AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Let M. 20th Century Fox was well known for remaking their stories over and over again. Nob Hill is a remake of Hello Frisco Hello! which was a remake of King of Burlesque also starring Alice Faye and Jack Oakie. The setting is the same, San Francisco in the early 1900's Even the intro is the same sequence used in Hello Frisco Hello! And even though the story is based on the same Pacific street character who wants to have a taste of Nob Hill, this story has a different twist.Little Katie Flannagan (Peggy Ann Garner), an Irish girl who is sent to America to stay with her uncle. She soon discovers he has passed away, leaving her with no place to stay. Luckily she is well received at the "Gold Coast" by the owner Tony Angelo (George Raft) and his lovely girlfriend (Vivian Blaine).The movie is entertaining and everybody is likable, even the snobbish Miss Carruthers (Joan Bennett). A mix of comedy, musical and drama with some great musical numbers showcasing Vivian Blaine's amazing voice.Bottom line it's a nice film, worth watching and adding to your collection!

jotix100 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.

bkoganbing Nob Hill is a significant milestone in the career of George Raft. This film marks the last time he would be starring in a A film product. From now on his films would be B films in which he would star or they would be A products like Some Like It Hot where he was in the supporting cast. Not a milestone I'm sure Raft counted with any kind of relish.In the George Raft biography by James Parrish, Raft's co-star Joan Bennett wrote the forward and this film marked the fourth and last time she was in a film with him. Raft was not happy making this film and did walk off the set for a short time. He felt that 20th Century Fox was building up Vivian Blaine and Peggy Ann Garner at the expense of him and Joan Bennett. She was inclined to be more philosophical than he about the vagaries of the film business. As we know he did come back and finish the movie.Raft plays the owner of one of the more upscale clubs on the Barbary Coast at the turn of the last century and Vivian Blaine is his chief attraction. One day into his life comes young Peggy Ann Garner who is fresh from Ireland because her uncle sent for her, her uncle being a bartender at Raft's joint. But in the meantime he's passed on.Nevertheless Garner's one Irish charmer and Raft decides he'll take care of her as does Blaine. Raft has ambitions however to get beyond the Barbary Coast and crash the genteel society on Nob Hill which Blaine calls Snob Hill. Fueling those ambitions is Joan Bennett with her brother Edgar Barrier running for District Attorney.His romantic and political entanglements get kind of mixed and his fellow entertainment barons on the Barbary Coast aren't happy with Raft's new friends. How Raft resolves all these personal and political problems is the basis for Nob Hill.If Raft was worried about who was being showcased, he was right. Peggy Ann Garner steals this film right out from under her adult co-stars. Maybe if Vivian Blaine had gotten some memorable songs from the team of Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson she might have been better served by the film as well.I've a feeling this film might very well have been intended for Betty Grable to co-star with Raft. She and Raft were an item back in the day before she married Harry James, maybe Darryl Zanuck thought he could have gotten some box office mileage. In any event Grable didn't do Nob Hill, not that her career would have been helped or hurt had she been in the cast.Joan Bennett's forward says that at all times George Raft was a classy gentleman and a terrific dancer. She recalled that many times she and husband Walter Wanger were out on the town and if Raft was in the same club, she inevitably got to dance with him.Nob Hill is a decent enough film that doesn't quite measure up to some of the other nostalgic type films that 20th Century Fox was putting out then that usually starred Betty Grable or Alice Faye. Still it's not bad and a must for fans of the winsome Peggy Ann Garner.

timothymcclenaghan 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.