Key to the City (1950)

Too much of everything

good back-story, and good acting

Admirable film.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Producer: Z. Wayne Griffin. Copyright 2 February 1950 (in notice: 1949) by Loew's Inc. An M-G-M picture. New York opening at Loew's State: 1 February 1950. U.S. release: 24 February 1950. U.K. release: 17 July 1950. Australian release: 14 July 1950. 8,999 feet. 99 minutes. SYNOPSIS: A romantic comedy in which a business-like woman from Maine (Loretta Young) and an ex-longshoreman (Clark Gable) meet as delegates to a mayor's convention in San Francisco. COMMENT: It's almost inevitable in a romantic comedy that a few dull patches will surface here and there as the clichés of cute meets and their subsequent romantic entanglements and misunderstandings are thoroughly thrashed out. But running parallel to all this in Key to the City are three or four more lively threads, including a couple of chucklesome sequences with James Gleason parlaying with a wonderfully cute lychee seller (uncredited), as well as running interference with a gaggle of newshounds led by a delightfully resurgent Marvin Kaplan. We also enjoyed the entrance and climactic comeuppance of our favorite heavy, Raymond Burr (even though obvious stuntmen were much in evidence in the actual fight); whilst it's always such a pleasure to encounter Marilyn Maxwell, we couldn't help feeling a bit sorry when her stuntperson suffered such a significant defeat at the hands of Loretta Young.As for Miss Young herself, she acquits her tailor-made role quite ably, but we felt she was outshone by her more pliant and-dare we say it?-more charismatic co-star, Clark Gable. Amongst the support players not commended as yet, I'd like to single out Frank Morgan and Clinton Sundberg as contributors of the most fun. Both are artists with an ability to transmute silvery dialogue into pure entertainment gold. Technically, the movie benefits from Sidney's sometimes lively direction and the always superb camerawork of Harold Rosson. Some real city hall-type locations are effectively utilized too.OTHER VIEWS: The comedy takes a distinct second place to romance, though it does incorporate a few fast action highlights of which the first, a slapstick brawl in a Chinese night club, is by far the funniest and most inventively far-fetched. As might be expected, the script's opportunities for political satire are crowded out by the main virile-male-meets-girl-of-his-dreams plot, but George Sidney's direction has its clever moments and Harold Rosson's photography is never less than skilfully atmospheric. A big budget helps too.

Clark Gable must have felt some nostalgia when he heard the song San Francisco played in this film. It certainly must have brought back memories of the classic 1936 film with that name with his co-stars Spencer Tracy and Jeanette MacDonald.On the other hand, we have a silly little film where Gable and Loretta Young play 2 mayors who meet and fall in love at a San Francisco convention. Along the way, they fumble into difficulty where they keep being sent downtown to the local jail.The movie would have even been better if they had concentrated on the political corruption that Mayor Fisk, (Gable) had encountered with a very corrupt Raymond Burr, the latter working for a terribly corrupt party boss.Of course, speaking of fumbling, Gable and Young do just that into falling in love. Clara Blandick, Lewis Stone, Marilyn Maxwell, and Frank Morgan provide ample support, but we essentially have an inane story here.

This is a very entertaining film with two great actors, Clark Gable, (Steve Fisk) and Loretta Young,(Clarissa Standish) who performed like magic together in this film. These two actors made this film a great success with lots of laughs, romance and drama. In real life, Clark Gable and Loretta Young had a baby and kept it a secret until many years later. This warm feeling between these two actors made this film even more enjoyable. Frank Morgan, (Fire Chief Duggan) gave a great supporting role and lots of comic fun to this film along with Marilyn Maxwell, (Sheila) who played a sexy role as a platinum blonde who did a balloon dance with the balloons all being exploded. Raymond Burr, (Les Taggart) plays a rough and tough longshoreman who gets into a big fight with Steve Fisk. There is nice old scenes from San Francisco and this is truly a great film classic from 1950.

Fifteen years earlier Clark Gable and Loretta Young did Call of the Wild for her studio which was then 20th Century Fox. They had a most discreet affair which resulted in the birth of Young's daughter Judy. Back in those days Young indulged in an elaborate charade and 'adopted' her own daughter as a single mother. Nothing quite as earth shattering as that happened on the set of Key to the City which was made for Gable's MGM. Still it's an interesting comedy drama about a pair of small city mayors who meet at a convention in San Francisco and fall in love.Young is a proper New England mayor from an old stock family in Wynona, Maine. Gable is mayor of the small city of Puget City on the Pacific coast and started out as a longshoreman. He ran on a reform ticket, but the special interests that he beat are still very much alive and represented here in the person of sinister Raymond Burr.It's a convention and people kind of let their hair down at conventions, Clark and Loretta are no different. And San Francisco is quite the romantic town.One of MGM's most beloved players, Frank Morgan, plays Gable's fire chief complete with brogue and all. It was one of his last films and Morgan kind of borrows a bit from Ed Wynn and his famous Texaco fire chief from radio. Also featured well is Lewis Stone as Young's uncle, a federal judge and a most proper and aristocratic gentlemen and Marilyn Maxwell who Gable rejects for Young and is determined to get a little payback. Highlight of the film is the chick fight going on between Young and Maxwell while Gable and Burr are slugging it out.Key to the City is not on the top ten or even top twenty of either Clark Gable or Loretta Young's film credits. But it is still quite amusing even after almost 60 years.