"Frisco Jenny" has a certain ring to it. It could be a female gunslinger or a woman known to get around. In this case it was a smart tough woman from San Francisco who had her hooks in many local politicians so she could bootleg.
Frisco Jenny was Jenny Sandoval (Ruth Chatterton), a young woman who was brought up in a brothel/bar in San Francisco. She fell in love and wanted to marry the piano player (James Murray) at her father's establishment though her father (Robert Emmett O'Connor) vehemently objected. None of it would matter after the earthquake (the movie began in 1906) because both, Jenny's dad and lover, died. What Jenny hadn't mentioned to her father, and what we didn't know, was that she was pregnant.
Frisco Jenny gave birth to a baby boy and named him Dan after his father (a common thing in 1930's movies whenever the father dies or is out of the picture). Jenny became a matron in order to make ends meet and provide for her baby. She was doing perfectly fine until she helped cover up a fatal shooting.
When Steve Dutton (Louis Calhern), a young upstart lawyer, killed a man for cheating at dice Jenny kicked into action to help get him off the hook. Though the law couldn't touch her for her silence, they could have her baby taken away, and that she couldn't allow. Instead of letting her child be taken by the Children's Welfare League, Jenny handed over her baby to a nice well-to-do couple in Oakland to take care of him until she was clear. When she went to retrieve her little boy three years later she had to make the tough decision to leave him in the nurturing home she was going to take him from and love him from afar.
That wouldn't be the only sacrifice she made for her boy. By the end she made the greatest sacrifice anyone could make. Jenny was a tough old bird. If she could go to jail for Steve Dutton, an acquaintance, what could she do for her own son?
"Frisco Jenny" is one of those movies that shows the redeeming qualities of those who operate on the other side of the law. She wasn't the hooker with a heart of gold because she was higher up on the criminal food chain than a prostitute. She was, however, a gangster with a heart for her son. And make no mistake about it, even though the term gangster wasn't used for her, if she were a man it would've been.
Free on YouTube.
Frisco Jenny was Jenny Sandoval (Ruth Chatterton), a young woman who was brought up in a brothel/bar in San Francisco. She fell in love and wanted to marry the piano player (James Murray) at her father's establishment though her father (Robert Emmett O'Connor) vehemently objected. None of it would matter after the earthquake (the movie began in 1906) because both, Jenny's dad and lover, died. What Jenny hadn't mentioned to her father, and what we didn't know, was that she was pregnant.
Frisco Jenny gave birth to a baby boy and named him Dan after his father (a common thing in 1930's movies whenever the father dies or is out of the picture). Jenny became a matron in order to make ends meet and provide for her baby. She was doing perfectly fine until she helped cover up a fatal shooting.
When Steve Dutton (Louis Calhern), a young upstart lawyer, killed a man for cheating at dice Jenny kicked into action to help get him off the hook. Though the law couldn't touch her for her silence, they could have her baby taken away, and that she couldn't allow. Instead of letting her child be taken by the Children's Welfare League, Jenny handed over her baby to a nice well-to-do couple in Oakland to take care of him until she was clear. When she went to retrieve her little boy three years later she had to make the tough decision to leave him in the nurturing home she was going to take him from and love him from afar.
That wouldn't be the only sacrifice she made for her boy. By the end she made the greatest sacrifice anyone could make. Jenny was a tough old bird. If she could go to jail for Steve Dutton, an acquaintance, what could she do for her own son?
"Frisco Jenny" is one of those movies that shows the redeeming qualities of those who operate on the other side of the law. She wasn't the hooker with a heart of gold because she was higher up on the criminal food chain than a prostitute. She was, however, a gangster with a heart for her son. And make no mistake about it, even though the term gangster wasn't used for her, if she were a man it would've been.
Free on YouTube.