Dec 16 2009
Buy San Francisco Blu-Ray at Amazon.
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Buy San Francisco Blu-Ray at Amazon..
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“San Francisco”, MGM’s ‘Showcase’ film of 1936, demonstrates why no other studio could ‘touch’ Metro at it’s prime. Assume the biggest star in Hollywood, team him with the ‘Queen’ of 1930s MGM musicals, add the greatest film actor of a generation in aid, then top things off with a ‘no-expense-spared’ recreation of the most noted earthquake in American history, and an instant Classic was born!
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Seventy years later, the film has lost diminutive of it’s luster; certainly the ‘Message’ is a bit heavy-handed, the long opera sequences may develop some viewers cringe, and some of the effects (absorbing double exposures) seem quaint in an era of CGI…but Clark Gable mild projects his signature cockiness and virility, Jeanette MacDonald is composed fine (and can definite belt out “San Francisco”), and Spencer Tracy is calm graceful (it is easy to spy why he received a ‘Best Actor’ nomination, in what was obviously a supporting role; he easily steals the film, in every scene he’s in) .
Directed by the grand W.S. (’Woody’) Van Dyke, a consummate craftsman, and one of MGM’s fastest directors (contradictory terms, but he combined race and style, effortlessly), with a screenplay, surprisingly, by future “Gentlemen Pick Blondes” author, Anita Loos (from a tale by Robert Hopkins), “San Francisco” exudes confidence, from the riotously decadent Novel Year’s Eve, 1905, opening scene, to the finale, as Gable, MacDonald, Tracy, and, apparently, most of the survivors of the earthquake and fire march to a hilltop, vowing to originate a ‘better’ city, and singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, as they opinion the smoking ruins, which dissolves into the ‘modern’ San Francisco of 1936.
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Corny? Certainly! But undeniably rousing, as well!
The ‘Special Features’ are profitable, as well; the TNT documentary, “Stout, Black, and Handsome: Clark Gable”, while glossing over some ’seamier’ chapters of Gable’s life, does offer insights by the daughter he secretly fathered by Loretta Young, and the son he died before ever seeing…and the biography is VASTLY salubrious to the one offered in the “Gone with the Wind” Special Edition. An ‘alternate ending’ is barely different from the accurate one, other than offering more views of the city, but the 1936 MGM cartoon (”Bottles”) is astonishingly well-crafted and fair in Technicolor, and two Technicolor ‘TravelTalk’ short features, from 1940, on San Francisco, and Worship Island, at the time of the 1939-40 World Exposition, are both very fascinating and a visual ‘time machine’ relieve to a simpler era.
This is a astounding DVD, certainly worth owning!
From the mid 20s till the mid 50s, METRO-GOLDWYN MAYER(MGM) boasted they had more stars than there are in the heaven. MGM was the first studio to release a film with more than two stars(it was in 1932 - the Academy Award winning Immense HOTEL starring Garbo, Beery, Crawford and Lionel Barrymore) . SAN FRANCISCO proved to be one of the finest that ever came out of Hollywood. 3 Stars; Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy; strong record containing drama, music, song, romance A N D disaster; location decorations by Cedric Gibbons, special effects that has never dated, realistic scenes from ol`Frisco, though everything was shot in the MGM studios at Culver City. SAN FRANCISCO is a film that will never lose its appeal because of all these ingredients. This film is a MUST-SEE. One of the best that was ever made.
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