Coins in Movies - Frisco Kid (1935) - James Cagney is shown the money

The 1935 film "Frisco Kid" is a period film set in San Francisco in 1854 during the California gold rush.

James Cagney arrives in the city and becomes an entrepreneur in the city's infamous Barbary Coast vice district.

The film is pretty ordinary until James is shown a tray of coins, then appears one of the finest scenes of coins in a film.



These are examples of film studio prop coins, including ones copied from the "Barber" design and ones copied from the old Spanish eight reales.



More money, and a man weighing gold dust.

Coincidentally, the first San Francisco Mint opened in 1854, conveniently located in the Barbary Coast.

 

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That's Ann Sheridan at the other end. I forget the guy in the tux, but I've seen him in a lot of these old films.

Here's George Raft in Scarface (1932). Great film. Paul Muni plays Scarface. Boris Karloff (a.k.a., "Frankenstein") is a good cop in this film. Lol. Raft is flipping a dollar, I know you can't make it out...

 

Actor George Raft established himself as a top movie gangster by casually flipping a half-dollar as Paul Muni shot him to death with a .45 in the 1932 film "Scarface."

I thought it was a half before I looked it up. A dollar would be way too heavy and large.

 

Ah, I just forgot. FYI, in this shot, he's looking up at Ann Dvorak, who's staring down from a second-floor window. She played Muni's sister. He had an affair with her, and that's why Muni shot him. Look that up.

 

Apparently assassins like gold coins, or something resembling gold coins. Both John Wick movies showed them.