A Barbary Coast saloon owner hopes to marry his way into San Francisco's high society. Directed by Henry Hathaway, the film was released in 1945.
Costume
Vivian Blaine's saloon gowns vs. Bennett's society silks—visual warfare.
Production
Paramount's fake Nob Hill practically smells of cigar smoke and ambition.
Director
Henry Hathaway
George Raft
Tony Angelo
Joan Bennett
Harriet Carruthers
Vivian Blaine
Sally Templeton
Peggy Ann Garner
Katie Flanagan
Alan Reed
Dapper Jack Harrigan
B.S. Pully
Joe the Bartender
Edgar Barrier
Lash Carruthers
Olive Blakeney
Carruthers' Housekeeper
Nestor Paiva
Luigi
Paul Everton
Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Joe Smith
Charlie - a Waiter
Charles Dale
Waiter
Virginia Walker
Mrs. Van Buren (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Hathaway's third film with Raft; their previous collaborations were darker crime pictures, making this musical pivot a deliberate image overhaul for both.
The film's 'saloon-to-society' fantasy arrived as GIs returned home and Hollywood frantically reconstructed idealized class mobility for a nation in economic transition.
US
