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San Francisco (1936)

To really appreciate and experience San Francisco you must see the film in it’s original form on a large screen with an audience.  I’ve done so more than once and every single time it’s an emotional experience, however, even on your home television San Francisco packs an emotional wallop. I’m a Californian, one of those rare creatures born and raised in the Bay Area.  I experienced the Loma Prieta earthquake and I have vicarious memories of my great grandma living through the 1906 earthquake when she was only a year old.  She always claimed to remember the whole thing as just a baby.  It’s in my blood–I freely admit that I’m one of those Californians that normally can’t help ridicule people who fear earthquakes more than hurricanes or tornados, however, San Francisco always reminds me that the big one is always just an hour and 55 minutes closer by the end of the film. The film starts off on New Years of 1906 with trained opera singer Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald) looking for work after her residence was caught on fire.  She bungles her way into the Paradise, a nightspot on the Barbary Coast owned by self-proclaimed heathen Blackie Norton (Clark Gable) who wasn’t accustomed to girls whose fathers were preachers.  Behind Blackie is childhood friend Father Tim Mullin (Spencer Tracy) who attempts to guide Mary through the seemingly ill-fated romance. This was Jeanette MacDonald’s pet project.  She pushed for the film to be made.  Gable wanted no part of it–in so much as he didn’t want to be overshadowed by a singer.  He felt all there was for him to do was look on and watch.  The script was beefed up a bit with more Blackie scenes and he relented and took the film. Although Clark Gable does a lot of fast talking before the earthquake, the last twenty minutes of film are almost completely void of dialogue.  It’s a amazing to watch Gable walk through the ruins, you can actually see when he realizes that he doesn’t know where Mary is and the intense panic that radiates his profile.  In a sense, the last stretch of the film affords Gable the opportunity to try on the pathos of the silent area.  His performance is rarely over-stated in the film and probably overlooked. Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time researching the quake and the fire that followed, looking at pictures and as I just viewed the film again it seems the research department really did their job by matching some of the scenes quite precisely to the photographs.  Copious attention to detail was paid to the film, it makes the action sequences even more believable.  If there had been a category for special effects at the Academy Awards, San Francisco would have won without question, although the film did pick up an Oscar for Best Sound.  It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Spencer Tracy), Best Director, Best Assistant Director, and Best Original Story. Though typical of the era, it is a little grating that Blackie Norton had to find redemption through a Christian God.  Blackie had almost all the great markings of a good heathen, Father Mullin says of Blackie, “But he has a could, he’s always had every since he was a kid.  He never lied, he never cheated, and I’m sure he never took an underhanded advantage of anyone.”  There’s nothing wrong with that.  He only jumps off course because of his inexperience with a woman like Mary. The focus on religion can be disconcerting depending on where you fall on faith and prayer.  Especially when it’s reinforced by Mary Blake’s potential mother-in-law, Mrs. Burley who says that San Francisco “can’t go on like this–sinful and blasphemous, with no fear for God in our hearts.”  It’s a little over the top to go that far, especially for today’s viewers now given the current cultural climate of San Francisco. Despite the morality tale undertone of the film, the richness of the cinematography, special effects, the lovely bits of “Faust” and “La Traviata” handled so beautifully by Jeanette MacDonald along with “San Francisco” itself, now the official theme song of San Francisco. MacDonald’s ‘hot’ rendition of “San Francisco” never fails to entertain. The big screen experience brings audiences together.  A movie can be a hit or a miss depending on the audience reaction and this one always hits hard.  Both times I viewed San Francisco at the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, California, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house–except mine, I am sad to say–I was just so taken aback that the film hit a cord with everyone.  Every age, every race, men and women alike.  Yes, part of it is living in the area the great quake of 1906 hit, another is that pathos–watching desolate Blackie Norton trying to find Mary Blake.  There are few communal experiences that we get these days.  Home video doesn’t always present a film as it should be seen.

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Having Wonderful Time (1938)

Posted by Ginny | Posted in | Posted on 05-06-2009

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havingwonderfultime00048Big Bear Lake as the stand-in for the Adirondacks has never been so much fun as it is in Having Wonderful Time.

Teddy Shaw (Ginger Rogers) only gets two weeks vacation every year.  Her friend Kitty suggests she go to camp Kare-Free, which is advertised as a luscious retreat with luxurious private cabanas and loads of fresh air and lovely scenery.  When Teddy arrives, after we see her fighting through loads of family all bunched up in a small New York flat, she finds herself surrounded by people and escorted by a frustrated waiter (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) to a small cabin with three other girls (Lucille Ball, Eve Arden, and Peggy Conklin).  Teddy wants to go home, but a talk in the light of a full moon convinces her to stay around.

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. said in his autobiography, The Salad Days, that originally when they filmed the movie Fairbanks and Rogers did Brooklyn-Bronx accents. When they screened the film in the midwest nobody could understand them, so they had to redub the entire film much to the chagrin of the executives. This was Fairbanks’ third film of four released in 1938.  The others were Joy of Living, The Rage of Paris, and The Young in Heart.  The years just before the war had promise of a great career ahead of him, which he just didn’t quite achieve after the war.

havingwonderfultime00107When Having Wonderful Time was released Holiday and The Joy of Living were playing as well–both films also look at whether wealth is important and whether or not society should intrude on living life with substance and quality rather than by the dictates of class or family.  The film was panned by critics.  The review from the Oakland Tribune said that the B picture was far superior and despite the acting skills of Rogers and Fairbanks, the plot was so inferior to the original play that not even the best actors could dredge it from the depths.

Being completely unfamiliar with the play, I think the only thing wrong with the film is that it actually comes off a little heavy-handed at times.  Would have been a little more fun intellectually if Teddy and Chick delved a little farther into why society has forced them into this little corner of the earth in the Catskills to forge for fresh air and a good time without bringing the moon so far into the equation. Then again, we might not have gotten Ginger Rogers’ backgammon insanity and that is necessary, because it makes me happy.  Although, it always drives me a little batty when a Ginger Rogers character acts naive.  Ginger is great playing that character, but because she’s so quick with the quips and so able to deliver great turns of phrase I always expect more from her characters than they deliver in certain films.

havingwonderfultime00046One possible cause of the film’s holes may be Red Skelton.  He made his debut in this film, though the powers that be didn’t particularly care for his antics and left a lot of his screen time on the cutting room floor.  This could be why the film is a little on the short side at 70 minutes and why some substance is lost.  Perhaps if his character were a little more fleshed out and involved with the rest of the cast in some fashion, he would be less of a novelty and more of a fixture for the film.  That’s a lot to ask of a script that doesn’t quite meet it’s predecessor, but it may explain the gaps better than I’m able to articulate.

Although, I must say, the title of this film is always altered out of telegram form and I’ve fought hard throughout this review not to add the ‘a’.   Perhaps it was obvious at the time, but there’s no reference to the title in the movie.  Might havehelped if she sent a telegram with “Having Wonderful Time” to her ex-boyfriend in New York, at least that would give a reason for why he just seems to show up out of the blue.

havingwonderfultime00079

Overall, the film works, but it doesn’t quite gel together as it may have been intended to.  And I can’t help but be pleased to see Ginger and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. together.  Fairbanks does well at portraying characters who are analytical and self-aware, simply because he was both fairly insecure and self-aware himself.  Ginger is excellent at just about anything.  The film is a pleasure to watch, eccentricities and all.

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