Directed by:
W. S. Van DykeCinematography:
Oliver T. MarshCast:
Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy, Jack Holt, Jessie Ralph, Ted Healy, Shirley Ross, Margaret Irving, Harold Huber, Edgar Kennedy, Al Shean (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Mary Blake arrives at Blackie Norton's Paradise gambling hall and beer garden looking for work as a singer. Blackie embarrasses her by asking to see her legs, but does hire her. She faints from hunger. Nob Hill Socialite Jack Burley and Maestro Baldini of the Tivoli Opera House see her singing and offer her a chance to do opera, but Blackie has her under a two-year contract which she sorrowfully stands by. Later, when he makes up posters featuring Mary in tights, she does leave for the Tivoli. Blackie gets an injunction against Burley, but knocks out the process server when he hears Mary's performance as Marguerite in "Faust". She asks her to marry him and she agrees to go back to the Paradise as his kind of singer, but Blackie's childhood chum Father Tim intervenes. After Blackie slugs the priest, Mary leaves. She is soon the star of the Tivoli and Blackie's place is closed down. She sings a rousing "San Francisco" on behalf of the Paradise at the annual "Chicken Ball" and wins the $10,000 prize which Blackie throws to the floor. As she storms out of the hall a terrible rumble betokens the famous San Francisco earthquake. Buildings collapse, streets split wide open, the city burns, the army dynamites whole sections of town. After staggering around in a stupor Blackie finds Father Tim and the two of them find Mary at a Salvation Army camp. Backed by hundreds of others, they look out over the ruins which are gradually replaced by the shining new city with a reprise of the title song. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Clark Gable
USA
Best movies:
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Teacher's Pet (1958)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Jeanette MacDonald
USA
Best movies:
San Francisco (1936)
One Hour with You (1932)
The Merry Widow (1934)
Spencer Tracy
USA
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Fury (1936)
Jack Holt
USA
Best movies:
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
San Francisco (1936)
Black Moon (1934)
Jessie Ralph
USA
Best movies:
The Good Earth (1937)
After the Thin Man (1936)
Double Wedding (1937)
Ted Healy
USA
Best movies:
Mad Love (1935)
San Francisco (1936)
Hollywood Party (1934)
Shirley Ross
USA
Best movies:
San Francisco (1936)
Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
The Merry Widow (1934)
Margaret Irving
USA
Best movies:
San Francisco (1936)
Animal Crackers (1930)
Wife vs. Secretary (1936)
Harold Huber
USA
Best movies:
The Good Earth (1937)
20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
Beau Geste (1939)
Edgar Kennedy
USA
Best movies:
Laurel and Hardy's Laughing 20's (1965) - a.f.
Double Wedding (1937)
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Al Shean
Best movies:
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
San Francisco (1936)
Ziegfeld Girl (1941)
William Ricciardi
Best movies:
San Francisco (1936)
Anthony Adverse (1936)
Tiger Shark (1932)
Kenneth Harlan
USA
Best movies:
The Penalty (1920)
San Francisco (1936)
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988) (series) - a.f.
Roger Imhof
USA
Best movies:
San Francisco (1936)
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Man Hunt (1941)
Charles Judels
Netherlands
Best movies:
Ninotchka (1939)
San Francisco (1936)
Samson and Delilah (1949)
Russell Simpson
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
The Power and the Glory (1933)
Dodge City (1939)
Bert Roach
USA
Best movies:
Song of Love (1947)
Fury (1936)
Love Crazy (1941)
Warren Hymer
USA
Best movies:
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
Destry Rides Again (1939)
D.W. Griffith
USA
Best movies:
San Francisco (1936)
Hearts of the World (1918)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
King Baggot
USA
Best movies:
A Night at the Opera (1935)
San Francisco (1936)
Come Live with Me (1941)