Ratas de San Francisco

... this film features Alan Ladd as a bitter ex-cop just released from prison for a killing he didn't commit out to find those behind the murder. A Jaguar Production (Ladd's own company) released through Warner Bros.,

While the story is nothing special and the final resolution quite conventional, this film can be regarded as a well crafted programmer, noteworthy for a superior cast. As Vic Amato, the underworld king who rules the Frisco waterfront, Edward G. Robinson dominates every scene he is in. This film was made at a time when Robinson was having difficulty getting employment in major features due to the blacklisting scare taking place in Hollywood at the time. It's great to see that the actor had lost none of his force as a performer when given a good role.

Paul Stewart gives a sympathetic performance as Amato's gunsel underling, constantly dealing with abuse from his boss who derives sadistic pleasure from riding him about his scarred face and time in the "big house," to which he frequently threatens to return him.

Also in the cast are Joanne Dru, looking quite lovely as Ladd's wife, still in love with him but towards whom he is bitter since she had a brief dalliance due to loneliness during his five year prison confinement, Fay Wray as a retired film star dating Stewart, and William Demarest as a cop who is still a friend of Ladd's. Rod Taylor (billed as Rodney) appears as a hood, as well as, both unbilled, one star from the past, Mae Marsh (once a D. W. Griffith heroine) and one of the very near future (Jayne Mansfield).

This film was a reunion for Ladd with director Frank Tuttle, the man who had been behind the camera for This Gun for Hire, the film that had made the blonde actor a star 13 years before.

Many of the outdoor shots were clearly done on location in San Francisco. It's nice to see those hilly roads, with the bay glistening in the background, adding authenticity to the film. Max Steiner also provides the film with one of his typically strong scores, music that can make an ordinary film somehow seem better than it really is.

I've always had a soft spot for Hell on Frisco Bay. There's a comforting familiarity to this kind of tough guy action drama which, combined with Robinson's outstanding performance as an old time ruthless gang boss, makes this film definitely worth a view. It's nice that the film has finally become available on DVD via the Warner Archive.

As is the case with so many f these films rom the 40's and 50's, the sub plots involving love trysts/issues bring down the movie. I suspect they were added to get a female in the film.

Too bad.

Alan Ladd, who is the star is actually a weak link. Robinson is good as the gangster.

Over all tho, despite some glaring plot holes (like a guy tells you he's gonna kill you when YOU have the gun and you let him go?) it's a pretty good flick.

In Hell on Frisco Bay Alan Ladd who also produced this film plays an ex-cop who's served five years on a manslaughter rap for which he was wrongly convicted. Of course as in the case of noir films he's on a mission to find the real killer and clear himself.

It doesn't take him long to sniff out a trail that leads to San Francisco underworld boss Edward G. Robinson. Robinson is easily the best in the cast. He's as malevolent as he was in Little Caesar or at least in Key Largo.

It's not that Hell on Frisco Bay is a bad film, but it's all so routine for Alan Ladd. He would not transition into character roles as he hit his forties. His legion fans which were gradually dwindling by this time still wanted their guy in action hero parts.

He's not terribly animated here. I wouldn't have been surprised if he was ill during the making of this. In a way that might have helped the believability factor. Five years in jail would have given him a certain prison pallor to his complexion.

Alan Ladd liked having friends around and the cast here is filled with players who were close personal friends and/or co-workers from his Paramount days. They include, Anthony Caruso, George J. Lewis, Peter Hansen, Perry Lopez, William Demarest. Look for young Rod Taylor as a contract killer and Jayne Mansfield in her screen debut as a bimbo.

Joanne Dru plays the estranged Mrs. Ladd and was probably grateful to be in a modern setting. Paul Stewart gives a memorable performance as Robinson's chief henchman along with his lady love Fay Wray who played a former movie star who was keeping company with Stewart. Their relationship with Robinson is the key to the story.

Cinemascope and noir usually don't mix, but in this case with the final scene being a police chase and fight with speedboats across San Francisco bay, cinemascope helped greatly.

Fans of both Alan Ladd and Edward G. Robinson will enjoy this film.

A film noir shot in colour, in cinemascope, with scenes set mostly outdoors during daylight hours, and making ample use of San Francisco's picturesque landscape, starts out with several counts against it.

But contravention of most if not all of the conventions of the noir genre is the least of this movie's problems.

The biggest drag on the story is its star. Alan Ladd strolls through the plot like a Californian Redwood on legs. If it weren't a clash of materials, it would not be unfair to characterise his woodenness as robotic. There's not an ounce of enthusiasm or conviction in his performance as Steve Rollins, an ex-cop wrongly convicted of manslaughter, who leaves jail vowing vengeance on the gangsters who framed him.

Ridiculously attired in a linen suit that never creases or stains despite several bare knuckle dust ups, he fearlessly provokes corrupt waterfront boss Victor Amato (Edward G Robinson) into a showdown that can only result in death or victory.

Along the way, just to demonstrate what a straight-up, honorable guy he is, Rollins rebuffs his wife (Joanne Dru) for a moment of weakness while he was in jail (but only after he'd refused to let her visit him for three years) and comes to the aid of a nightclub singer (Fay Wray) whose life Amato is threatening. All of which Ladd achieves without once moving a facial muscle.

So thank god for Edward G.Robinson! He singlehandedly saves HELL ON FRISCO BAY with a performance that is considerably better than the film deserves. Robinson's career was in a slump in 1955, mostly as a result of the anti-communist blacklist, and he was no longer getting A-list parts, but he never stopped giving his best to whatever work came his way. He's as great here as he was in 'Little Caesar' and 'Key Largo.' His Victor Amato is a fully-rounded, believable and disturbing character, a psychopath who can charm the parish priest one moment and order the murder of his own nephew the next. When Robinson's on screen it's almost possible to forget he's inhabiting the same story as dreary lifeless Alan Ladd.

Credit is also due to Paul Stewart who makes the most of his underwritten part as Amato's put-upon right hand man, and watch out for an uncredited but instantly recognisable Jayne Mansfield in her last bit part before exploding into America's consciousness with 'The Girl Can't Help It' a few months later.

HELL ON FRISCO BAY is a decidedly mediocre tale but a fine example of an actor proving himself better than the material he's given to work with. Watch this and you may well be put off Alan Ladd for life but you'll definitely want another serving of the wonderful Edward G Robinson.

Read more of my reviews at http://thefilmivejustseen.blogspot.com/

The original title for "Hell on Frisco Bay" was "Hell on the Docks." Apparently, either Warner Bros. or Alan Ladd, whose company, Jaguar, produced the film, thought the title wasn't colorful enough or specific enough about its location, so "Frisco Bay" was substituted just prior to the film's release. I have a few stills with the original title printed on them.

This film, like others produced by Ladd in the 1950s, including Delmer Daves' Western, "Drum Beat," has not appeared on DVD because, according to a Warner Bros Archives Edition executive, the Ladd estate has not permitted its release.

"Drum Beat" just appeared on Turner Classic Movies in its original CinemaScope format, but it was shorter than its published length of 111 minutes by at least four minutes. No US DVD release is imminent.