San Francisco
She Fell In Love . . . with the toughest guy on the toughest street in the world!
1936 | 115m | English
Popularity: 2 (history)
| Director: | W.S. Van Dyke |
|---|---|
| Writer: | Robert E. Hopkins, Anita Loos, Herman J. Mankiewicz |
| Staring: |
| A beautiful singer and a battling priest try to reform a Barbary Coast saloon owner in the days before the great earthquake and subsequent fires in 1906. | |
| Release Date: | Jun 26, 1936 |
|---|---|
| Director: | W.S. Van Dyke |
| Writer: | Robert E. Hopkins, Anita Loos, Herman J. Mankiewicz |
| Genres: | Drama, Romance, Music |
| Keywords | epic, priest, opera singer, disaster movie, great fire, san francisco, california, belief in god, saloon singer, nob hill, 1900s, earthquake, saloon owner, crisis of faith, loss of faith, tough man |
| Production Companies | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Box Office |
Revenue: $5,273,000
Budget: $1,300,000 |
| Updates |
Updated: Feb 01, 2025 (Update) Entered: Apr 13, 2024 |
| Name | Character |
|---|---|
| Clark Gable | Blackie Norton |
| Jeanette MacDonald | Mary Blake |
| Spencer Tracy | Father Tim Mullin |
| Jack Holt | Jack Burley |
| Jessie Ralph | Mrs. Maisie Burley |
| Ted Healy | Mat |
| Shirley Ross | Trixie |
| Margaret Irving | Della Bailey |
| Harold Huber | 'Babe' |
| Edgar Kennedy | Sheriff |
| Al Shean | Professor |
| William Ricciardi | Signor Baldini |
| Kenneth Harlan | 'Chick' |
| Roger Imhof | 'Alaska' |
| Charles Judels | Tony |
| Russell Simpson | 'Red' Kelly |
| Bert Roach | Freddie Duane |
| Warren Hymer | Hazeltine |
| Adrienne D'Ambricourt | Madame Albani (uncredited) |
| Gertrude Astor | Drunk's Girl (uncredited) |
| Irving Bacon | Picnicker (uncredited) |
| King Baggot | Earthquake Survivor (uncredited) |
| Margaret Bert | Salvation Army Nurse (uncredited) |
| Sidney Bracey | Burley's Butler Allen (uncredited) |
| G. Pat Collins | Bartender (uncredited) |
| Nigel De Brulier | Earthquake Survivor (uncredited) |
| Vernon Dent | Fat Man (uncredited) |
| Tom Dugan | Drunk (uncredited) |
| John George | Custodian at Blackie Norton's (uncredited) |
| D.W. Griffith | Orchestra Conductor (uncredited) |
| Bronislau Kaper | Conductor (uncredited) |
| Frank Mayo | Dealer (uncredited) |
| Tom McGuire | Bartender (uncredited) |
| John "Skins" Miller | Man on Stretcher (uncredited) |
| James Murray | Earthquake Survivor (uncredited) |
| William H. O'Brien | Waiter at Chicken's Ball (uncredited) |
| Dennis O'Keefe | New Year's Celebrant (uncredited) |
| Lillian Rich | Nun (uncredited) |
| William Ripley Dorr | Choir (uncredited) |
| Jason Robards Sr. | Father (uncredited) |
| Frank Sheridan | Founders' Club Member (uncredited) |
| Harry Strang | Soldier (uncredited) |
| Ben Taggart | Cop (uncredited) |
| Dorothy Vernon | New Years Eve Reveler (uncredited) |
| Rosemary Theby | Earthquake Survivor (uncredited) |
| Madame Sul-Te-Wan | Earthquake Survivor (Uncredited) |
| Name | Job |
|---|---|
| Herbert Stothart | Music |
| Cedric Gibbons | Art Direction |
| Adrian | Costume Design |
| W.S. Van Dyke | Director |
| D.W. Griffith | Second Assistant Director |
| Douglas Shearer | Sound Director |
| Edwin B. Willis | Assistant Art Director |
| John Hoffman | Sequence Artist |
| Robert E. Hopkins | Story |
| Tom Held | Editor |
| Oliver T. Marsh | Director of Photography |
| Edward Ward | Music |
| Harry McAfee | Assistant Art Director |
| Anita Loos | Screenplay |
| Herman J. Mankiewicz | Writer |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| W.S. Van Dyke | Producer |
| Bernard H. Hyman | Producer |
| John Emerson | Producer |
| Organization | Category | Person |
|---|
Popularity History
| Year | Month | Avg | Max | Min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 4 | 14 | 23 | 7 |
| 2024 | 5 | 15 | 19 | 9 |
| 2024 | 6 | 15 | 44 | 4 |
| 2024 | 7 | 12 | 22 | 7 |
| 2024 | 8 | 10 | 18 | 5 |
| 2024 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 3 |
| 2024 | 10 | 7 | 14 | 3 |
| 2024 | 11 | 8 | 22 | 4 |
| 2024 | 12 | 6 | 10 | 4 |
| 2025 | 1 | 8 | 17 | 4 |
| 2025 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 2 |
| 2025 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 1 |
| 2025 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| 2025 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 2025 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2025 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2025 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
Trending Position
I sometimes found Jeanette MacDonald to be a sort of singing hybrid of Bette Davis and Binnie Barnes! She reminds me very much of that here in this engaging, if slightly long, romantic tale set just before the infamous San Francisco earthquake. "Mary Blake" arrives in the city looking for a job and ... she alights on the owner of the "Paradise Café". He's the suave and savvy "Blackie Norton" (Clark Gable) and he takes quite a shine to her. So too does his rather wealthier and more high-brow competitor "Burley" (Jack Holt) who might be a better fit for this girl's operatic ambitions. What now ensues sees the chemistry between MacDonald and Gable ebb and flow against a background of crookedness, envy and some good old-fashioned thuggery. Trying to help everyone stay on the right track is his childhood friend "Tim" (Spencer Tracy) who now just happens to be the local priest, a dab hand with a boxing glove, and a man who refuses to see evil in just about anyone. "Mary" has some tough choices to make, and those around her seem perfectly happy to make it for her if she doesn't - so which way is she going to turn? There's no doubt that MacDonald could sing, and her performances here are powerful and at times quite mischievous as her semi-operatic numbers illustrate quite well her character's struggle to fit into a society that wanted music hall numbers and not a good dose of "Faust"! Gable brings his usual lighthearted charm to the proceedings and there are a couple of amiable scenes from the rags-to-riches "Maisie" (Jessie Ralph) to remind us that just about everyone in that city started from nothing - even those on it's exclusive Nob Hill. The photography and visual effects at the end are really quite impressive and the audio of both the musical and thunderous elements of destruction work really quite well on a big screen too. It's not a plot that really stands out, but everyone here works well together to provide an enjoyable reminder of not just these stars, but also of the variety of Vaudeville entertainers that our forebears watched on stage.