Directed by:
Lloyd BaconCinematography:
Sol PolitoComposer:
Bernhard KaunCast:
James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, Ricardo Cortez, Lili Damita, Donald Woods, Barton MacLane, George E. Stone, Addison Richards, Joseph Crehan, Joe Sawyer (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
In the mid-nineteenth century, Spider Burke's men make a mistake when they try to shanghai sailor Bat Morgan. Bat overcomes his attacker and sends him off to sea in his place. With his earnings, Bat heads to Paul Morra's saloon on the Barbary Coast. There, he confronts the Shanghai Duck, a man who earns his living by selling men as sailors to ships heading for China. During their fight, Bat kills the Duck. Crusading newspaper editor Charles Ford, who witnesses the struggle, congratulates Bat for winning an unfair fight and for killing a worthless man. Impressed, Morra offers Bat a job. Under the sponsorship of politician James Daley, ambitious Bat organizes the Coast against Ford, who is fighting to clean up vice conditions there. Using the money he makes from the arrangement, Bat opens up his own saloon, which is elegant enough to attract society people. Tired of Ford's campaign against the Coast, Daley plans to kill him. When she learns of the plan, Jean Barrat, the owner of the paper, begs Bat to prevent the murder. Out of respect for Ford and love for Jean, he does. Although Jean returns Bat's love, she feels that they are separated by their different attitudes toward the Barbary Coast. In an effort to lure society people away from the Coast, Judge Crawford brings an opera company to town. Bat passes out tickets to everyone who works on the Coast. At the opera, Crawford insults Morra, who responds by killing him. Ford then declares war on the Coast and Daley kills him. Outraged by the murders, Jean runs an editorial calling for the organization of vigilantes. The vigilantes hang Morra and Daley and then move on to the Coast, burning down buildings as they go. The mob arrests Bat, intending to hang him until Jean passionately pleads for his life. Moved by her argument, the crowd agrees to parole Bat into Jean's custody, and at last Bat and Jean are on the same side. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
James Cagney
USA
Best movies:
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
One, Two, Three (1961)
White Heat (1949)
Margaret Lindsay
USA
Best movies:
Scarlet Street (1945)
Jezebel (1938)
'G' Men (1935)
Ricardo Cortez
USA
Best movies:
The Last Hurrah (1958)
The Walking Dead (1936)
The Locket (1946)
Lili Damita
France
Best movies:
Secrets of a Soul (1926)
Donald Woods
Canada
Best movies:
Anthony Adverse (1936)
A Tale of Two Cities (1935)
True Grit (1969)
Barton MacLane
USA
Best movies:
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
Kansas Pacific (1953)
George E. Stone
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Some Like It Hot (1959)
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)
Pickup on South Street (1953)
Addison Richards
USA
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Joseph Crehan
USA
Best movies:
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Love Crazy (1941)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Joe Sawyer
Canada
Best movies:
The Killing (1956)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Gilda (1946)
Fred Kohler
USA
Best movies:
Behind the Door (1919)
Underworld (1927)
The Plainsman (1936)
John Wray
USA
Best movies:
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Walter Long
USA
Best movies:
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Through the Ages (1916)
Union Pacific (1939)
Harry Tenbrook
Norway
Best movies:
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Inherit the Wind (1960)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Charles Middleton
USA
Best movies:
The Good Earth (1937)
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Karl Hackett
USA
Best movies:
The Phantom Creeps (1939)
Canyon Passage (1946)
In Old California (1942)
Estelle Taylor
USA
Best movies:
The Ten Commandments (1923)
Bachelor Mother (1939)
Show People (1928)
Jack Curtis
USA
Best movies:
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Wade Boteler
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Love Crazy (1941)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
Milton Kibbee
USA
Best movies:
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Edison, the Man (1940)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)