San Francisco (B or 3/4 stars)
Director W.S. Van Dyke II's 1936 romantic melodrama/disaster flick is one of those Old Hollywood 'Golden Era' entertainments that pleased audiences greatly back in the day; containing MGM's best filmmaking team + a trio of fantastic stars in Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald & Spencer Tracy. The movie opens on New Year's Eve 1905 into 1906. Clark Gable plays Blackie Norton, a tough-as-nails proprietor of a Barbary Coast saloon in 1906. Blackie's best buddy happens to be Father Mullin (Spencer Tracy), a very noble priest. In time, Blackie decides to hire pretty Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald), a proper-yet-spirited singer who just arrived in San Francisco; her apartment building burns down & so he takes the destitute Mary in.
They fall madly in love, but Blackie is not the kind of guy to offer marriage to clergyman's daughter, so she leaves him/the saloon to sing at an opera house; eventually becoming engaged to the more respectable Nob Hill impresario, Jack Burley (Jack Holt). Jack promises to help her achieve her grand ambition to become an opera star. Little does Mary know that behind the scenes ... Blackie & Jack are pulling shenanigans in trying to put the other out of business. Despite her engagement to Jack, Mary still feels great affection for Blackie. And ultimately, after everyone has gathered for an all-night ball at which Mary wins an award, a certain rumbling begins. Cue a 10 min. long climax that shows the infamous San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 that demolished the city; 3,000 souls were sadly lost on that day.
The special effects are WILDLY impressive for the time, and yet, I think they hold up 87 years later ... 87! We see buildings collapsing with people inside. A crowded sidewalk opens up & is torn apart. Bricks fall from high above onto fleeing crowds. MGM spent a lot of $$ here with its mix of huge sets, effects, sound work {by Douglas Shearer} & expert editing {by John Hoffman} to create a frantic vibe. Too bad that nearly 90 min. of romantic kerfuffles & Jeanette MacDonald's never-ending trilling {"The Jewel Song", "Would You?" & many others} go by before we get to the earthquake.
Clark Gable is very good; he's rakish, charming, et al. When he 1st meets Mary, she says "I'm a singer!" to which he replies, "Alright, let's see your legs". Jeanette MacDonald is lovely, but did we reallllly need to hear her singing sooo very much? Each time she started singing, the 'plot' would stall. Now, her singing the titular "San Francisco" is great, but it is immortalized many years later by Judy Garland blasting away at it in her classic 1961 Carnegie Hall performance. And Spencer Tracy would go on to earn his 1st of many Academy Award nominations for this film; he was up for best Actor -- eclipsing his co-star. The ensemble cast is huge here, with other notable actors including Ted Healy, Jessie Ralph {always love her} & Shirley Ross.
Great screenwriter Anita Loos (of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) doesn't provide one of her very best scripts here {mushy love triangle}, but the earthquake overrides screenplay issues. Nominated for many Oscars, it rightfully won for Sound, and ultimately lost Best Picture to yet another big budget MGM extravaganza from that year, The Great Ziegfeld. The very ending of 'San Francisco' is a bit kitschy & heart-tuggingly saccharine, but it is what it is, haha. On the whole, I really enjoyed this old-fashioned spectacle from a bygone era whose brilliant climax is better than most things that come before it.
They fall madly in love, but Blackie is not the kind of guy to offer marriage to clergyman's daughter, so she leaves him/the saloon to sing at an opera house; eventually becoming engaged to the more respectable Nob Hill impresario, Jack Burley (Jack Holt). Jack promises to help her achieve her grand ambition to become an opera star. Little does Mary know that behind the scenes ... Blackie & Jack are pulling shenanigans in trying to put the other out of business. Despite her engagement to Jack, Mary still feels great affection for Blackie. And ultimately, after everyone has gathered for an all-night ball at which Mary wins an award, a certain rumbling begins. Cue a 10 min. long climax that shows the infamous San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 that demolished the city; 3,000 souls were sadly lost on that day.
The special effects are WILDLY impressive for the time, and yet, I think they hold up 87 years later ... 87! We see buildings collapsing with people inside. A crowded sidewalk opens up & is torn apart. Bricks fall from high above onto fleeing crowds. MGM spent a lot of $$ here with its mix of huge sets, effects, sound work {by Douglas Shearer} & expert editing {by John Hoffman} to create a frantic vibe. Too bad that nearly 90 min. of romantic kerfuffles & Jeanette MacDonald's never-ending trilling {"The Jewel Song", "Would You?" & many others} go by before we get to the earthquake.
Clark Gable is very good; he's rakish, charming, et al. When he 1st meets Mary, she says "I'm a singer!" to which he replies, "Alright, let's see your legs". Jeanette MacDonald is lovely, but did we reallllly need to hear her singing sooo very much? Each time she started singing, the 'plot' would stall. Now, her singing the titular "San Francisco" is great, but it is immortalized many years later by Judy Garland blasting away at it in her classic 1961 Carnegie Hall performance. And Spencer Tracy would go on to earn his 1st of many Academy Award nominations for this film; he was up for best Actor -- eclipsing his co-star. The ensemble cast is huge here, with other notable actors including Ted Healy, Jessie Ralph {always love her} & Shirley Ross.
Great screenwriter Anita Loos (of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) doesn't provide one of her very best scripts here {mushy love triangle}, but the earthquake overrides screenplay issues. Nominated for many Oscars, it rightfully won for Sound, and ultimately lost Best Picture to yet another big budget MGM extravaganza from that year, The Great Ziegfeld. The very ending of 'San Francisco' is a bit kitschy & heart-tuggingly saccharine, but it is what it is, haha. On the whole, I really enjoyed this old-fashioned spectacle from a bygone era whose brilliant climax is better than most things that come before it.