1906 earthquake sequence from San Francisco, 1936

1906 earthquake sequence from the film San Francisco (1936) with Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy. Directed by W. S. Van Dyke, D. W. Griffith. Edited by Tom Held. MGM production. I noticed that YouTube sadly lacks the groundbreaking (pun intended) earthquake sequence from this great film in good quality. To this day, the earthquake montage is considered one of the standards that all disaster films are compared with. In fact, Assistant Director Newman won a special Academy Awards for his work. The earthquake montage sequence was created by 2nd unit director and montage expert John Hoffman (according to other sources, Slavko Vorkapich). The Barbary Coast barroom set was built on a special platform that rocked and shook to simulate the historical temblor. Yet another source tells us that James Basevi, at that time the head of M-G-M’s special effects department, was responsible for the creation and direction of the “Earthquake“ montage.
Back to Top