A film about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and wonderful performance by Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy but moreso by Jeanette MacDonald who absolutely shines in this film! The DVD also contains a wonderful documentary about Clark Gable’s life and is part of the fantastic “Clark Gable: The Signature Collection” DVD Box Set.
© 1936, Supplementary Material Compilation. © 2006 Turner Entertainment Co. All Rights Reserved.
DVD TITLE: San Francisco (as part of the Clark Gable: The Signature Collection DVD Box Set)
DURATION: 115 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Standard Version, Dolby Digital, Monaural English and French, Subtitles: English, French, and Spanish
COMPANY: Warner Bros.
RATED: NOT RATED
RELEASE DATE: March 30, 2010
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
Story by Robert E. Hopkins
Written by Anita Loos
Produced by John Emerson, Bernard H. Hyman, W.S. Van Dyke
Music by Herbert Stohart, Edward Ward
Cinematography by Oliver T. Marsh
Edited by Tom Held
Art Direction by Cedric Gibbons
Costume Design by Adrian
Starring:
Clark Gable as Blackie Norton
Jeanette MacDonald Mary Blake
Spencer Tracy as Father Mullin
Jack Holt as Jack Burley
Jessie Ralph as Mrs. Burley
Ted Healy as Mat
Shirley Ross as Trixie
Margaret Irving as Della Bailey
Harold Huber as “Babe”
Edgar Kennedy as Sheriff
Al Shean as Professor
William Ricciardi as Signor Baldini
Kenneth Harlan as Chick
Roger Imhof as Alaska
Romantic drama combines with humor, starpower combines with lavish spectacle and the walls come tumbling down! This Academy Award winning* extravanganza’s street-splitting, brick-cascading, fire-raging recreation of the cataclysmic earthquake remains “one of the greatest action sequences in the history of the cinema, rivalling the chariot race in both Ben-Hurs” (Adrian Turner, Time Out Film Guide).
Clark Gable plays rakish Barbary Coast kingpin Blackie Norton. Jeanette MacDonald portrays a singer torn by her love for Blackie and her need to succeed among the operagoing elite. Earning the first of nine career Best Actor Oscar nominations,* Spencer Tracy is a priest who supplements spiritual advice with a mean right hook. He urges Blackie to change. But if love and religion can’t reform Blackie, Mother Nature will.
In 1936, MGM would release the 1936 drama/adventure film “San Francisco” which would be based on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The film would be directed by W.S. Ban Dyke and would feature the first pairing of popular Lubitsch musical actress Jeanette MacDonald with the very popular Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy.
The film would be nominated for six Academy Awards and win one for “Best Sound Recording” (facing major competition with “My Man Godfrey”, “Thre Great Ziegfeld” and “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”) and would become the #1 film in the box office of 1936. The DVD was released in 2006 and is also part of the Warner Bros. “Clark Gable: The Signature Collection” DVD Box Set (which also contains the films “Boom Town”, “China Seas”, “Dancing Lady”, “Mogambo”, “San Francisco” and “Wife vs. Secretary”).
“San Francisco” revolves around Blackie Norton (played by Clark Gable) who is the unscrupulous saloonkeeper and gambler in Barbary Coast. The owner of the Paradise Club on Pacific Street, a woman named Mary Blake (played by Jeanette MacDonald) is searching for work as her previous job burned down.
Mary who hails from Benson, Colorado comes from a religious family, as her father was a priest and she was trained in opera music, so when she comes for work at the saloon, despite her voice not being the right setting for the location, the composer and the band take a liking to her because of her unique voice. For Blackie, he’s willing to give her the job but because she is not the typical kind of woman that would enter his saloon let alone his life, he takes a liking towards her.
With news that Blackie is going to run for Supervisor (supported by nightclub owners in order to protect their illegal lifestyle), this has caused some major grumblings in San Francisco because of Blackie’s reputation. In fact, when the rich from Nob Hill come to visit him and talk about his campaign for San Francisco, to their shock they hear Mary singing and immediately Jack Burley (played by Jack Holt) wants to buy her out of the contract at the saloon and give her a a chance to sing at the Tivoli Opera House. But because she is an honorable woman and she knows she is under contract, she stays to sing at the saloon to honor her contract with Blackie.
Meanwhile, she is sent to Father Tim Mullen’s (played by Spencer Tracy) church to sing and everyone is entranced by her voice. Father Tim who grew up with Blackie has tried to bring Blackie to the good side. Knowing that despite all the bad and illegal things he has done in his life, there is good in him and although he doesn’t believe Mary to be in a good setting at the saloon, he feels that she would be good in helping bring Blackie out of his shady ways and becoming a good man.
As Blackie tries to show Mary that he loves her and will do anything for her (including dropping the contract for her to work at the Tivoli Opera House), she is torn between following her dream to sing at the opera house and staying for Blackie because she has also started to fall for him.
But for everyone in San Francisco, life will change on April 18, 1906 when a major earthquake hits the city. Lives will be lost, the city destroyed…
VIDEO:
“San Francisco” is presented in black and white in standard definition. Picture quality ranges from very good to very grainy at some scenes. It is evident that the original print source has had some degradation considering the film is nearly 75-years-old. But compared to many classics that I have seen, the film still holds up well and is very watchable. I didn’t see an enormous amount of speckles, dust or scratches nor did I see major compression artifacting. Blacks are nice and deep and for the most part, unless there is major restoration for Blu-ray, this is probably the best version of “San Francisco” we are going to see of the film for now.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“San Francisco” is a center channel driven film. Presented in Dolby Digital monaural (English and French), I preferred to have my home theater receiver set on stereo on all channels for a more immersive soundscape. Dialogue is clear and understandable but for many, “San Francisco” is known for its music.
If a film was going to have a leading lady singing plenty of songs, especially for the character of Mary Blake, Jeanette MacDonald is a perfect choice. Having enjoyed her Lubitsch musicals and hearing her sing, she was a natural playing the part of a woman who sings opera. From singing the San Francisco song to songs from “La Traviata”, MacDonald’s singing vocals comes out quite clearly on this DVD.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“San Francisco” comes with the following special features:
- Alternate Ending Sequence – (:46) The original ending featured the film overlooking San Francisco via Market Street and the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. But because the film was re-released in 1948, the studio felt the ending was dated and thus chose to feature a shot of the business district instead. Thus this alternate ending sequence is the original ending shown in theaters back in 1936.
- Clark Gable: Tall, Dark & Handsome Documentary – (46:28) A TNT documentary hosted by Liam Neeson. From Clark Gable’s earlier years, entering Hollywood for the first time, his career and his painful life losing his love Carole Lombard, remarrying several times and his death.
- Cavalcade of San Francisco – (8:53) MGMs “Traveltalks – The Voice of the Globe” featuring James A. Fitzpatrick talking about San Francisco during the early ’40s in Technicolor
- Night Descends on Treasure Island – (8:06) MGMs “Traveltalks – The Voice of the Globe” featuring James A. Fitzpatrick talking about Treasure Island during the early ’40s in Technicolor.
- Bottles – A Happy Harmonies 1936 animated cartoon titled “Bottles” in which an older scientist’s inventions turns on him while he is sleeping and shrinks him.
- Theatrical Trailer – (2:09) The original theatrical trailer for “San Francisco”
“San Francisco” was definitely an ambitious film with special effects that manage to capture the 1906 earthquake 30-years after the tragedy had literally destroyed the entire city but yet capture the human spirit of willing to rebuild the city and start over.
Clark Gable did a wonderful job playing Blackie Norton, but I have to admit that the role was reminiscent of his Blackie Gallagher character in the 1934 film “Manhattan Melodrama” which was also directed by W.S. Van Dyke. The character of a man on the wrong side but yet has good in his heart and in some way, the film can be seen as spiritual as Spencer Tracy’s character as Father Tim Mullen prays for Blackie to be a God believing man someday. And as Gable and Tracy are known for their work on the big screen, Jeanette Macdonald steals the show.
Although, the actress was not nominated for an Academy Award, it was great to see how she would grow from her Ernst Lubitsch musical roots and instead of being the woman known for comedies and musicals, she gets paired with Clark Gable for the first time instead of an actor/singer like Maurice Chevalier or Nelson Eddy and I felt the chemistry between the two worked quite well onscreen. And even today, the song is still a big part of San Francisco as it’s played at the sports stadiums and the song for the film will always be connected to the city.
Outside of the acting and the music, I have to admit that I as a little skeptical of how the studio can capture a major tragedy on the lot of a major earthquake in San Francisco. And lo and behold, Slavko Vorkapich who created the earthquake sequences and his crew did a wonderful job. There are parts that look authentic and most importantly, there are situations that happened in real life that were featured in the film and that is the destruction of the city due to the detonation of dynamite by inexperienced firefighters. What was planned to create firebreaks by demolishing building ended up causing more fires and more destruction to buildings that could have survived the earthquake. Also, capturing the displaced victims living in tents and also showing how aftershocks affected the city. I was very impressed of how much was captured in this film during the earthquake sequence. Interesting to note that unlike the 1927 film “Old San Francisco” that portrays the Chinese in the community as evil, “San Francisco” features a more multicultural friendliness as everyone of all races are affected by the earthquake.
Although, “San Francisco” was no “Gone with the Wind”, “It Happened One Night” or “Mutiny on the Bounty” (both films shot earlier), it’s a shame that this film that did extremely well in the box office but yet did not recognize Gable and MacDonald’s performance for a nomination of an Academy Award.
But “San Francisco” in my opinion is a classic film that is worth watching. A DVD release that not only contains the film but several features including a wonderful documentary on Gable’s troubled life and if you want even more Clark Gable, definitely give the Warner “Clark Gable: The Signature Collection” DVD Box Set a chance!
Definitely recommended!