Jeanette MacDonald singing “San Francisco,” from the 1936 film of the same name.
If you are in the market for a corny, sweeping MGM two-hanky weeper, move this one to the top of your Netflix queue today. It contains one of my favorite endings of any movie, ever: after the 1906 earthquake hits, scoundrel Clark Gable repents his wicked ways and asks Spencer Tracey how to pray — somewhat unconvincingly, but you go along with it, because, what the hell, it’s Spencer Tracey. Then everyone sings “Nearer My God to Thee,” and then Clark (never handsomer) and Spencer (never priesty-er), along with Jeanette and a whole cast of California-oriented stock character actors (prospectors, saloon girls, etc.) all shout “COME ON EVERYONE LET’S BUILD A NEW SAN FRANCISCO” and they all climb a hill singing “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and segue it flawlessly into this excellent number, and before our very eyes the smoking ruins of the city on the bay are transformed via the magic of photomontage into the bustling metropolis of 1936, with the Golden Gate Bridge still under construction, and I sit on my couch and shout “I WILL! I WILL! I WILL HELP YOU BUILD A NEW SAN FRANCISCO!” and then I start crying into my cereal.
