Idle San Franciscan (Dean Jagger, billed as Jeffrey Dean) falls overboard and is rescued by Italian fishermen. He gets involved with family, including aspiring opera singer (Margaret ... See full summary »
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Idle San Franciscan (Dean Jagger, billed as Jeffrey Dean) falls overboard and is rescued by Italian fishermen. He gets involved with family, including aspiring opera singer (Margaret Lindsay) and learns about life and love. Written by
Ed Lorusso
You've got to hand it to MGM. By the late 1930's even their most middling B-pictures' production values would make most of the other studios green with envy. The question is why MGM would lavish their efforts on a predictable soap opera like SONG OF THE CITY-- whose implausible-yet-predictable story line should have never made it past a reader's desk. Implausible? Dean Jagger (as Jeffrey Dean) plays an introspective idler--- he's broke, but still manages to keep a servant on in his plush pad on Knob Hill (could Depression-era audiences really relate to this?) who's just blown through a $150K wad of his girlfriend's dough on a miscalculated stock deal. Don't fret, she's still got $19,850,000.00 to go and she inexplicably loves him. Deano goes on a bender across the bay and falls in the drink. He's rescued (remember this was riding on the crest of MGM's CAPTAIN'S COURAGEOUS) by a bunch of stereotypical Italian fishermen (Nat Pendleton, an Italian?) who happen to have a fetchin' singin' daughter. Complications ensure when the rich girlfriend wants him back. Yawn! Not really a musical, not much of a comedy... absolutely no relation to reality. Blah... 4/10
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You've got to hand it to MGM. By the late 1930's even their most middling B-pictures' production values would make most of the other studios green with envy. The question is why MGM would lavish their efforts on a predictable soap opera like SONG OF THE CITY-- whose implausible-yet-predictable story line should have never made it past a reader's desk. Implausible? Dean Jagger (as Jeffrey Dean) plays an introspective idler--- he's broke, but still manages to keep a servant on in his plush pad on Knob Hill (could Depression-era audiences really relate to this?) who's just blown through a $150K wad of his girlfriend's dough on a miscalculated stock deal. Don't fret, she's still got $19,850,000.00 to go and she inexplicably loves him. Deano goes on a bender across the bay and falls in the drink. He's rescued (remember this was riding on the crest of MGM's CAPTAIN'S COURAGEOUS) by a bunch of stereotypical Italian fishermen (Nat Pendleton, an Italian?) who happen to have a fetchin' singin' daughter. Complications ensure when the rich girlfriend wants him back. Yawn! Not really a musical, not much of a comedy... absolutely no relation to reality. Blah... 4/10