The city of San Francisco has been in the news a lot lately, but not for anything good. The homelessness plague, rise in violent crime, and oppressive restrictions are keeping tourists away and sending businesses fleeing from the city in droves. The once-great city’s sad fate is of interest to Southern Californians, since the rest of our state is headed in the same direction, particularly Los Angeles.
A Movie Musical
This story begins when Mary Blake (MacDonald) arrives in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve, 1905. The refined young woman is a singer looking for work, so she gets a job at the Paradise Club in the rough Barbary Coast district. The club’s owner, Blackie Norton (Gable), is a tough ladies’ man, but Mary needs the work, so she tolerates his boorish behavior. In time, however, they become strangely attracted to each other. Another man Mary meets is Father Tim Mullin (Tracy), a kind priest who is Blackie’s childhood friend. Father Mullin’s stories of how Blackie has helped him over the years convince Mary he isn’t all bad.Blackie is running for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, at Father Mullin’s urging, with the campaign promise of cleaning up the Barbary Coast. Nob Hill socialite Jack Burley (Jack Holt) visits the Paradise to pressure Blackie not to run. While there, he hears Mary, who has become a big draw for the club, and offers her a job at the Tivoli Opera House. However, Blackie refuses to release her from her two-year contract at the Paradise. When Burley later offers to buy Mary’s contract from Blackie, she decides to stay at the Paradise, and Blackie confesses his love for her. However, he quickly proves that he just wants to exploit her, so she decides to go to the Tivoli after all. As she begins performing in operas, Burley expresses romantic interest in her. Mary is torn between the two men who want to marry her: the refined Burley, who offers stability, culture, and constancy, or the earthy Blackie, whom she truly loves. Meanwhile, no one can guess that disaster is looming on the horizon the morning of April 18, 1906.
“San Francisco” is an intense drama. It’s a moving love story. It’s a thrilling disaster film. As if these qualities aren’t enough to make it a multi-faceted, thoroughly entertaining movie, it’s a musical. It doesn’t fall into the category of the typical MGM musical, with elaborate numbers, huge choruses, and vibrant Technicolor costumes. That type of musical showcased dancers in the 1930s. Singers, especially classical ones like Jeanette MacDonald, were often featured in more dramatic stories, such as the operetta adaptations she made with her frequent co-star, Nelson Eddy. Many songs are featured, but all are in the context of the story, either in performances, rehearsals, or other musical settings. Several of the songs are historic ones, including three beautiful hymns, but there also are some real opera songs. For instance, we see Mary performing scenes from “Faust” by Charles Gounod and “La Traviata” by Giuseppi Verdi. Two new songs were written for this movie, “Would You,” which would be famously reused in “Singin’ in the Rain,” and the rousing title song, which is performed multiple times throughout the movie.
Redemptive Fire
In 1936, Hollywood was experiencing the dawn of a new era. This movie was released in June 1936. Two years earlier, the film industry was in very different circumstances. The Pre-Code Era was in full swing, with nudity, graphic violence, and obscene immorality in most films. Of course, nobody considered the early 1930s “pre-Code” when they were happening. As far as America’s film industry was concerned, the Motion Picture Production Code of 1930, commonly (albeit erroneously) called the Hays Code, had been in place since March 1930. However, without an effective means of enforcing this excellent set of film content guidelines, early talkies were worse than any silent films had been. Thankfully, in 1934, the Code was given one more chance before government censorship would be put in place. On July 1st, the Production Code Administration (PCA) was formed to enforce the Code throughout the production of every film to be released in American theaters. Under the strong leadership of Joseph I. Breen, the PCA accomplished its purpose, producing a golden era of clean entertainment for twenty years.
This change didn’t happen immediately or magically the minute the PCA was formed, however. The Code’s successful enforcement was achieved by tireless work by Mr. Breen and his seven associates. If you think about the fact that only eight men had the job of reviewing story outlines, scripts, costumes, dialogue sheets, song lyrics, and final prints of every movie made in Hollywood, plus shorts and cartoons, it’s absolutely staggering. Many movies made during the first year of the PCA’s existence display some remnants of the Pre-Code flavor, although most objectionable content quickly disappeared. This is no surprise, since filmmakers didn’t know much besides the cheap sensationalism that characterized Pre-Code movies. They had to learn how to make films entertaining without the inclusion of their favorite subject matter. As they did so, a new style emerged, which would develop into the genre now known as the Golden Era of films.
An Explosive Film
“San Francisco” is an explosive film on many levels. Firstly, it contains some of the best special effects ever put to screen. Many people dismiss classic movies’ effects with conditioning compliments like “impressive for its day” and “good for back then.” This mentality completely disrespects the hard work that went into making special effects with real ingenuity, mechanics, and engineering, instead of just computer generation. The earthquake sequence, a long and extremely intense portion of this film, is astounding to this day. W.S. Van Dyke brought in his mentor, silent film pioneer D.W. Griffith, to help him develop and direct the earthquake, fire, and explosion scenes; this would be Griffith’s last directorial project, although he was uncredited.The symbolism in this scene is incredible. During the dramatic earthquake, the street splits down the middle, creating a gaping chasm into which people fall like the mouth of hell. Meanwhile, one woman who is on her knees in prayer remains safely on one side of the fissure, preserved by her faith in God as her godless neighbors fall to their deaths.
The film opens with a tribute to San Francisco’s lost magnificence: “San Francisco—guardian of the Golden Gate stands today as a queen among sea-ports—industrious, mature, respectable. But perhaps she dreams of the queen and city she was—splendid and sensuous, vulgar and magnificent—that perished suddenly with a cry still heard in the hearts of those who knew her, at exactly 5:13 a.m. April 18, 1906.” The once great city is now perishing slowly, without a cry, flame, or earthquake, but with just as destructive a power.
