party. Calhern is at his oily best as the villain - not only does he let Jenny take the blame for the murder but he also persuades her to give up her beloved son to a wealthy family. She plans to retire when Dan is older and take him on an overseas trip, but when she visits, she finds he has forgotten her and regards his adopted mother as his real one. (Cloying Buster Phelps plays Dan as a child. A little of him goes a long way.)
Jenny then renounces her good intentions and rises to become a top bootlegger, although she secretly keeps a scrapbook of Dan's achievements through the years. When Dan (Donald Cook) runs for District Attorney, Steve threatens to tell him the truth about his parentage but is killed by Jenny, who then stands trial for his murder. There is no happy ending in this film as Jenny goes to her death without revealing to Dan that he is her son.
This film could have been run of the mill but William Wellman's direction makes it special. With the role of Dan McAllistar, James Murray had one of his last parts of note before alcohol made him unemployable. Noel Francis, a beautiful Follies showgirl, who should have had a bigger career, has a showy role at the beginning of the film, as Rosie, a mercenary saloon girl.
Highly Recommended.