Old San Francisco 1927

     The setting of this film is just prior to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.  The Vasquez family has owned a ranchero in the San Francisco area for a long time.  The King of Spain gave this property to them.  They are one of the oldest landowners but they have fallen on hard times.  The only remaining members of the family are elderly Don Hernandez de Vasquez and his granddaughter Dolores Vasquez.  Chris Buckwell is a villain and he wants to steal their land and ranch from them.  He sends Terrence O’Shaughnessy, the nephew of wealthy businessman Michael Brandon to buy the ranch and land but Don Hernandez still refuses.  Terrence is a young lawyer and he immediately falls in love with beautiful Delores.  This refusal doesn’t deter Buckwell at all.  He sends surveyors to measure the land and he intendeds to foreclose on the property.  O’Shaughnessy pledges to Don Hernandez and Delores that he will do everything he can to help them save their property.

     After the gold rush of 1849, San Francisco quickly became the largest, most populated, commercial, naval and financial centers in the American West.  There was a bubonic plague between 1900 and 1904 with control of the situation established in 1905.  The infected rats causing the plague were brought in by the ships.  There was a LOT of corruption in the city from the mayor’s office downward.  There was a County Jail and also San Quentin State Prison.  The earthquake and fire happened on April 18, 1906.  The rupture of over 270 miles of the San Andreas Fault caused the quake from San Juan Bautista to Eureka and the center was immediately offshore of San Francisco.  It was magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale.  I thought it was interesting to see the city at this time period.  There were a lot of Asian people and there was friction between this group and other groups.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

88 min, Drama directed by Alan Crosland with Dolores Costello, Josef Swickard, Anders Randolf, Charles Emmett Mack, Warner Oland, Angelo Rossitto, Anna May Wong, Lawson Butt, Walter McGrail, Otto Matieson, Martha Mattox.

Note:  Imdb 6.4 out of 10, 14% audience Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 3.2* out of 5* with 4 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in San Francisco, California.  The original credits include a music score but this is a silent film?  The Vitaphone Symphony Orchestra played at the first-run performance in New York.  Charles Emmet Mack passed away and this is his final performance.