Docks of San Francisco – DVD

Beautiful Belle is stuck in a life of crime, holding up people at gunpoint for her gangster boyfriend, Vance. The mob boss runs his operations from the Coal Hole, a dive bar in the seedy dock district of San Francisco. Vance is roughing Belle up at the bar, when writer John Banning intervenes, knocking the thug out. Banning and Belle flee to his remote mountain cabin where she hopes to start a new life. But Vance finds their hideout and he and his gunmen surround the cabin, determined that Belle will either return to him or die.

Gorgeous long-legged Mary Nolan was a star of the Zeigfield Follies when her scandalous affair with married comedian Frank Tinney led to her firing. She fled to Germany where she found work in the movies. Returning to America in 1927 she signed with Universal and turned in fine performances in West of Zanzibar (1927) and Desert Nights (1928) before drug abuse would make her unemployable and send her into a life of obscurity.

Jason Robards, Sr., father of the Academy Award winning actor, had a four-decade career with memorable roles in Isle Of The Dead (1945), Bedlam (1946) and Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948). George Seitz dominated silent serials as a writer, actor and director, but is best known for his noteworthy direction of a dozen Andy Hardy films for MGM.

• drama