MAJESTIC THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 25, 24 October 1936, Page 13

MAJESTIC THEATRE

“San Francisco” Vivid as life, joyous as a song, terrible as disaster—this is Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “San Francisco,” the new film at the Majestic Theatre this week. From whatever viewpoint this picture is interpreted, it stands out as a classic in entertainment and spectacle. “Mutiny on the Bounty” was said at the time to have attained the highest in screen art of the type portrayed. “San Francisco” relegates the other to a secondary place in the esteem of the theatregoer. .Strong in the cast—lovely, singing Jeanette MacDonald. Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy, have the principal parts—rich in variety of song and dance, terrible in climax, the film bears throughout its 10,000 feet the hallmark of excellence. San Francisco of 1006, according to story, was a rip-roar-ing, sensuous city, pleasure-mad, Godless ■ —a community that had come too easily to wealth, and with it, licence. It needed fire’s purging. The stage was set for calamity. Into the notorious Barbary Coast, down-town section of ’Frisco, came Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald), seeking the door to grand opera. Instead she found the stage door of Blaekie Norton's (-Clark Gable’s) night club. Daughter of the parsonage, she shrank 4‘rom the atmosphere of flaring lights, drinking men, blaring ragtime, and, above all, from blasphemous Norton. Into the murky scene steps Father Mullin (Spencer Tracy), parish priest and chum from boyhood of Norton. Like a breath of clean wind from heaven his counsel fans Mary’s faith to a bright flame that Norton’s overbearing atheism cannot subdue, notwithstanding that she succumbs to the charm, innate goodness and strength in the man. Mary sings gloriously in the night club, and is given her chance when a wealthy patron of opera, and suitor for her hand, to boot, engages her for a performance of “Faust.” As Marguerite she sings the “Jewel Song” and other excerpts that recall memories of her songs in “Naughty Marietta.” The plot moves swiftly to the awful moment of the earthquake. 5.17 a.m., April 17, lf)06. The tension is agonising—then the horror of disaster. The stark realism cannot be described. Never is the action made ridiculous by melodrama. The acting is restrained and convincing. Norton, distraught by the fancied loss of Mary, finds his belief in God. A novel picture, “Audioscopiks,” presenting the three-dimensional film, is vastly amusing. Newsreels complete a splendid show.