São Francisco, a Cidade do Pecado

San Francisco, like so many other films from this era, just reminds me again how movies today have lost the art of the build-up. They just hit you over the head with mind-numbing action from frame one. Hollywood(and audiences of today) would do well to watch classics like "San Francisco", where story takes precedence over special effects and when the effects do come, they are in service to the story. And they mean so much more and have so much more impact when held back until the last possible moment. Why can't we allow ourselves to be immersed in the story? Or are we just too impatient for it now?

This is a great old film. I have seen it several times, and enjoy it every time. I think Jeanette MacDonald is beautiful, and what a voice! I love to hear her sing.

My mother gave me my middle name of Jeanette after her. It is interesting that a film with so much "fancy" singing

could have been so popular. The general public must have had more class then than now.

It is good to see the "oldies." Many of them are better than today's films.

I certainly like this one.

I have just watched the colorized version of this knock-out film. Whether in color or B &W, it is a powerfully entertaining film. When Blackie Norton finds religion and Mary Blake spots him, humbled and on his redemption encrusted knees,tears well up in my jaded eyes. Everything works so wonderfully in this film. Still, as destructive and tragic as the earthquake scenes are,this movie is basically a love story and what male would not swoon over the voice and the innocence of Mary Blake. Certainly not me.

On 31 December 1905, a fire destroys a building at Barbary Coast in San Francisco and on the next day, the singer Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald) from Benson, Colorado, that lived in the burnt building looks for a job at the nightclub Paradise. The owner Blackie Norton (Clark Gable) is a ruthless but good man and hires Mary after asking her to show her legs. Blackie is also invited to run to the position of Supervisor of the Coast by his friends and acquaintances to protect the neighborhood.

When Blackie's competitor from Nob Hill, Jack Burley (Jack Holt), and his friend Maestro Baldini (William Ricciardi), hear Mary singing, Jack invites her to sing at his fancy Tivoli Opera House. However, Mary has a two-year contract signed with Blackie and is in love with him. But when the other artists from Paradise see her with Blackie and make malicious comments about her, she quits and goes to Tivoli. On her debut at the Tivoli, Blackie goes there with an authority to call off the concert. Blackie has an injunction against Jack Burley since Mary is still under contract with him. However, when he hears Mary singing the opera, he changes his mind and proposes her to get married with him.

Mary returns to the Paradise but when Blackie's friend Father Tim Mullin (Spencer Tracy) sees Mary exposing her legs, he does not allow her to go to the stage. Mary works at Tivoli and is proposed by Jack Burley to marry him. Meanwhile the powerful Jack Burley uses his influence with the Powers that Be to close the Paradise and arrest the performers. During a musical competition between the clubs, Mary Blake learns the truth and decides to help the Paradise with her presentation. However, it is 1906, the year of the major earthquake that struck San Francisco.

"San Francisco" is a wonderful film of love and earthquake in the sin city. I had no idea that this film was so good and this is the first time that I watch "San Francisco". The story is excellent, with charismatic and ambiguous characters, enjoyable songs sang by Jeanette MacDonald and stunning special effects, with a realistic and convincing earthquake. The very last scene is fantastic.

Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald show a magnificent chemistry and it is impressive the resemblance of the face of Madonna in the 80's with Jeanette MacDonald. I only regret that I had not seen this film before. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "San Francisco – A Cidade do Pecado" ("San Francisco" – The Sin City")

"San Francisco" is a very good classic picture. It's in many ways kind of similar to "In Old Chicago", which came out a year after this film. Both films have love stories, both have beautiful sets, and both climax with a disaster that really did take place in their respective cities. "San Francisco" takes place in the mid-1900s. Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy are two of the thousands of people living in the city that was tragically rocked by the massive earthquake of 1906. Like "In Old Chicago", the disaster recreation here is impressive. The film tends to drag a little from time-to-time, but that's only a minor quarrel to an otherwise classy movie. All-in-all, I was pretty entertained by "San Francisco".

*** (out of four)