San Francisco (film)
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The 1906 San Francisco earthquake is the historical background for San Francisco, a 1936 movie romance film between a gambling hall tycoon, played by Clark Gable, and a promising but poor singer, portrayed by singer Jeanette MacDonald. Spencer Tracy, playing a supporting role as a priest, used this film as a career accelerator by knocking Gable down during a boxing match. The then very popular singing voice of Jeanette MacDonald in the female lead also helped make this film into a hit.
Gable plays a jaunty atheist throughout the film until the very end, when he "finds God" upon discovering that MacDonald's character survived the earthquake after all.
The title song, composed by Walter Jurmann and Bronislaw Kaper, is sung by the Jeanette MacDonald character a half-dozen times in the film, and becomes in the end an anthem for survivors of the earthquake. It is now a popular sentimental sing-along at public events such as the city's annual earthquake commemoration.
It only takes a tiny corner of this great big world to make the place we love; My home upon the hill, I find I love you still, I've been away, but now I'm back to tell you...
- San Francisco, open your golden gate
- You let no stranger wait outside your door.
- San Francisco, here is your wandering one
- Saying I'll wander no more.
- Other places only make me love you best,
- Tell me you're the heart of all the golden west.
- San Francisco, welcome me home again;
- I'm coming home to go roaming no more.
The film received only a single Oscar:
- Best Sound, Recording - Douglas Shearer (M-G-M SSD)
- Best Picture - John Emerson and Bernard H. Hyman, producers
- Best Actor in a Leading Role - Spencer Tracy
- Best Assistant Director - Joseph M. Newman
- Best Director - W.S. Van Dyke
- Best Writing, Original Story - Robert E. Hopkins
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