The San Francisco Earthquake happened 99 years ago next week. Ironically it's anniversary is a few days after the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, as well as the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Forgotten is also the anniversary on April 27 of the explosion and burning of the steamboat Sultana in 1865 (which killed more people than the Titanic did!). Truly T.S. Eliot's comment, "April is the cruelest month" has some substantial facts to back it.
There are not many movies dealing with famous earthquakes, although they do appear in films like PENNY SERENADE (where Irene Dunne and Cary Grant survive the great Tokyo earthquake of 1923). The San Francisco Earthquake has popped up in other films besides SAN FRANCISCO. Within two years of this film Warner Brothers produced THE SISTERS starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn, in which Davis survives the earthquake. There was at least on silent film dealing with the earthquake too. But SAN FRANCISCO is the best known.
I find it good as an entertaining film, and mediocre as a study of the actual events of April 18 - 25, 1906. The performances of Gable, MacDonald, Tracy, Ralph, and Jack Holt are all good. Al Shean gives a nice cameo as a musician who champions MacDonald. Even Ted Healy is less obnoxious here - he has a good dying scene.
The most interesting thing about the film is the way the focus of villainy keeps shifting between Gable and Holt. We know that Clark Gable's Blackie is the hero of the film, but he frequently acts like an antihero in pushing aside MacDonald's operatic ambitions. We know that Holt is Gable's ruthless business rival, and the leader of the money people who refuse to consider fireproofing the buildings of the Barbary Coast area (it's not economical). But he does love MacDonald, and can't believe Gable's totally selfish intention to keep her working in his saloon rather than putting her in her proper spot on the stage of the San Francisco opera home. This seesaw effect is usually not noted by critics of the film. It is actually a plus in keeping one's interest in the actual plot.
My carping criticism is of a typically historical nature. The best study of the earthquake is Gordon Thomas and Max Gordon Witt's THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE, which points out the huge amount of official corruption in the background of the earthquake. The city was run by Boss Abe Ruef and his mayor-stooge-partner, Eugene Schmitz (a former bassoon player in an orchestra). They ignored improving the fire department's equipment, and as a result the earthquake would touch off a fire that was impossible to control. The fire was only stopped when federal troops under General Frederick Funston took over the city, set up martial law (possibly going too far - there were too many reports of killings done to prevent looting but that killed innocent people), and using dynamite to blast holes into the paths of the flames. Some aspects of this are shown in the earthquake sequences, but Schmitz and Ruef were not mentioned, nor was Funston (a war hero - he helped end the Phillippine "Insurrection of 1899 - 1902" by capturing Emilio Aguinaldo, it's leader, by a trick). Also more recent studies show the extent of the damage of the earthquake was greater than admitted in 1906. For years the casualty rate was estimated as only 500 (roughly the same as the Chicago Fire in 1871 and one third of the Titanic). About a decade ago a more careful study of census information, etc. showed the death toll was between 3,500 to 6,000, making it one of the deadliest events in American history.
The city of San Francisco did resurrect and rebuild itself quickly after the quake and fire. Ruef was sent to jail and Schmitz sent packing. San Francisco held World Fairs in 1915 and 1939-40. It is a most beloved city for tourists on our west coast to this day. But they know, with their San Andreas Fault nearby to remind them, that it will inevitably happen again one day. They are better prepared, but it will happen, and it will be a bad day once more when it does.
There are not many movies dealing with famous earthquakes, although they do appear in films like PENNY SERENADE (where Irene Dunne and Cary Grant survive the great Tokyo earthquake of 1923). The San Francisco Earthquake has popped up in other films besides SAN FRANCISCO. Within two years of this film Warner Brothers produced THE SISTERS starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn, in which Davis survives the earthquake. There was at least on silent film dealing with the earthquake too. But SAN FRANCISCO is the best known.
I find it good as an entertaining film, and mediocre as a study of the actual events of April 18 - 25, 1906. The performances of Gable, MacDonald, Tracy, Ralph, and Jack Holt are all good. Al Shean gives a nice cameo as a musician who champions MacDonald. Even Ted Healy is less obnoxious here - he has a good dying scene.
The most interesting thing about the film is the way the focus of villainy keeps shifting between Gable and Holt. We know that Clark Gable's Blackie is the hero of the film, but he frequently acts like an antihero in pushing aside MacDonald's operatic ambitions. We know that Holt is Gable's ruthless business rival, and the leader of the money people who refuse to consider fireproofing the buildings of the Barbary Coast area (it's not economical). But he does love MacDonald, and can't believe Gable's totally selfish intention to keep her working in his saloon rather than putting her in her proper spot on the stage of the San Francisco opera home. This seesaw effect is usually not noted by critics of the film. It is actually a plus in keeping one's interest in the actual plot.
My carping criticism is of a typically historical nature. The best study of the earthquake is Gordon Thomas and Max Gordon Witt's THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE, which points out the huge amount of official corruption in the background of the earthquake. The city was run by Boss Abe Ruef and his mayor-stooge-partner, Eugene Schmitz (a former bassoon player in an orchestra). They ignored improving the fire department's equipment, and as a result the earthquake would touch off a fire that was impossible to control. The fire was only stopped when federal troops under General Frederick Funston took over the city, set up martial law (possibly going too far - there were too many reports of killings done to prevent looting but that killed innocent people), and using dynamite to blast holes into the paths of the flames. Some aspects of this are shown in the earthquake sequences, but Schmitz and Ruef were not mentioned, nor was Funston (a war hero - he helped end the Phillippine "Insurrection of 1899 - 1902" by capturing Emilio Aguinaldo, it's leader, by a trick). Also more recent studies show the extent of the damage of the earthquake was greater than admitted in 1906. For years the casualty rate was estimated as only 500 (roughly the same as the Chicago Fire in 1871 and one third of the Titanic). About a decade ago a more careful study of census information, etc. showed the death toll was between 3,500 to 6,000, making it one of the deadliest events in American history.
The city of San Francisco did resurrect and rebuild itself quickly after the quake and fire. Ruef was sent to jail and Schmitz sent packing. San Francisco held World Fairs in 1915 and 1939-40. It is a most beloved city for tourists on our west coast to this day. But they know, with their San Andreas Fault nearby to remind them, that it will inevitably happen again one day. They are better prepared, but it will happen, and it will be a bad day once more when it does.