1936 - SAN FRANCISCO, a big MGM film

 Ok here we go:

Clark Gable is Blackie Norton, irrepressible owner of the Paradise Club in the Barbary Coast section of San Francisco.  He is also friends with the local Catholic priest played by Spenser Tracy.  One day stumbling into the Paradise Club is Mary Blake played by Jeanette MacDonald.  Mary needs a job as she is a starving opera singer from Denver, Colorado who learned to sing opera in the church choir back home.  Blackie gives her a job as a saloon singer where she belts out the title number, the crowd goes wild.

Mary loves Blackie, but Blackie is not the settle down and have a family kind of guy so Mary splits and takes up with Blackie's rival Nob Hill rich guy Jack Burley.  Jack Burley gets Mary a job singing opera in some San Francisco opera house.  Blackie, starting to realize that he loves Mary after all tries to get her to come back to the Paradise Club. But after hearing Mary sing opera he realizes he can't stand in the way of her opera career.

Since Blackie won't tell Mary how he feels about her she decides to marry Jack Burley instead. Lots of plot later, this whole soap opera like relationship mess is finally sorted out when the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 hits. The earthquake conveniently kills off Jack Burley so Mary and Blackie can finally get together. The film ends with Blackie, Mary and the survivors of the earthquake locking arms and marching around singing "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic" for some reason.

 

Robert Hopkins and Anita Loos wrote this film, the running time is 115 minutes.