The contrasting images and acting styles of Clark Gable and Jeanette MacDonald are actually part of the story of SAN FRANCISCO and a major reason the picture works as well as it does. In no other universe but this one would you believe that Gable lusted for MacDonald, but here their relationship has a strange sort of aptness. Jeanette represents culture, respectability, Christianity. Gable is populism, hedonism, atheism, and until he did GONE WITH THE WIND, this was the film that seemed to capture his screen persona best. And this performance convinced everyone that only he could do justice to Rhett Butler. Forget his sappy conversion to Christianity at the end -- what you remember is how shrewd, sensible and full of heart his Blackie Norton is. Better to be his kind of man than to be like Spencer Tracy's Father Tim Mullin, who is alternately smug and smugly masochistic. When Gable describes his philosophy in a wonderful speech to MacDonald and speaks of his feelings "rushing up like a river," she and the viewer know who really wins this debate, despite the ending to come.
But the reason the earthquake sequences work so well is because the relationships have been so well defined by the time it hits. So in a way it seems like the emotional eruption of the two conflicted lovers, the opposites who attract, rather than a judgment from God (which is implied). When Jeanette gets up to sing "San Francisco" at the Chicken Ball talent contest, it's one of the rightest moments in any '30s film. Her performance of the song was ruthlessly parodied by Judy Garland later, and I always find MacDonald's voice to be both thin and shrill, yet the excitement of the audience and MacDonald's gameness at singing along (in a kind of scat opera riff) while the happy tension builds and builds is undeniably a joy, as is the eruption of cheers when she wins the contest. Gable's pride spoils the moment and just as we feel cheated and suspended . . . catastrophe! Throughout this picture but especially near the end, director Van Dyke has a clear eye for detail: the way the panicked man runs through the streets yelling "Irene! Irene!" is something I have remembered through the years.
This picture has real flavor and atmosphere, both shrewdness and heart (like Blackie) and it's obligatory viewing for any fan of movies from the classic period.
But the reason the earthquake sequences work so well is because the relationships have been so well defined by the time it hits. So in a way it seems like the emotional eruption of the two conflicted lovers, the opposites who attract, rather than a judgment from God (which is implied). When Jeanette gets up to sing "San Francisco" at the Chicken Ball talent contest, it's one of the rightest moments in any '30s film. Her performance of the song was ruthlessly parodied by Judy Garland later, and I always find MacDonald's voice to be both thin and shrill, yet the excitement of the audience and MacDonald's gameness at singing along (in a kind of scat opera riff) while the happy tension builds and builds is undeniably a joy, as is the eruption of cheers when she wins the contest. Gable's pride spoils the moment and just as we feel cheated and suspended . . . catastrophe! Throughout this picture but especially near the end, director Van Dyke has a clear eye for detail: the way the panicked man runs through the streets yelling "Irene! Irene!" is something I have remembered through the years.
This picture has real flavor and atmosphere, both shrewdness and heart (like Blackie) and it's obligatory viewing for any fan of movies from the classic period.