Notes on the Port of St. Francis

An impressionistic and evocative film from 1951 about San Francisco directed by Frank Stauffacher (1917-1955) and narrated by Vincent Price. Opens with the text of Walter de la Mare's poem 'An Epitaph': "Here lies a most beautiful lady:/Light of step and heart was she;/I think she was the most beautiful lady/That ever was in the West County." Price's narration consists of a series of excerpts from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1882 essay on San Francisco. Professor Scott MacDonald has written online about Stauffacher's film and the summary below is quoted directly from his work: "The opening section provides a rough overview of the history of San Francisco. The remaining sections focus on respectively: people negotiating the city's hills via cable car automobile and go-cart; the speed of the city's development; the general mixture of ethnic groups and types of people; the Italian-Americans and Fisherman's Wharf; the Chinese-Americans and China- town; the fog; and finally the city's diverse neighborhoods a section that leads to the concluding idea of San Francisco as a "City of Contrasts" (? 1997 Ohio University School of Film. All rights reserved)." The TV Archive would like to thank Barbara Solomon - author essayist and journalist - for granting us permission to stream this film online. It was remastered from San Francisco State University's 16mm optical sound film print.