Original subtitles

(guns firing)

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Many notorious bandits

operated in early California.

But the most unusual and daring of all

was the Englishman who called himself Sam Crawford.

This historically unique road agent

raided with impunity for more than a year,

then suddenly he dropped from sight.

Nothing was heard of him for months

until one night he cam back to San Francisco.

- Marshal Wayne?

- Yes.

- Forgive me for staring, my dear,

but you're extraordinarily lovely.

Do me the honor of presenting me, sir.

- Mrs. Fansler, meet-

- Oh, of course, the charming widow

who took over this establishment from you.

I've heard a great deal about you, my deal.

- I've heard a great deal about you.

My cousin was a passenger on a Sacramento stagecoach

that you robbed last year.

We look very much alike.

- How could I ever have forgotten such a lovely face?

- Perhaps I better leave you two old friends alone.

If you'll excuse me, mister- - Uh, Sam Crawford.

British gentleman and Prince of Thieves.

Surely you must have heard of me?

- Enough to say that meeting you isn't exactly a pleasure.

- Well give me a little time, marshal, I shall grow on you.

- What's your business here in San Francisco?

- Will you forgive me, my dear,

if we forgo the pleasure of your company

for just a little while?

- Of course.

Excuse me.

- Well, I'd like the usual cooperation.

- What do you mean, what sort of cooperation?

- I intend to go into business in this vicinity.

- What business?

- Stealing, old boy.

Stealing.

- Wholesale or retail?

- That depends on you.

You see, old boy, I'm offering you a partnership.

- You want me for a partner?

- Mm-hm. - Why?

- You're the marshal of San Francisco.

(dramatic music)

* California, California

* There's gold in them - "The Californians."

* In California

* I've come to live where life is best *

* In the golden West

* I'm gonna strike it rich in California *

* California

- What makes you think

the office of city marshal is for sale, old boy?

If I may use the phrase.

- It always has been.

There are several California law officers

who have retired in comfort because of me.

- And now you wanna make me comfortable?

- Well of course!

Since you're no longer in the gambling business,

how else would you make both ends meet?

- That's a good question.

- And here's an extremely good answer.

$500 in gold.

- That's a pretty low price to pay for license to steal.

- I can see you don't know the ropes, old boy.

This is merely evidence of good faith.

- Pretty slim evidence.

- In addition, you get 1/10 of the profits.

- Speaking in a whisper, Mr. Crawford.

- Shall we say 1/4?

- I still can't hear you.

- Well we're both gentlemen, marshal,

1/3 of the profits.

- Now I can hear you.

- We understand each other?

- I think we do. - That's capital.

You won't let me down.

- I should say not.

- Now, if you'll excuse me.

- Well, you're looking mighty pleased.

Like the proverbial kitten with a saucer full of cream.

- I'm glad you said kitten.

Mr. Crawford invited me to the Van Ness formal party

at the Bella Union tonight.

- Well, Mr. Crawford is traveling in fine circles

considering his reputation.

- Oh, his reputation makes him that much more glamorous

to the San Francisco society set.

And he does come from a good English family.

Crawford's not his real name, you know.

And he is a perfect gentleman.

- He's also a dangerous criminal.

- His society friends think he's reformed.

- Well I know he hasn't.

But don't worry, when it comes his time to hang

I'll see that he gets a velvet rope.

- That won't keep me from going to the party.

- Now, Wilma.

- There isn't a female in San Francisco

who wouldn't give a year of her life to be seen there.

- Even with the Prince of Thieves?

- Even with the Prince of Thieves!

Matt, you're not jealous?

- No, I'm not...

I'm not jealous.

What if I were?

- Oh, I'd be thrilled and flattered to no end.

But even that wouldn't keep me

from mingling with high society for once in my life.

- Look, Matt, you're asking me for free legal advice.

- Well it's good for your law practice.

You said yourself, the more people I put in jail

the more money you make getting them out.

Now tell me, can I make a charge of attempted bribery

stick against this Crawford?

- Not a chance, not one witness to what he said.

It would be a case of just your word against his.

- Well won't the court take his past into consideration?

Back east he has a record as a safe cracker,

jewel thief, holdup man.

Here in California's he's pulled off

a number of armed robberies.

- Do you have any proof about that?

- No, but it's general knowledge.

I wanna put that man in jail before he starts up here again.

- Why don't you play along with him

until you can trap him committing a crime?

- Somebody might get hurt.

- Why don't you take this to the district attorney?

- I don't trust him.

- Well then I think your best bet would be

to ask Judge Blair for a warrant

letting you hold Mr. Crawford

incommunicado for the grand jury.

That'll keep him out of action for the time being at least.

- Mr. Pitt, thank you!

I'm gonna give you all my legal business from now on.

At the same rates, of course.

- Your invitation, sir.

- This is my invitation.

- But you're not properly dressed, sir.

- Oh, but I am!

- Why, Marshal Wayne.

Fancy meeting you here.

- Matt, you're getting to become a regular social butterfly.

- Would you like me to introduce you to the guests?

- No, that could be embarrassing.

Some of them might wind up in jail as my guests.

One judge in particular.

(woman shrieks)

- Oh, my bracelet, somebody stole my bracelet!

(crowd chattering)

- My dear lady, what ever is the matter?

- Somebody stole one of my bracelets.

- How could you possibly tell?

You have so many.

- It was a diamond one.

These are the diamonds, these are the rubies and emeralds.

Send for the police! - Oh, the police are here.

It was clever of Marshal Wayne to arrive

at such an opportune moment.

I suggest you lock all the doors, search all the guests,

spare no one, sir.

- Fine, I'll start with you.

- Oh, well as you wish.

Well, I'll be blessed!

It was caught on your dress, look at that.

Allow me, my dear.

You have such lovely arms, they're just made for bracelets.

- So are yours. - I beg your pardon?

- I'm arresting you for attempted bribery.

Remember me? - Marshal, you can't take

this man to jail, he's a gentleman.

- Oh don't worry, Ms. Van Ness,

we have a special cell just for gentlemen.

- It's been charming, my dear, just charming!

But may I suggest that the champagne

was a little, just a little warm.

After you, sir!

- The least you could've done

was to wait until after dinner.

(dramatic music)

- I don't believe it.

An honest San Francisco marshal?

Huh.

It just doesn't make sense!

- Goodnight, sweet prince.

- One who quotes Shakespeare to boot.

It's disgusting!

- I sent word to you the marshal had a warrant,

why didn't you skip town?

- Because it suits my plans much better

to stay right here in jail.

I'm depending on your help, of course.

- Yeah, well what's in it for me?

- Rubies, old boy.

Real rubies.

(dramatic music)

- Say Matt, I had a long talk

with Sam Crawford this afternoon

about his alleged attempt to bribe you.

- Alleged attempt? - Mm-hm.

- What, do you doubt my word?

- Well, as Crawford's attorney I have to doubt your word.

- What do you mean Crawford's attorney?

- That's right, the court appointed me.

- Well a court doesn't appoint counsel

unless the defendant is a pauper.

- Exactly, and Crawford took the pauper's oath.

- Well I'll be.

That's pretty smart of him.

He gets a lawyer, no cost to himself,

and he creates the impression that he's poor but honest.

Do you believe him?

- Doesn't matter what I believe.

- Oh sure, I know, you just got a job to do

and you do it the best way you know how.

- That's right.

- Marshal Wayne?

Remember me?

- Sandy Wolish, sure.

You just got out of jail.

- Yeah, thanks for feeding my family.

- Oh forget it, Sandy.

- I'm returning the favor.

I got a tip for you, marshal.

I heard Sam Crawford and his gang

are gonna rob the Redwood stage.

- Crawford's in jail.

- His gang ain't.

They're gonna stick up the stage just out of town,

about three o'clock this morning.

- Thanks for the tip, Sandy.

- You fed my family.

- I don't have much time.

- Say Matt, you gonna run down that kind of a tip?

- I have to.

There's gonna be a gold shipment on that stage

and the report to the office said $50,000.

(dramatic music)

- [Bandit] Gentlemen, please don't reach for your weapons.

You are surrounded!

(guns firing)

- Wasn't that Sam Crawford?

- Couldn't be, Crawford's in jail.

- What is this, Marshal Wayne?

Is that the bank's shipment in gold?

- That's right, sir, the stage was held up

but we drove the bandits off before they could get the box.

- Thanks, marshal.

The city can be proud of you.

Lead?

Lead bars?

What is this, Wayne?

What did you do with the $50,000 in gold?

(dramatic music)

- He's at his limit, tell him no.

Don't look so worried, Matt.

Now who'd believe that you actually stole that money?

- Oh, not many.

Only about 2/3 of San Francisco.

- What could've happened?

- Whatever it was it was engineered by your Prince Charming.

- He's not my Prince Charming.

But he is charming, and in spite of everything

he is a gentleman.

- Well if stealing is a qualification for being a gentleman

I've got a jail full of gentlemen.

- Well I'm sure it won't bother him,

because Sam believes a gentleman is at home anywhere.

Drinking out of a tin can with a beachcomber,

or using the proper fork at a banquet.

His manners are always beyond reproach.

- Manners, is that all there is to being a gentleman?

- No.

Sam also says that a gentleman may break

every law on the books,

but with a lady he'd never violate his code of honor.

- I'll have to find out more about this code.

I wonder what the gentlemen on his defense counsel

have in store for me tomorrow.

- You're the accuser, what could they do to you?

- I don't know yet, I haven't looked up Jeremy's sleeve.

- You met Sam Crawford at the El Dorado Club.

Now, according to you marshal what happened next?

- Then he placed $500 in gold on the table.

- Well, you agreed to a deal?

- I was leading him on.

- Well then you agreed to go along with Mr. Crawford.

- My purpose was to try and let

Mr. Crawford incriminate himself.

- What your purpose was is irrelevant,

the fact is that you did agree to a deal, isn't it so?

- That is not so.

I put him in jail for attempting to bribe me.

- Marshal, do you expect the grand jury

to believe that story?

That a gentleman like Mr. Sam Crawford

would actually approach an officer of the law

and announce ahead of time

his intentions of committing crimes?

- My record ought to mean something,

why wouldn't they believe me?

- Well, just because it doesn't make any sense.

Well, that's all, thank you marshal.

Mr. Crawford, please.

- How dare you impugn the motives of a British gentleman?

- I don't see a British gentleman,

but I do know a thief.

- Mr. Crawford, you've been sworn as a witness

before this grand jury.

Are you aware of the laws concerning perjury?

- I am, sir.

I wonder if Mr. Wayne is?

- Well that's irrelevant, Mr. Crawford.

Can you tell us just what happened, in your own words,

on Friday night of this week?

- I came to the city on business, legitimate business.

I was summoned to the presence

of Marshal Wayne at the El Dorado.

Which I might add is conducted by a most charming lady,

a lady of taste and discrimination.

- That's irrelevant too, Mr. Crawford.

Now, what actually did take place

between you and Marshal Wayne?

- He solicited a bribe.

He threatened to ruin me unless I paid him

for every week I stayed in San Francisco.

And he collected $500, all the money I had, in advance.

- That's a lie!

(dramatic music)

(knocking at door)

- [Sam] Come in.

Oh, I've just been reading about you.

Grand jurors consider preferring charges

against Marshal Wayne.

It seems I came out with cleaner hands than you?

- Seems so. - Please sit down.

What is this, a business or social visit?

- Let's say I'd like to know what makes you tick.

Why are you a thief?

- Excitement, mainly.

That and the fact that I was brought up

in such a stuffy home

that to even raise one's voice was considered bad form.

Now every time I shoot my gun off

I imagine it's aiming at my governess.

- In other words, you're getting even with the world?

- In a way, yes.

What I really enjoy is trying to outwit you law chaps.

You see, every policeman reminds me of my father.

Now, since we have no witnesses here,

would you care to know

how I got out of jail the other night?

- The turnkey who was on duty has disappeared, yes,

so what did you bribe him with?

- A bauble, a mere trinket.

The ruby bracelet I'm sure that Mrs. Van Ness

will never even miss.

- How do you reconcile being a gentleman

with robbing your hostess?

- Mrs. Van Ness is no lady, she overdresses.

- The widow Fansler runs a gambling house

and yet you made a point of referring to her in court

as a lady of taste and discrimination, why?

- Marshal, I do believe you are jealous.

However, no gentleman ever discusses a lady.

Now let's talk about me instead.

What would you like to know?

I don't mind being perfectly frank with you,

since eventually we're gonna become partners.

- You took the gold out of that box

before it was put on the stage, didn't you?

- Of course, old boy, of course.

- How did you get in the back?

- By bribing the night watchman.

He even helped my chaps load the gold onto my buckboard.

Naturally you can't prove any of this,

I was supposed to be in jail in your custody

during these proceedings.

- Well since you already had the gold,

why did you bother to stage the holdup?

- That's quite simple, to incriminate you, old boy.

And by the looks of it, I seem to have succeeded very well.

- To the extent that you killed one of my men,

which would make you a murderer.

- Yes, that was too bad.

It was quite unintentional, I can assure you.

Will you join me in a nip?

- No.

Look, Crawford, you're like all clever thieves.

You think you're invulnerable.

But there's a chink in your armor somewhere.

Some day you're gonna give yourself away,

and when that day arrives I'll be there.

- You have a chink in your armor too, Mr. Wayne,

and I intend to exploit it very shortly.

And you'll have a choice, you either cooperate with me

or lose your badge.

- I'm betting you'll lose your neck first.

(dramatic music)

So you were returning me a favor, huh?

Why didn't you tell me Crawford was gonna frame me?

- I didn't know nothing about that!

I just done what he told me.

- What else did he tell you to do?

- Nothing, marshal, so help me.

- All right, you're a member of his gang,

you're under arrest.

- I ain't in his gang, marshal.

He just hires me for odd jobs.

I know nothing about his gang.

- You must know something.

- I know where some of that stolen gold is.

- I don't believe you, you're going to jail.

Come on. - You come with me, marshal.

I'll show you I'm telling the truth.

(dramatic music)

- Can't you understand, Wilma?

I'm just doing my job.

- I do understand, and I don't like you for it.

- Oh, hello Matt.

I've been explaining to Wilma.

I'm sorry I was so rough on you today.

- Well that's all right, I'm returning good for evil.

I'm creating a new client for you.

- Who?

- You.

- What has she done?

- She has a charming friend, a British fellow,

who's trying to get at me through her.

- What do you mean?

- I just found $10,000 in stolen gold.

The stagecoach robbery?

- Where?

- Why don't you try guessing where

your gentleman friend might've left it?

- Oh no.

- Oh yes, in your parlor under the floorboards.

- You just said he put it there,

what do I have to do with it?

- You, Mrs. Fansler, a lady,

are the chink in your gentleman friend's armor.

- I don't know what you're talking about.

- Well maybe you'll understand this.

I'm arresting you on suspicion of being his accomplice.

(dramatic music)

(knocking at door)

- Oh, what brings you here, marshal?

- The gold you hid on Mrs. Fansler's premises.

- That does put you on the horns of a dilemma, doesn't it?

- Indeed it does.

If you reveal where you found the gold,

it does irreparable harm to the lady's name, doesn't it?

- Yes, it does.

- On the other hand, if you claim to have found

the gold in another locality

someone might tip off your political enemies

as to the true facts.

- That's a possibility.

- So the only thing you can do

is to keep the money, isn't it?

- And if I do that you'll own and operate me, won't you?

- I told you I was deucedly clever.

- But not deucedly clever enough.

Did you expect me to arrest Mrs. Fansler?

- Why you're a gentleman, Wayne,

you wouldn't do a thing like that.

- That's where you're wrong, she's in jail.

- You're joking of course.

- My job was at stake.

- Surely you wouldn't sacrifice a lady to save your badge?

- Badges are hard to come by.

- But you know full well it was I

who placed the gold on Mrs. Fansler's premises?

- Will you testify to that in court?

- One gentleman doesn't present another

with such an alternative, marshal.

- Well unlike you, I don't pretend to be a gentleman.

What was it you said to Mrs. Fansler?

"A gentleman might break every law in the books

"but where a lady's concerned

"he always remains true to his code."

Court convenes at 10 o'clock tomorrow.

(dramatic orchestral music)

- Oh Matt, I just left Wilma and she looks awful.

- Tell your client that.

- My client knows all about it.

In fact, the town's talking about

your sacrificing her to clear yourself.

- I'm glad the town's talking that way.

- Matt, you know that Wilma knows nothing about the gold.

What's behind all this?

- I'm trapping Mr. Crawford for murder.

Thanks to Wilma, he's gonna hang himself

through the one chink in his armor.

- Matt, whatever you've got on your mind won't come off,

it's too late.

- Not if my Crawford theory is correct.

- I'm thinking of Wilma.

The district attorney's got the bit in his teeth,

he may convict Wilma even though you do drop the charges.

- I'm a gambler, so is Wilma.

You just have to take a chance.

(crowd chattering)

(gavel bangs)

- [Judge] This court will now come to order.

- You're right, marshal, quite right.

You're not a gentleman.

Your honor, I'm here to confess

it was I who placed the incriminating evidence

on this lady's premises.

It was a scheme in which I hoped,

which would involve the marshal, but it failed.

It failed because unfortunately

the marshal is not a gentleman.

I hope you will forgive my indisposition

but my men objected to my giving myself up

in the fear that I might turn state's evidence.

One of them was inconsiderate enough to shoot me.

(people gasp) (dramatic music)

- Before he was convicted, Crawford exonerated Mrs. Fansler

and cleared Marshal Wayne of bribery charges.

Now that it's all over, I'm still angry with you, Matt.

A little bit.

I could've been convicted!

- Oh not at all.

The man who helped Crawford plant the gold at your place

was in jail ready to testify.

- Why didn't you tell me what you were up to?

I was really frightened!

- Well you had to be, to make Crawford really believe

you were on your way to prison.

- I'd say that was a pretty risky gamble.

- Well I'm a gambler.

I gambled that he'd turn out to be

what he claimed he was: a gentleman.

I guess he was.

Too much of a gentleman to leave a fair lady in distress.

(both chuckle)

(triumphant music)

* California

* Oh I've traveled here, I've traveled there *

* I guess I've been most everywhere *

* But I like where I am today

* And here is where I'll stay

* Now one thing I just can't endure *

* Is being broke and being poor *

* So I come west to take the cure *

* And here is where I'll stay

* I've come to California, California *

* There's gold in them there hills in California *

* I've come to live where life is best *

* In the golden West

* I'm gonna strike it rich in California *

* California, California

* California, California

* There's gold in them there hills *

* In California