La madone du désir

Joel McCrea had made these his home ground and this independent effort, picked up by Warners, was pushed along by the amiable Robert Parrish who obviously found some elements more involving than others.

The dialogs between McCrea and Yvonne De Carlo, in her spotless Fifties outfits, are lifeless and often filmed against back projection. However when Tor Johnson opens the hatch to Florence Bates' waterfront dive bar with a back room full of drunken sailors that she's sold to shanghai-ing captains, thing pick up. The scenes are played for comedy and the smoke filled, low roof ship's hold decor is striking.

Easy to get nostalgic for a time when these came two a time in neighborhood theaters.

In his younger days Joel McCrea made a trip to frontier San Francisco in Samuel Goldwyn's Barbary Coast. A more mature McCrea makes a comeback in the Pacific city in The San Francisco Story, another film with some of the same plot elements.

In The San Francisco Story, McCrea and sidekick/partner Richard Erdman find themselves now prosperous mine owners and are in town for a little celebrating. Some years earlier McCrea was involved with the Vigilantes when law and order broke down there, but now he just wants to party hearty.

But newspaper owner/publisher Onslow Stevens wants McCrea involved with the Vigilantes again. A truly corrupt party boss played by Sidney Blackmer owns everything in the town including the cops and the courts, so the Vigilantes have been reactivated.

McCrea isn't crazy about opposing Blackmer, but when he sees Blackmer toting Yvonne DeCarlo on his arm, then it becomes a matter of hormones more than citizenship.

The San Francisco Story is a good fit for Joel McCrea in his B picture western period of his career. He gets solid support from the rest of the cast and one really to watch out for is Florence Bates who is playing a part Marie Dressler would have done years earlier as a waterfront character who Shanghais people for fun and profit, except if she likes you. She likes McCrea and what's not to like?

And there's not much to dislike in The San Francisco Story.

The only real positive distinction this movie has is Joel McCrea in the lead. He was terrific in westerns and he's very good in the this one. However, the plot is not great. 95% of all westerns basically boil down to 3 or 4 plots...and this one has the big baddie who is trying to take over the new state of California. Yep, Andrew Cain is yet ANOTHER big greedy baddie...a plot seriously overused in westerns. And, not surprisingly, there is a hot babe who comes between the two men (Yvonne DeCarlo).

While the acting is good an makes up for the dullness of the plot, there is something that retired history teachers would not like about this film--the highly inaccurate details. The guns are all circa 1870s and the set clearly is a typical western set--but it's supposed to be San Franciso in the 1850s. Hand guns were almost never revolvers and very few folks in the town would have been walking about in cowboy apparel. After all, by then it was an up and coming coastal city...not Deadwood or some other western locale.

So is this one worth seeing? Well, possibly. McCrea is great...he almost always is. But the plot might be too familiar and you need to look past the fact that it's not at all historically accurate.

Arriving in the small 1856 western town of San Francisco, former vigilante and present miner Joel McCrea (as Rick Nelson) is invited to help root out corruption. Claiming he's only in town for a few days of rest and relaxation, Mr. McCrea declines. McCrea witnesses a well-staged hanging and checks out the lay of the land. Very soon, rest and relaxation appears in the form of alluring Yvonne De Carlo (as Adelaide "Addie" McCall). McCrea gives her a wink and we're off to the races. Trouble is, Ms. DeCarlo is attached to cigar-smoking power broker Sidney Blackmer (as Andrew Cain). This crook is about to install himself a US Senator. McCrea becomes involved with Ms. De Carlo, of course, although she may come with a price...

An old hand at this, McCrea is reliable albeit mechanical; the blocking shows. While she never became a top-line actress, De Carlo really picks up the slack. She is very attractive, obviously, but also sells her character. When required to flash emotions, De Carlo is able to give the precise fraction necessary. This is a De Carlo movie. Best known for her campy 1960s "Lily Munster" TV character, De Carlo proves to be more than decorative, which was her usual lot as a movie star. Director Robert Parrish doesn't always get the best angles, but generally uses his resources well. In the Marie Dressler tradition, rum-soaked waterfront hag Florence Bates (as Sadie) is most memorable, and Richard Erdman (as Shorty) is a reliable sidekick.

****** The San Francisco Story (5/9/1952) Robert Parrish ~ Joel McCrea, Yvonne De Carlo, Florence Bates, Sidney Blackmer

Well that looks very like a western from Republic Pictures where the settings have nothing to do with splendid landscapes, Death Valley desert, Monument Valley jawdropping view, you won't see any Indians vs cavalry charge, no pursuit between posse and outlaws in the wilderness. No, this is a Barbary Coast western, taking mostly place indoors, as many Joseph Kane's western from the golden Republic Pictures era. It takes place in saloons, cabarets, government offices, speaking of rotten politicians, vigilantes and also some romance; it looks like a historical period topic of the conquest of the West. Well, why not? Joel Mc Crea is also in the cast, with the gorgeous Yvonne de Carlo and it is a Robert Parrish's film; one of the earliest of the director. Not the movie that I will remember the most from this director.