The granddaddy of all the disaster movies which thrived during the seventies but much different and much better than any of them.
Actually,"San Francisco" might look like an update version of " the last days of Pompei" by Bulwer Lyton...Or some update of those Genesis pages which deal with those doomed Sodom and Gomorrah towns.
That is to say how religion plays a prominent part in this earthquake story.The priest -a nice Spencer Tracy- urges the sinner Gable to come back to God ,and he tells singer McDonald that Frisco is just a heathen town ...and the natural disaster neatly appears as God's punishment,revenge.
And however,unlike the seventies disaster flicks of the seventies,there are no real "heroes" -whose percentage of loss in this kind of tale is pretty low nay nil- or "villains" -who provide the raw material when the storm is raging furiously.No cardboard characters ,no couple-whose-marriage-is-on the-rocks,no coward-who-redeems-himself ,no.... (check the "modern" disaster movies) A disaster movie which is primarily a musical.Mac Donald sings ceaselessly and what's exciting is that her songs never come at the most awkward moment:they perfectly fit in the action .Whatever she sings,from these laudable canticles (nearer to thee my God) to music hall stuff (San Francisco open your golden gate) to opera (her version of Gounod's "Air des Bijoux" is really impressive)it always comes at the right time.
"San Francisco" is an excellent show which remains eminently watchable today.
Actually,"San Francisco" might look like an update version of " the last days of Pompei" by Bulwer Lyton...Or some update of those Genesis pages which deal with those doomed Sodom and Gomorrah towns.
That is to say how religion plays a prominent part in this earthquake story.The priest -a nice Spencer Tracy- urges the sinner Gable to come back to God ,and he tells singer McDonald that Frisco is just a heathen town ...and the natural disaster neatly appears as God's punishment,revenge.
And however,unlike the seventies disaster flicks of the seventies,there are no real "heroes" -whose percentage of loss in this kind of tale is pretty low nay nil- or "villains" -who provide the raw material when the storm is raging furiously.No cardboard characters ,no couple-whose-marriage-is-on the-rocks,no coward-who-redeems-himself ,no.... (check the "modern" disaster movies) A disaster movie which is primarily a musical.Mac Donald sings ceaselessly and what's exciting is that her songs never come at the most awkward moment:they perfectly fit in the action .Whatever she sings,from these laudable canticles (nearer to thee my God) to music hall stuff (San Francisco open your golden gate) to opera (her version of Gounod's "Air des Bijoux" is really impressive)it always comes at the right time.
"San Francisco" is an excellent show which remains eminently watchable today.