Die letzten Tage von San Francisco

A dastardly Chinese criminal in OLD SAN FRANCISCO schemes to possess a lovely señorita and her Spanish land-grant rancho.

Although replete with racial stereotyping, it must be admitted that this vintage Silent film is an awful lot of fun. Produced just before the onset of Talkies, the movie represents the high degree of expertise the Studios had attained in telling a story through the medium of filmed pantomime. Excellent production values, an exciting story and very good acting are all part of the mix in the film's success, while the climaxing special effects depicting the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake & fire are satisfying both visually and as plot development.

Beautiful Dolores Costello is exceptional as the privileged young lady who must survive a terrible adventure into San Francisco's criminal depths, her lovely face & eyes conveying every emotion her character experiences. Joseph Swickard gives a noble performance as her proud, patrician grandfather. High-spirited Charles Emmett Mack ably fills the requisite hero's role as the courageous young Irish lawyer who loves Miss Costello. Looking like evil incarnate, Swedish actor Warner Oland steals a few scenes as the malicious malefactor who plots Miss Costello's undoing.

Exotic Anna May Wong appears briefly as an Underworld minx. Tiny Angelo Rossitto is memorable as Oland's dwarf brother.

Movie mavens will recognize Sojin as a Chinatown elder, John Miljan as a slightly craven Spanish-Californian, and Willie Fung as a smiling servant, all uncredited.

Yeah I can agree with most of what the other reviewer said. There's no defending a movie with the lines "and it pierced his wicked Mongol heart" from charges of racism. But you can get into the plot and appreciate some of the cinematography, especialy the rancho and the Chinamens shrine. Might also point out that in the end it is the other Chinam-- er, Asian Americans who put the evil slumlord to justice.

The climax of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake might be model work made for the film, but it also looks like it might be stock footage (perhaps from Lon Chaney's movie THE SHOCK or something else). In any case, this film and THE SHOCK adopt the "cosmic retribution" angle that the dust-up was really a Gomorrah-like act of divine intervention against the Barbary excesses of Chinatown and such. Anna May Wong is thanklessly wasted as the sinfully exquisite assistant of future Charlie Chan Warner Oland, a ruthless land shark who doesn't let anyone know he's really Chinese. He keeps his jeering dwarf brother in a cage and terrorizes the heiress of an old Spanish family, whose righteous Christian iconography pierces his "mongol heart." He codifies the social and sexual threat of "passing" and miscegenation, which is depicted as repulsive to both races. But this is all articulated in religious terms. The anglos refer to his "heathen gods," while the Chinese get irate that he "betrays his ancestors." For a festival of Asian-American images in silent films, compare this with the more ambiguous sexual morality of Cecil B. DeMille's THE CHEAT with Sessue Hayakawa, the tragedy of Wong's role in THE TOLL OF THE SEA, the later films made by Hayakawa, or even Griffith's BROKEN BLOSSOMS.

Geez! People who try to project 21st century political correctness on those who were living their lives decades (sometimes centuries) ago give me a pain. Are they saying we've now achieved some level of perfection, or at least that now everything has been figured out? They have the advantage of being sure that years in the future when present-day man is criticized for events and attitudes that even those enlightened ones can't foresee, they'll not be around to hear it.

These attempts to ensure that anyone not holding some particular viewpoint must necessarily be dismissed as irrelevant and evil despite the level of talent of the offender (occasionally a genius) by the critics (usually possessing no talent).

In turn of the the century San Francisco the noble Vasquez family are threatened with the loss of their property by the unscrupulous Mongol, Chris Buckwell. Buckwell, a Chinatown denizen holds considerable influence and sway in Frisco and does not hesitate to acquire by dubious means a piece of the action from local area merchants and land owners. The Vasquez family who has fought and died to keep their land over generations now must pin their hopes on the beautiful daughter Dolores (Dolores Costello) of the patriarch who aligns herself with a rambunctious Irishman (Charles Mack) to combat the diabolical Buckwell who in turn has lascivious designs on Dolores.

Despite being wrought with bias and ethnic stereotyping, Old San Francisco is a splendid example of visual poetry that displays the silent art form in all it's glory. Camera movement is minimal (but used brilliantly at the films climax) with nearly every image a beautiful tableaux of light and composition in group shot and close-up. The underground Chinatown that Buckwell moves between from his 112 Sierra avenue address is a dark, mysterious nether world, both exotic and threatening.

Warner Oland as Buckwell is a superb villain. In addition to desiring all things Vasquez he uses his formidable connections to shake down local Chinese merchants who claim that while "he is of the blood he is not of the breed". In addition to his greed and pursuit of power he worships false idols, exploits the religious fervor of others and keeps his dwarf brother in a cage. For the most part he remains stoic, utilizing an evil sneer that understatedly sums up his consummate villainy.

While director Alan Crosland (The Jazz Singer) is at best a footnote in film history he helms a work as good as any silent master. Once he gets past a boiler plate prologue his use of light and shadow, close-up and reaction shot as well as utilization of props as insignificant as a broken gate show the work of a storyteller in complete control. Combined with a beautiful musical score and title cards of polished prose Old San Francisco is a feast of esoteric ambiance and textbook silent film making.