San Francisco [Import]

Good Morning

Thankyou for sending this movie to me so quickly. I remembering watching this movie when I was 12 years old. Even though all of us kids were supposed to be in bed, we thought if we were very quiet that Mom and Dad would forget we were on the couch and let us watch the late movie on Saturday night. Mom noticed us and said that it was a great movie and let us watch it. I remembering crying when the earthquake hit and then crying again when Blackie finally found Mary. It truly is one of the greatest love stories. I have watched it just about everyday since I received it. Thankyou for making this great movie available on your Amazon.ca website, and thankyou for the memories.

Best regards ~ Diana Wakeham

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) presents "SAN FRANCISCO" (1936) (115 min/B&W) -- Starring: Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Jeanette MacDonald, Jack Holt, Jessie Ralph & Ted Healy

Directed by W.S. Van Dyke

The story begins on the Barbary Coast on New Year's Eve, 1906, as rakish but likable political boss Blackie Norton (Clark Gable) hires demure young singer Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald) to perform at his rowdy Paradise gambling house. Local priest Father Mullin (Spencer Tracy), Blackie's best friend, disapproves of the exploitation of the lovely Mary, feeling that she's suited for classier surroundings. Jack Hurley (Jack Holt), Nob Hill socialite and Blackie's political rival, agrees with Father Mullin and offers the girl the opportunity to sing with the San Francisco Opera. Blackie, who's fallen in love with Mary but won't admit it to himself, jealously holds on to her contract, forcing Mary to walk out on him.

For the rest of the film, Mary is torn between the "respectable" lifestyle offered her by Hurley and the baser creature comforts provided by Blackie. It looks for a while that Hurley has won out, but fate takes a hand in the form of the devastating San Francisco Earthquake of April 18, 1906 (a special effects tour de force for art directors Arnold Gillespie and his uncredited associate James Basevi).

One of MGM's biggest hits, remaining in almost constant reissue for the next three decades.

Oscar Winner for Best Sound. Oscar Nominated for Best Picture, Actor (Spencer Tracy), Director, Assistant Director & Writing.

An astounding achievement in special effects for its time.

This is the first pairing of those two "mega-stars": Clark Gable & Spencer Tracy. They were to appear together on two further occasions - Test Pilot (1938) & Boom Town (1940)

BIOS:
1. W.S. Van Dyke (Director)
Date of Birth: 21 March 1889 - San Diego, California
Date of Death: 5 February 1943 - Brentwood, California

2. Clark Gable
Date of birth: 1 February 1901 - Cadiz, Ohio,
Date of death: 16 November 1960 - Los Angeles, California

3. Spencer Tracy (aka: Spencer Bonaventure Tracy)
Date of birth: 5 April 1900 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
Date of death: 10 June 1967 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles

4, Jeanette MacDonald
Date of Birth: 18 June 1903 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Date of Death: 14 January 1965 - Houston, Texas

5. Jack Holt [aka: Charles John Holt]
Date of Birth: 31 May 1888 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 18 January 1951 - Sawtelle, Los Angeles, California

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 5 Stars
Performance: 5 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 5 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 115 min on DVD ~ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) ~ (June 20, 2006)

Before there was a Las Vegas, there was San Francisco: "sin city," the most corrupt town in the U.S.A., according to Father Tim Mullin (Spencer Tracy). It was filled of illegal gambling dens, like the one run by Blackie Norton (Clark Gable), Mullin's boyhood friend whom he has been trying to reform for years. When Norton hires Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald) to sing in his club, she seeks the guidance of Father Mullin to help her survive this den of iniquity. The plot is a rather forthright formula story of a tug-of-war romance between bad boy Blackie Norton and mama's boy Jack Burley, scion of a well-to -do family for the affections of singer Mary Blake. It's also a story of good vs. evil, the good being Father Mullen and the bad obviously being Norton.

Romance don't come like this no more and out of all the films that I've seen with Gable, this is his other shining moment, along with "Gone With The Wind". McDonald is one beautiful lady and she sings frequently in the film in that soprano operetta vocal style that apparently was popular back then, and there is even an overlong sequence where she plays Marguerite in Gounod's "Faust" and brings Blackie rather incredibly to tears. In a thankless role. Tracy is a natural actor and symbolizes the film's heavy religious overtones resulting in a most unbelievable conversion at the end. There is the scene where Jeneatte McDonald is having a 1 on 1 conversation with her future mother in law. Mrs. Bailey tells her that the "aristocracy" of San Francisco is not what people think. "They are a wild and crazy bunch living a sinful life with party's that last for days! She says. So you see the film wanted us to feel how society viewed others in those days.

Interesting enough, the special effects showing San Francisco April 18, 1906 Earthquake engulfed in flames following the quake and its aftermath were high tech in 1936 (a special effects tour de force for art directors Arnold Gillespie and his unaccredited associate James Basevi) and are still effective today. The quake takes place at a key point in the film toward the end. Because the audience becomes enthralled in what is taking place on the screen, the quake is totally unexpected--though waited for since the beginning of the movie. Director W.S. Van Dyke does a masterful job of bringing the quake to bear at just the right moment for full effect. Today's disaster flicks such as The Day After Tomorrow (Widescreen Edition) should take a lesson from this film because that won me over.

One of my favorite's scenes was when Blackie, was desperately searching for Mary in the rubble, at long last finds religion and prays to God for his sweetheart's salvation. At the end, an unidentified bit player shouts defiantly "We'll build a new San Francisco!" -- and by golly, they do!

Thanks Claire for sharing one of your favorites with me.