San Francisco (1936) on Netflix
Passed19361h 55mDramaMusicRomance
Blackie Norton runs the Paradise, a Barbary Coast saloon, and hires Mary Blake to sing there. Father Tim Mullin urges him to run for supervisor, and Nob Hill's Jack Burley courts her.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.1/106,707 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
On New Year's Eve in 1905, Blackie Norton runs the Paradise Club on Pacific Street in the Barbary Coast, San Francisco's notorious district, and he hires Mary Blake to sing there. Her signature tune, San Francisco, makes her the club's star attraction, though Blackie's friend Mat predicts she will not stay on the Coast for long. Father Tim Mullin, a priest and Blackie's childhood friend, believes the Board of Supervisors could be a seat from which Blackie could work for reform, and he urges him to run. The Tivoli Opera House on Market Street hires Mary, and there she meets Jack Burley, a Nob Hill scion.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about San Francisco (1936)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The title song, sung by Jeanette MacDonald a half-dozen times in the film as an anthem for earthquake survivors, has become a sing-along at San Francisco's annual earthquake commemoration and one of the city's two official songs, alongside "I Left My Heart in San Francisco".
- The Barbary Coast barroom set was built on a special platform that rocked and shook to simulate the 1906 tremor; similar shaking sets were later built for the 1974 disaster film Earthquake.
- There are two versions of the ending: the original 1936 release closes with a montage of then-current San Francisco scenes, including the Golden Gate Bridge under construction, but the 1948 re-release dropped it as dated in favour of a single long shot of the business district.
- Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy made two more films together, Test Pilot and Boom Town, until Tracy demanded the same top-billing clause in his MGM contract that Gable had, ending one of American cinema's most famous screen teams.
