Take two stars like Gable and
MacDonald then add Spencer Tracy to the mix for creating the "first" disaster film about of the San Francisco earthquake and you have a super 1930's movie. It is titled "San Francisco" and is one of MGM’s best movies of 1936. It had seven Oscar nominations, and one win for sound
recording. The movie made $5 million
total, with over $2 million in profits. That’s a blockbuster in star-power,
money-power, and quality. It had
lots of singing, a great love story, and action. I can’t figure anything more a
movie “goer” of the period could want or need. This movie was before computerized effects, so they
had to make some of the sets that would shake, rattle, and roll just like an
earthquake. There was also a great ending in the original release that later releases unfortunately
omitted because management thought it dated the film. The movie will be shown
Thursday, September 14th in
Bigfork on the big screen of the Edge Center
The plot doesn’t need much
description except to say Clark Gable was the bad guy, Spencer Tracy is a
priest (sound familiar), and MacDonald an aspiring and very talented young
singer. There is a lot between the beginning and end of the film that you’ll
just have to come and see it to appreciate. It will be great to just see how
much Hollywood
could do with a “disaster film” and not have computer effects to help the
action.
William Clark Gable (1901-1960) was
a heart-breaker with the ladies on and off the sets of movies. But he did not
like his leading lady in this film Jeanette MacDonald very much. Regardless,
the film got made with great results and a few pranks by Gable at MacDonald’s
expense. And in fact, it was MacDonald that wanted Gable for the part in the
first place.
Gable started his career in silent
films as an extra and his good looks and “bad-guy” persona did him well in the
“talkies.” He had three Oscar nominations and won once for “It Happened One
Night”. He was a success on and off the
stage. He is considered one of the most consistently good investments in films.
Off stage he was loved by his fans and has the distinction of being the last
star to play opposite Marilyn Monroe. In
Quigley's publishing annual Top Ten Money Makers Poll he appeared 16 times and
was named seventh-greatest male star of American Classic cinema by the American
Film Institute.
Jeanette Anna Macdonald (1903-1965)
was an American singer and actress who is best remembered for her musicals of
the 1930's singing opposite the likes of Maurice Chevalier and Nelson Eddy. She stared in 29 feature films in the 30's and
40's and recorded numerous songs. Her films were nominated four times for best
picture Oscars.
Nelson Eddy is most often thought
of singing opposite Jeanette in movies, but was not available for “San Francisco ” so she
picked Gable as her choice for leading man in this disaster movie.
Jeanette is credited with
introducing opera to the movies and was one of the most influential sopranos of
her time inspiring a generation of singers in that era.
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (1900-1967)
was known for his natural style and versatility on the screen. He won two
Oscars from a list of nine nominations. Spencer was a good friend of Clark
Gable and enjoyed working with him His only problem with the work was that he
never got equal billing with Gable. That eventually took its toll of their
working together and ended the two appearing in films together.
Tracy acted in 75 films in his career
and gained the respect of his peers for his performances. In 1999 the American
Film Institute ranked Tracy
as the 9th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.
The critics as well as audiences liked the
results that MGM got in producing this movie. A reviewer of that period, Frank
S. Nugent, writing for the New York Times titled his June 27, 1936 column: ‘San Francisco ’ at the Capitol, Is a stirring Film of the Barbary Coast.
The review says, “Out of the gusty, brawling, catastrophic history
of the Barbary Coast early in the century,
Metro-Goldwin-Mayer has fashioned a prodigally generous and completely
satisfying photoplay. "San
Francisco " is less a single motion picture than
an anthology. During its two-hour course on the Capitol's screen it manages to
encompass most of the virtues of the operatic film, the romantic, the
biographical, the dramatic and the documentary. Astonishingly, it serves all of
them abundantly well, truly meriting commendation as a near-perfect
illustration of the cinema's inherent and acquired ability to absorb and digest
other art forms and convert them into its own sinews.”
You can see this movie free
of charge. An appropriate snack will be served courtesy of Jack and his
wife/projectionist, Lynn. Place: The Edge Center
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