The Silver Screen Oasis

I think the casting of San Francisco is inspired. Instead of putting someone like Myrna Loy between Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, as was so successful in Test Pilot, Jeanette Macdonald was given the female lead role and turned in one of the screens great all round performances.

I find it a little bit annoying these days when modern opera singers like Lesley Garrett are praised for being the first to mix opera with popular music. In this film, made 72-yrs-ago, Jeanette sang a mixture of opera and popular music, making a splendid job of both. She also gave a great acting performance.

This is the first of the 3 Gable/Tracy movies and it's brilliant to see IMO MGMs two finest actors of the period going up against each other.

The one scene I have a problem was when Tracy's Priest complained to Gable about the revealing custume Macdonald was going to wear on stage in his night club. I know the story was set in 1906, but I felt the costume Jeanette was wearing was perfectly acceptable for peforming in a night club. I felt the audience watching were supposed to think of Gable as the villian in this scene, but I wonder if Tracy was in fact the one at fault here bullying Gable to the point he punched his best pal in the mouth.

I hope I haven't caused offence by taking that view.

I didn't take offense, but I do disagree. Skirts that hit about mid-calf were considered daring, and for a woman's entire leg to be exposed was shocking, if not obscene. I think the point of this whole scene was to point out that Blackie thought he was in love, but he really wasn't. He would not have wanted to expose (no pun intended) Jeannette's character to the rough and rowdy people in his saloon if he truly cared for her. He didn't realize what love was until after the earthquake, when he thought he had lost her.

I find it a little bit annoying these days when modern opera singers like Lesley Garrett are praised for being the first to mix opera with popular music. In this film, made 72-yrs-ago, Jeanette sang a mixture of opera and popular music, making a splendid job of both.

Wow, Stuart, I had never thought about that before but you're right, you know!

Great movie, the earthquake sequences are still very effective, too.

Thanks Miss G

Remember the scene when Gable told her to sing San Francisco the way Blackie wanted her to sing it, not in her operatic style.

I tried to send you an email twice. The first one came back, but the second one is still out there. It was a 9 minute tribute to the 40th birthday of Dad's Army with one of the funniest clips ever seen in a sit-com at the end. I sent the same email to our mutual friend and former Hollywood child star Sybil Jason. She wrote back to tell me how much she enjoyed it

Stuart

I didn't get that email yet. I'm happy Sybil enjoyed it, I hope she's doing well.

Miss G

The other thing I wanted to share with you was that I watched a fair chunk of The Americanization Of Emily on you tube and discovered a favourite actress of mine Liz Fraser played Julie Andrews army pal in the film. Liz was best known for Carry On Films like Carry On Cabbie, playing Peter Sellers daughter in I'm Alright Jack and his girlfriend in Two Way Stretch

Sybil is a great Julie Walters fan and I have access to some of her films and tv work not seen in America. I sent her a 9 minute clip of Julie in Filth where she played the real life Mary Whitehouse, who complained of what she thought of as filth on the BBC in the 60s, getting the Director General to resign. Opinion on Mary is mixed, some thinking she did good, others that she caused a form of censership

I love Jeanette Macdonald in her Lubitsch films and I love Clark Gable but the mix of the two just doesn't do it for me. I don't think they have the onscreen chemistry that Chevalier had with Jeanette or Clark with Jean Harlow or Joan Crawford, it's a pity.

That's so weird, but just another example of what one likes another hates. I find the chemistry between Gable and McDonald a good one. Blackie was a terrible guy, but when he loved someone, he went all the way for them. Father Mullin knew that and that's why he accepted all the 'gifts' Blackie sent to the parish. For some reason he had a blind eye to the relationship between Blackie and Mary Blake. I don't see why he missed the fact that in his own way, Jack Burley was just as bad as Blackie, if not worse. At least Blackie was for the little guy, and Burley was trying to wipe them out entirely. I've loved the movie San Francisco since I saw it the first time, when I was about 8 on the Saturday night movie, and have been enthralled with Miss McDonalds' voice ever since.

Speaking of this movie, where is our own Jack Burley/Moraldo Rubini?

Anne

I must admit that I have never liked San Francisco. I also find MacDonald and Gable a very odd pair without any chemistry. The script, for me, looks like a series of clichés just there to prepare you for the 'disaster movie' at the end. As for MacDonald's singing, well, I am not a fan to say the least. Her shrill performance of Gounod's Faust in that film was murder to my ears (not to mention her ghastly pronunciation). She should really have stuck to musicals where she is in her element!
But, the film can probably be enjoyed as one of the typical MGM glossy products of the time.

The script, for me, looks like a series of clichés just there to prepare you for the 'disaster movie' at the end.

It can certainly seem that way now, but I think it helps to remember that back in 1936 when this was made, this story was not yet a cliche'. Audiences back then were fortunate, everything was coming at them all fresh and new.

As for Gable with Jeannette, I think they're kind of cute but then I've always had a fondness for stories about a rough guy who falls for a lady.

San Francisco is a fabulous film with great acting and directed in a quick pace by W.S VanDyke, one of the truely great Hollywood directors in the classic era.