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	San Francisco (1936) Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald MGM (Warner), 1998 average customer review:based on 45 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

I name SAN FRANCISCO(with Mutiny on the Bounty), the best MGM b&w melodrama of the 30s... 20th Century-Fox made "IN OLD CHICAGO" 1937 but as with the MGM musical.... NO ONE COULD TOP METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER AT THEIR ZENITH.

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ravishing screen entertainment!

SAN FRANCISCO must surely count as one of the top ten films of the 1930's, an era unnaturally-rich in movie masterpieces. Jeanette MacDonald stars in one of her greatest roles.

The film recounts the months leading up to the Great Earthquake of 1906. Jeanette MacDonald plays Mary Blake, an aspiring singer from the country determined to make her fortune. She crosses the path of Blackie Norton (Clark Gable), an enterprising Barbary Coast opportunist from the wrong side of the tracks, who runs a saloon called the Paradise. He employs her, though she's soon being courted by the manager of the Tivoli Opera. You can guess the rest (Mary torn between the two men), making her debut with the opera only to be dragged back to the Paradise when she decides to marry Blackie.

The climactic sequence is still an impressive piece of film-making, shocking and harrowing in it's realism (if the film works as it's supposed to, the earthquake should come as a surprise because we are so caught up in the drama). Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy (in one of his first big roles) are superb, though the show belongs solely to Miss MacDonald. Determined to excert her Hollywood superstardom without Nelson Eddy, she made a bold choice in starring opposite Clark Gable in what is really a non-musical film. There are, however, ample moments for MacDonald to musically shine (the numbers "Would You?" and "San Francisco" as well as excerpts from FAUST and LA TRAVIATA).

A riveting, ravishing screen entertainment!

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I love this movie.

One of the all time great pictures. The kind of epic with big stars that is rapidly dying off. I only wish this movie was available in DVD format. I have no idea why this and so many other classics haven't made it to that format yet. I presently own the Laserdisc version of it in glorious black and white.


EXCELLENT FEATURES, FILM COULD'VE BEEN BETTER RESTORED

Out of all the films that I've seen with him, this is Clark Gable's other shining moment, along with "Gone With The Wind". Jeanette MacDonald also shines without her usual singing partner, Nelson Eddy (where's a DVD box set of their films?). Spencer Tracy's Father Mullin is one of his best supporting roles that lead him on to better things.

The special effects of the great 1906 earthquake are phenominal for 1936 in comparison of what is done now in the digital age. Though only in Dolby 1.0, the earthquake sound is enhanced if you watch using Digital Sound, so you get a feel for it, much like you do (though milder) in the 1974 disaster film, EARTHQUAKE, and what they did with Sensurround. With recent digital technology in sound, it would have added to San Francisco to also offer the low-bass rumblings on the 5.1 surround tracks, along with the original soundtrack out of your front speakers, for a pow-effect for this 70 year old gem.

Two things about the print of the film. In recent VHS releases and TCM broadcasts, the B&W seems too light, and during the outdoor portions of the earthquake scenes, it looks like midday vs. 5:13AM. With the print used in this DVD version, the outdoor quake scenes seem tinted correctly as if it were sunrise. However, other parts of the film still have scratches and fades, so not a fully restored digital picture.

All the special features are excellent. The TNT broadcast of Clark Gable: Tall, Dark & Handsome, narrated by Liam Neeson, is very good, and one profile I have not seen before on Mr. Gable.

Though without explanation as to when or why it was used, the Alternate Ending shows more scenes of San Francisco from 1936 and the progress of regrowth since the 1906 disaster. The Bay Bridge is almost ready to be opened, the Golden Gate Bridge is under construction (towers up and cables started, no suspended roadway constructed when this film was shot), and other buildings & streets bustling with activity. Seeing this alternate ending solved a mystery for me, as I remember seeing this ending the first time I saw the film in full on TV in the 70s, but hadn't seen this ending since. The two color Voice Of The Globe shorts on San Francisco from that era are excellent as well.

My score would have been a perfect 5 if the film had a much-better restored print. Otherwise, well worth your time, and a must for fans of Gable, MacDonald, and the infamous Spencer Tracy.

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Grand Finale of Earthquake and Aftermath Makes the Rest Tolerable Entertainment

On the centennial of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, it's worth seeking out this 1936 chestnut if you can - even though it represents both the best and worst of what MGM did back in Hollywood's golden age. Be forewarned that it's rather slow going until the last twenty minutes when the studio pulled out all the stops to recreate the legendary earthquake and fire that destroyed the entire city. It's hard to believe that neither the Golden Gate Bridge nor the Bay Bridge was even built when this film was made, and in fact, only thirty years had elapsed since the earthquake occurred.

Directed by W.S. Van Dyke in less than subtle fashion, the patently old-fashioned melodrama stars Clark Gable as notorious gambling hall owner Blackie Norton and Jeanette McDonald as virginal parson's daughter Mary Blake. The silly, cornball story revolves around Blackie's attempts to turn Mary into the hall chanteuse despite her more elevated aspiration to become a world-famous opera singer. Even though he treats her like a chorus girl, Mary falls for Blackie for reasons unclear except that he's Gable. A limited actress especially as she moved further away from her more sophisticated Ernst Lubitsch roles, the overly mannered McDonald sings frequently in the film in that soprano operetta vocal style that apparently was popular back then. There is even an overlong sequence where she plays Marguerite in Gounod's "Faust" and brings Blackie rather incredibly to tears.

A large supporting cast was assembled, which includes the redoubtable Spencer Tracy, then a rising MGM star. In a thankless role, he plays the pugnacious but kindly Father Mullen, who symbolizes the film's heavy religious overtones resulting in a most unbelievable conversion at the end. However, the recreations of the earthquake and fires are impressive by any standards, much less those of 1936. Van Dyke seems to borrow quite a bit from the Odessa Steps sequence in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 classic "Battleship Potemkin", but the quick cuts and implied carnage work very well in any context. Anita Loos, who later penned the classic "The Women", is responsible for the heavy-handed script.

There's a good amount of extras with the new 2006 DVD package from Warner Bros, which contains a decent though not outstanding print transfer. It starts with a 45-minute documentary on Gable, hosted by Liam Neeson, which ironically gives short shrift to the movie. There are a couple of vintage travel featurettes about San Francisco itself at the time of filming, as well as a cartoon. Of special interest is a very quick (45-second) alternate ending that includes shots of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges under construction.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9

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