San Francisco (1936)

★ 6.5 1h 55m IMDb

A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the great earthquake and subsequent fires in 1906.

San Francisco

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Cast

Clark Gable
Clark Gable as Blackie Norton Died 1960 · Cadiz, Ohio, USA William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) was an American actor. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Gable the seventh-greatest male star of all-time. His most famous role was...
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette MacDonald as Mary Blake Died 1965 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jeanette MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965) was an American singer and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalie...
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Tracy as Father Tim Mullin Died 1967 · Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor, noted for his natural style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy won two Academy Aw...
Jack Holt
Jack Holt as Jack Burley Died 1951 · New York City, New York, USA Jack Holt (born Charles John Holt, Jr.) was an American film actor. He was a leading man of Silent and sound films and known for his many roles in Westerns..
Jessie Ralph
Jessie Ralph as Mrs. Maisie Burley Died 1944 · Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jessie Ralph (born Jessie Ralph Chambers, November 5, 1864 – May 30, 1944) was an American stage and screen actress, best known for her matronly roles in many cl...
Ted Healy
Ted Healy as Mat Died 1937 · Kaufman, Texas, USA Ted Healy (born Charles Ernest Lee Nash; October 1, 1896 – December 21, 1937) was an American vaudeville performer, comedian, and actor. Though he is chiefly remembered as the creator of The Three Sto...

Audience Reviews

CinemaSerf 7/10 Oct 30, 2024
I sometimes found Jeanette MacDonald to be a sort of singing hybrid of Bette Davis and Binnie Barnes! She reminds me very much of that here in this engaging, if slightly long, romantic tale set just before the infamous San Francisco earthquake. "Mary Blake" arrives in the city looking for a job and she alights on the owner of the "Paradise Café". He's the suave and savvy "Blackie Norton" (Clark Gable) and he takes quite a shine to her. So too does his rather wealthier and more high-brow competitor "Burley" (Jack Holt) who might be a better fit for this girl's operatic ambitions. What now ensues sees the chemistry between MacDonald and Gable ebb and flow against a background of crookedness, envy and some good old-fashioned thuggery. Trying to help everyone stay on the right track is his childhood friend "Tim" (Spencer Tracy) who now just happens to be the local priest, a dab hand with a boxing glove, and a man who refuses to see evil in just about anyone. "Mary" has some tough choices to make, and those around her seem perfectly happy to make it for her if she doesn't - so which way is she going to turn? There's no doubt that MacDonald could sing, and her performances here are powerful and at times quite mischievous as her semi-operatic numbers illustrate quite well her character's struggle to fit into a society that wanted music hall numbers and not a good dose of "Faust"! Gable brings his usual lighthearted charm to the proceedings and there are a couple of amiable scenes from the rags-to-riches "Maisie" (Jessie Ralph) to remind us that just about everyone in that city started from nothing - even those on it's exclusive Nob Hill. The photography and visual effects at the end are really quite impressive and the audio of both the musical and thunderous elements of destruction work really quite well on a big screen too. It's not a plot that really stands out, but everyone here works well together to provide an enjoyable reminder of not just these stars, but also of the variety of Vaudeville entertainers that our forebears watched on stage.

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