Don't listen to the negative reviews

Best movie ever!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

"San Francisco, the Paris of the U. S.A. Gay every night and day!" And so gay they say oooh la la I might add from the mouth of Barbary Coast headliner Vivian Blaine. She's desperately in love with the owner of the Gold Coast, the biggest night spot in town, played by George Raft. But once he befriends friendly Nob Hill socialite Joan Bennett, Blaine is furious, certain that Bennett is using Raft to get her brother elected to public office.Bennett claims to have two sides to her: the upper-crust child of Boston elitists and the granddaughter of one of the original Barbary Coast founders. Peggy Ann Garner is excellent as a little Irish waif who is sent to find her uncle, discovers that he has died, and ends up being taken in by Raft while finding mother figures in both Bennett and Blaine despite their rivalry.Much more substantial than many other period musicals, this has lots of laughs, tons of great tunes from the American songbook and touching drama, all in that glorious 20th Century Fox Technicolor. Fans of Blaine from "Guys and Dolls" won't see Adelaide in Vivian Blaine's performance. That is a testament to her talent that she could be so unrecognizable from one performance to another, only doing her Adelaide persona in one other movie, "Skirts Ahoy", made on the heel of "Guys and Dolls" on Broadway and several years before the film.Like another movie about San Francisco, this is a political drama in addition to the musical side, with corruption obvious and Raft a rough character with a conscience. His first scene has him wrestling a thieving bartender and disarming him of a knife. Bennett is lovely and simultaneously cold and calculating while loving towards Garner and filled with a zest for life. Musicals like thus stand the test of time because they strive to be something more than just an entertaining distraction.

San Francisco, at the turn of the last century, was a city with a lot to offer. It has attracted the big money that was made during the gold rush; new neighborhoods for the well to do were being developed in one of the prime areas of the city that later became Nob Hill. It stood in contrast with the rougher districts of the city in that most of the people who chose to live there wanted to distance themselves from people they considered inferior in every sense of the word.It is into this atmosphere we come into the story. Tony Angelo, the owner of a popular saloon, The Gold Coast, in the less affluent part of town, was involved with influential people that came into his joint. His place was frequented by people seeking entertainment, which he provided nightly. The star of his night club was Sally Templeton, a beautiful singer and dancer. The two enjoyed a loving relationship, which was going to be put to a hard test after the arrival of a little orphan girl from Ireland, Katie Flanagan.When Katie arrives at Tony's place looking for an uncle, she is told he had died. All her dreams about finding a home in America almost vanished but Sally convinced Tony to let her stay. Katie had made friends with the wealthy socialite Harriet Carruthers, who was on board the ship that brought them to San Francisco. Harriet's brother, who is an aspiring politician, has ambitions for becoming the city attorney. Ms. Carruthers, who goes looking for Katie, draws Tony into helping her sibling in a subtle way by showing a love interest that dazzles Tony.Henry Hathaway directed this 20th Century release, of 1945. It was a mixture of other films about the city, basically Alice Faye's vehicles that had been popular. "Nob Hill" is a dramatic comedy with songs, because it never pretended to be a musical. Somehow, the story feels contrived and not too plausible. The result was a Technicolor spectacle that capitalized on the beauty of the two female main characters and the appeal of a younger actress that had become popular with the public.George Raft plays Tony Angelo. It was a departure from the tough guys he was used to play. Joan Bennett was perfect as Harriet, the gorgeous socialite that gets between Tony and Sally. Vivian Blaine is effective as the red headed beauty that has been the star of Tony's saloon and loves him unconditionally. Lovely Peggy Ann Garner made an impression of her Katie."Nob Hill" is a worth a viewing because what Henry Hathaway was able to do with the film.

This Technicolor semi-musical seems an odd assignment for Henry Hathaway, but perhaps it's his direction that keeps the tough side of San Francisco tough even with showgirls, rich dames and little girls traipsing around. Hathaway was one of the few directors who understood - from experience on earlier great films with him - how effective a broken George Raft could be, and when that moment comes in this film it is quietly Raft's best scene. Raft plays Tony Angelo, owner of a popular saloon in turn-of-the-century San Francisco, a saloon that is more of a three-ring circus with shows, boxing matches and drinking going on simultaneously. He's got an undefined romance with his star showgirl Sally Templeton (young Vivian Blaine) and his political opinions carry a lot of weight in that rough part of town. In walks little Irish girl Katie (Peggy Ann Garner) expecting to meet her uncle, only to find he has died. Tony, who was his boss, agrees to take her in for a couple of months until the next boat leaves for Ireland. She introduces him to Miss Carruthers (Joan Bennett), who lives on Nob Hill. Her brother Lash Carruthers is running for office, and brother and sister both realize working up a relationship with Tony could bring in much-needed votes from the lower part of town. Though knowing full well that those down below don't mix with those on the hill, Tony is drawn into the propaganda of her sweet talk. In this sense, he is as naive as Katie as to their true intentions, and he alienates his fellow bar owners with his new political stand. Only after the election does he get a reality check. Strange to say, but parallels can be drawn between Tony and Shakespeare's Proteus in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona." One look at a beautiful new girl and he seems to completely forget about his true love down the hill. And when he is ultimately rejected he becomes disturbingly aggressive. Blaine, who has all the musical numbers, is a lovely entertainer but one would not guess from this role what marvelous comic chops she had. That would really come to the fore years later in "Guys and Dolls," which also featured B.S. Pulley, who plays a barman in "Nob Hill." (Another link to that film is the fact that the production design was fashioned after the Raft trademark gangster style, coin-flipping and all -- too bad he wasn't in it.) Garner was one of the true great child actors, always earnest and natural even when putting on an Irish accent. She's the heart of the story, always thinking the best of the grownups around her. Bennett (who starred with Raft 10 years earlier in the screwball comedy "She Couldn't Take It") has a rather thankless part, an admittedly split personality who does not seem to know what she really wants. There is nothing particularly special about this film. But to see this particular mix of actors has historical interest, and it would be nice to see it available on DVD.

While not an exact remake of 1943's "Hello Frisco Hello", 1945's "Nob Hill" borrows heavily from the earlier film, and the opening street scene is film footage lifted directly from the earlier film right down to the song "San Francisco" as the soundtrack.The basic plot is the same: Barbary Coast ruffian thinks he can crash high society on Nob Hill. Well, it's not the first time that a movie script got remade, and with WW II budget constraints, you really can't fault 20th Century Fox for taking some economies. At least they made it in Technicolor.I also understand that WWII created a shortage of leading men, so the lead in this film went to George Raft, about age 50 at the time this film was made, well beyond draft age. However, considering the movie parts he played, he is suitable to portray a saloon keeper. Although Raft did some dancing in his film career, and also in a film a year prior to this (Follow The Boys), he is not given any dance performance in this film. Nor does he do any singing, although they could have dubbed him as they did for others. Well, perhaps a singing George Raft would have been too far away from his on-screen persona. All of the musical performance in this film is given to Vivian Blaine. Since she portrays the entertainer at the saloon, the musical segments make some sense. They showcase Blaine's fine singing (no dubbing needed here). As a redhead in this film, Blaine is lovely in Technicolor.Blaine is given two new ballads to introduce, composed by well-known composers Harold Adamson and Jimmy McHugh (see IMDb soundtrack listing for details). It's strange that neither of these songs became standards, for they are as good as any other songs written by the composers, and good as others from 20th Century Fox movies of the time. Blaine also has three production numbers—all using older songs: "On San Francisco Bay" (1907); the perennial "What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For" (1916); and the third, "San Francisco, The Paris of the U.S.A." (1912). Although it's not on VHS or DVD, this film comes up on Fox Movie Channel's schedule from time to time.