"SAN FRANCISCO."

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 97, 21 October 1936, Page 5

"SAN FRANCISCO."

Majestic Theatre on Friday.

"San Francisco," the M-G-M production coming to the Majestic Theatre on Friday, has drama, love interest, comedy, and spectacle. Clark Gable has the rough and tough type of role in which his screen public likes him best. Jeanette Mac Donald has the ideal part to give her opportunity to sing, and when she sings there is a reason for her singing, for her songs are a part of the plot. The. story, directed .by W. S. Van Dyke and produced by--Bernard Hyman and John Emerson, is the story of the Barbary Coast of thirty years ago, opening on New Year's, Eve, 1906, and continuing through one .of .the most disastrous dramas of the. century, the San Francisco earthquake and" fire. Gable is the boss of one of the most popular resorts on the Barbary Coast. Miss Mac Donald is the.small-town girl who wanders into his dance hall,-filled with ambition to beconie a great singer. Beginning her career, on, the Coast, she succeeds in rising to; operatic heights, but returns to the Coast to sing in tights for the man" she loves. Gable.has never been seen to greater advantage than in his present role in which he gives a > performance that stands out for. its po,wer, and - sharplyefched character delineation. Miss MacDonald singing songs which range from simple ballads to glorious operatic arias surpasses even her superb work in "Rose Marie" and "Naughty Marietta." Perhaps the greatest' surprise of -the picture, however, is- the strikingly different portrayal of Spencer Tracy,,who abandons his usual tough roles to contribute a sincere and unforgettable portrait of the priest, Father Mullin.