This film is a blend of a romantic musical, a disaster movie and an old fashioned morality play. In some respects it is a replay of "The Dancing Lady",in which a talented Joan Crawford is rescued from her downtown burlesque dancing job to become the featured dancer in Gable's uptown musical extravaganza. In the present film, MacDonald, as Mary Blake, undergoes a similar transformation from singer in Gable's(Blackie) Barbary Coast night spot to an opera house owned and frequented by the Knob Hill elite. However, she feels obligated to sometimes return to Blackie's Paradise club, to perform there. In this film, it's Gable's character who is pursuing a reluctant MacDonald, whereas in "The Dancing Lady", it was Crawford's character who was pursuing a hard-to-get Gable.
With her striking operatic voice, newly arrived Mary clearly is miscast in Blackie's seedy nightclub. But, he selfishly tries to block her move to an opera house when she soon gets a chance. She brings a bit of class to his club and hopefully to himself. Although she is somewhat attracted to Blackie's animal magnetism, she clearly has led the life of a nun, and rebuffs his attempts to seduce her. His megalomania and scoffing at all things religious repel this daughter of a country parson. Nor does she appear to have strong romantic feelings for Jack Burley, the Knob Hill owner of the opera house, whose mother tries to convince her to marry him. The only man Mary really seems comfortable with is priest Father Mullin(Spencer Tracy), who fills her in on Blackie's life history, having been a part of most of it, and functions as her guardian and advisor in dealing with Blackie. He points out that he and Blackie came from the same school of hard knocks and that he might well have become another Blackie. His boxing match with Blackie serves as a visual reinforcer of this claim.
Mary's eventual reconciliation with Blackie in the aftermath of the earthquake and fire doesn't come across as believable. Obviously, she is a very proud and pious woman. Blackie's face punch of Father Mullin that caused her again to abandon the Paradise and Blackie, and Blackie's vengeful humiliation of her in publicly smashing the trophy she had just won in a competition simply should not allow for the sort of romantic reconciliation at the end of the film. Their unlikely reconciliation functions as the symbolic culmination of the morality play aspect of the film.
As a morality play, this is basically a modern take on the Sodom and Gomorrah biblical story, in which these rich but sinful cities are said to have been destroyed by God, via fire and brimstone. Modern research suggests that an earthquake and subsequent fire is a plausible natural explanation for their destruction. Just why they were considered sinful by Jews and by God is still a matter of some debate. Sometimes, simply being wealthy is looked upon as sinful. Being rich and arrogant and unconcerned about the poor and sick is usually considered a greater sin.
This was especially relevant to the mid-Depression audiences of the day.
We get the impression that the Knob Hill elite, like those of Sodom and Gomorrah, tended to have this characteristic. To some extent, Blackie was also like this, as he liked to consider himself a displaced member of
the Knob hill elite. But Blackie's economic interests also personify the seemy side of San Francisco, which are also attributed to Sodom and Gomorrah in the bible. Blackie also personifies the blasphamy of much of this society. Thus, the earthquake conveniently destroys most of the sinful world of the Barbary Coast. But it also kills elitist Jack Burley. As well, his family home on Knob Hill is dynamited to hopefully reduce the spread of the fire. Symbolically, this is saying that both the elitist world of Knob Hill and the seemy world of the Barbary Coast deserved destruction by God.
Mary and Father Mullin, presumably protected by God, emerged from the disaster unscathed. Blackie survived with a nasty head wound, giving him a chance at redemption. The final scene shows a rebuilt San Francisco, presumably much less sinful than the destroyed city(Probably an unduly optimistic sudden transformation of human nature).
The DVD is of excellent quality, and includes several special features. Of the latter, the excellent biography and filmography of Gable
no doubt will be of greatest interest.

Bought this for mom's b-day. She loves this movie and was very happy to get it. Came quickly with no problems.

I recognise that this is an important film but I think you have to be a big fan of Gables to really enjoy it.

I love Jeanette McDonald and I like the story line of good girl vs bad boy who with the support of a priest turn the bad boy into a good boy - although he was really a good boy all along he just didn't have the proper morals. I like what it stood for and then the build the story around the great earthquake that took place in San Fran. Great special effects for that time period. I love the cast and the music.

I watched the film tonight after recently purchasing it through Amazon. Years ago I saw it for the first time and remembered it's powerful message. The main theme is that San Francisco had prosperity at the turn-of-the-century but was destroyed by an earthquake in 1906. Some might think that this happened as punishment for immorality. Whatever the reason for disaster such as this all people are affected. It's great that outstanding films such as "San Franciso" are available to view in 2007 - 71 years after it was made (1936).