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Ruth Chatterton is our title character, a bootlegging madam in 1906 San Francisco. The big earthquake claims the lives of her father and fiancée, and she ends up giving birth in a Chinatown basement. When poverty gives her no option, she gives up her baby for adoption. She straightens up and returns years later to reclaim him, only to find he no longer remembers who she is and wants to stay with his adoptive parents. What’s a gal to do? Well, this one kisses her boy goodbye, scraps her Paris plans and returns to bootlegging and bordellos. But she keeps a watchful eye on her son as he grows up and becomes the district attorney. A bootlegging bust and a murder later, he’s in court asking the jury to sentence her to death — not realizing she’s his birth mother.

If all this sounds terribly melodramatic, well, that’s part of the fun. Gratuitous serendipity aside, Chatterton gives a fine performance throughout Frisco Jenny. She’s especially good in several wordless moments when the camera hangs on her expressions. Some may be offended by Caucasian actress Helen Jerome Eddy playing Chatterton’s Chinese servant, but this sort of casting was acceptable and widespread practice at the time. Director William Wellman (A Star is Born, Wings) balances comedy and drama, and even a little action into the mix. The earthquake is memorable, but my favorite sequence illustrates how Chatterton and her fellow hussies steal money from drunk clients, then leave a chalk mark on the men’s backs so the other ladies know he’s already been had.

Melodramas like this have fallen out of favor, but even if you think Frisco Jenny is over-the-top, one thing’s for sure. She sure ain’t boring. With Louis Calhern and Donald Cook.