Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301978330
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 6301978331
Label: MGM (Warner)
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Release Date: 1998-09-01
Running Time: 115
Studio: MGM (Warner)
Theatrical Release Date: 1936-06-26

"San Francisco, open your Golden Gate...." If the classic city anthem isn't part of your life already, it will be after a viewing of this 1936 hit, a wonderful blend of cornpone, spectacle, and song. It's set in 1906, the year the earthquake flattened much of Baghdad by the Bay. Like the disaster movies that followed (including In Old Chicago, a Fox cash-in from a couple of years later), San Francisco slowly establishes its characters before unleashing the destruction. Clark Gable is Blackie Norton, a cocky and ruthless Barbary Coast character whose heart is--well, not softened, but at least dented by the arrival of an opera singer (Jeanette MacDonald) looking for a job. He hires her for his rowdy club, while his childhood chum, Father Tim Mullin (Spencer Tracy), disapproves. As they would subsequently demonstrate in Test Pilot and Boom Town, Gable and Tracy have great he-man rapport together (Blackie's rampant maleness is challenged only by the fact that he knows the priest could punch him out). Director W.S. Van Dyke (The Thin Man) keeps everything cracking along, except for those moments when Cultcha rears its head and MacDonald sings an aria. When the quake hits, and the fire follows, the movie uncorks some really quite awesome special effects, including the unforgettable image of a street heaving up and separating under people's feet--much superior to the disaster effects in The Last Days of Pompeii, made just a year earlier. Needless to say, this could only be MGM in its heyday, laying on the big budget, an acceptable level of naughtiness, and a dose of religious turnaround in the end. It worked then; it still does. --Robert Horton

Customer Rating:
Summary: San Franciso
Comment: Great movie - thank you. Could you please carry more of the Janet MacDonald movies in DVD.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: The City of Sin and the Earthquake
Comment: San Francisco is a fictionalized account of the famous earthquake that devestated the city at the turn of the 20th Century. Blackie Norton (Clark Gable) is a notorious nightclub owner whose intelligence and selfish behavior bring him women and power. When innocent songbird Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald) comes to his club to audition, he is instantly attracted to her, but in spite of taking a job from him, she resists his advances. He does what any possessive type would do; he prevents her from working elsewhere. Having him near makes her uncomfortable and afraid of her own feeling for him, but advice from the local priest (Spencer Tracy) keeps her head mostly clear.

Then comes the earthquake.

Not all of the visuals are impressive and sometimes it is obvious that Gable is standing in front of a screen, but overall the big event is powerful and exciting. Huge chunks of scenery come down before our very eyes and watching them dynamite the city is chilling. There are plenty of historical inaccuracies in the film, the most common one being the dialogue. The actors say "on the level" and other such 30s expressions quite often. Anita Loos is a famous and talented writer, but she did not take the time period of the film into account. The relationship between Gable and Tracy is a common one in films of this era; just look at Manhattan Melodrama or Angels With Dirty Faces. But it always works; San Francisco is no different.

Also included on this DVD is a short documentary about Gable called Tall, Dark, and Handsome. It is a look at his life and fame, but the length prevents it from being anything stellar.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: beauty(MacDonald) and the beast(Gable)
Comment: This film is a blend of a romantic musical, a disaster movie and an old fashioned morality play. In some respects it is a replay of "The Dancing Lady",in which a talented Joan Crawford is rescued from her downtown burlesque dancing job to become the featured dancer in Gable's uptown musical extravaganza. In the present film, MacDonald, as Mary Blake, undergoes a similar transformation from singer in Gable's(Blackie) Barbary Coast night spot to an opera house owned and frequented by the Knob Hill elite. However, she feels obligated to sometimes return to Blackie's Paradise club, to perform there. In this film, it's Gable's character who is pursuing a reluctant MacDonald, whereas in "The Dancing Lady", it was Crawford's character who was pursuing a hard-to-get Gable.
With her striking operatic voice, newly arrived Mary clearly is miscast in Blackie's seedy nightclub. But, he selfishly tries to block her move to an opera house when she soon gets a chance. She brings a bit of class to his club and hopefully to himself. Although she is somewhat attracted to Blackie's animal magnetism, she clearly has led the life of a nun, and rebuffs his attempts to seduce her. His megalomania and scoffing at all things religious repel this daughter of a country parson. Nor does she appear to have strong romantic feelings for Jack Burley, the Knob Hill owner of the opera house, whose mother tries to convince her to marry him. The only man Mary really seems comfortable with is priest Father Mullin(Spencer Tracy), who fills her in on Blackie's life history, having been a part of most of it, and functions as her guardian and advisor in dealing with Blackie. He points out that he and Blackie came from the same school of hard knocks and that he might well have become another Blackie. His boxing match with Blackie serves as a visual reinforcer of this claim.
Mary's eventual reconciliation with Blackie in the aftermath of the earthquake and fire doesn't come across as believable. Obviously, she is a very proud and pious woman. Blackie's face punch of Father Mullin that caused her again to abandon the Paradise and Blackie, and Blackie's vengeful humiliation of her in publicly smashing the trophy she had just won in a competition simply should not allow for the sort of romantic reconciliation at the end of the film. Their unlikely reconciliation functions as the symbolic culmination of the morality play aspect of the film.
As a morality play, this is basically a modern take on the Sodom and Gomorrah biblical story, in which these rich but sinful cities are said to have been destroyed by God, via fire and brimstone. Modern research suggests that an earthquake and subsequent fire is a plausible natural explanation for their destruction. Just why they were considered sinful by Jews and by God is still a matter of some debate. Sometimes, simply being wealthy is looked upon as sinful. Being rich and arrogant and unconcerned about the poor and sick is usually considered a greater sin.
This was especially relevant to the mid-Depression audiences of the day.
We get the impression that the Knob Hill elite, like those of Sodom and Gomorrah, tended to have this characteristic. To some extent, Blackie was also like this, as he liked to consider himself a displaced member of
the Knob hill elite. But Blackie's economic interests also personify the seemy side of San Francisco, which are also attributed to Sodom and Gomorrah in the bible. Blackie also personifies the blasphamy of much of this society. Thus, the earthquake conveniently destroys most of the sinful world of the Barbary Coast. But it also kills elitist Jack Burley. As well, his family home on Knob Hill is dynamited to hopefully reduce the spread of the fire. Symbolically, this is saying that both the elitist world of Knob Hill and the seemy world of the Barbary Coast deserved destruction by God.
Mary and Father Mullin, presumably protected by God, emerged from the disaster unscathed. Blackie survived with a nasty head wound, giving him a chance at redemption. The final scene shows a rebuilt San Francisco, presumably much less sinful than the destroyed city(Probably an unduly optimistic sudden transformation of human nature).
The DVD is of excellent quality, and includes several special features. Of the latter, the excellent biography and filmography of Gable
no doubt will be of greatest interest.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Present for Mom
Comment: Bought this for mom's b-day. She loves this movie and was very happy to get it. Came quickly with no problems.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Need To Be A Big Fan
Comment: I recognise that this is an important film but I think you have to be a big fan of Gables to really enjoy it.

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