This is one of my favourite films, with a 3 star cast; Clark Gable Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy, set before, during, and after the famous 1906 quake.
Whether the writer Anita Loos wrote it with Titanic in mind I don't know but there is a fair amount of similarity to the Titanic story. Big disaster, shakes up a complacent established way of life, and to cap it there's a spine-chilling rendition by Jeanette of Nearer My God to Thee at the end before all the characters all optimistically link arms and sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
There are certain passing similarities in the love triangle plot to the Cameron Titanic as well. Clark plays the Jack character and there is a rich fellow, rather nicer than Cal though, who dies in the quake rather conveniently, leaving Jeanette free.
It's a terrific script, and very good musical numbers that capture the era brilliantly. It's also a slight shock at the end when they proudly show San Francisco as it was in 1936 and you realise that the disaster was only 30 years before and still in memory.
Whether the writer Anita Loos wrote it with Titanic in mind I don't know but there is a fair amount of similarity to the Titanic story. Big disaster, shakes up a complacent established way of life, and to cap it there's a spine-chilling rendition by Jeanette of Nearer My God to Thee at the end before all the characters all optimistically link arms and sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
There are certain passing similarities in the love triangle plot to the Cameron Titanic as well. Clark plays the Jack character and there is a rich fellow, rather nicer than Cal though, who dies in the quake rather conveniently, leaving Jeanette free.
It's a terrific script, and very good musical numbers that capture the era brilliantly. It's also a slight shock at the end when they proudly show San Francisco as it was in 1936 and you realise that the disaster was only 30 years before and still in memory.
