"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.

Joan Bennett was certainly correct when she said that the studio promoted Peggy Ann Garner and Vivian Blaine at the expense of George Raft and herself in this film. Peggy Ann should have been there just to introduce the Raft character of Tony Angel and show that he was a nice guy. Instead, the first fifteen minutes of the film and the last fifteen minutes are devoted to Peggy Ann adopting her new American family. It was a wise decision. She's terrific. In the main story, Wealthy Joan Bennett battles showgirl Vivian Blaine for the love of enterprising and well liked saloon owner George Raft. Blaine gets to sing and dance in four numbers. She does well, but it is a little unfair to Bennett, who only has her acting to rely on. Fortunately, she's a great actress, so she makes a good rival for Blaine. Raft apparently walked off the set at some point, because he didn't like his role. It is easy to see why. He plays it a little too dramatic for this light comedy and he takes himself too seriously. In the beginning, he beats up a cheating employee, but he does it in an unnecessarily brutal manner. It shows him to be a tough guy, but it is a little disturbing to the tone of the film. Certainly, someone with a softer comical touch like Jimmy Stewart, Joel McCrea or Cary Grant would have been a much better choice for the part. The Technicolor is beautiful and so are the sets and costumes. Director Henry Hathaway moves the camera and cuts the film in a smooth and seamless style. It is pretty much a pleasure to watch all the way through. See it for Peggy Ann Garner's wonderful performance, some good singing and dancing by Vivian Blaine and nice acting by Joan Bennett.

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.

My angel Peggy Ann Garner was, is and always will be the greatest actress who ever lived. Her immortal performance in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn will live forever, but her performance in Nob Hill ranks right along side Tree. Peggy Ann's cute little Irish accent will never be forgotten. Even George Raft knew how great Peggy Ann was when he co-starred with her in Nob Hill. This movie is very hard to find today- It is never shown on television but it can be found on Ebay if you are lucky. I love Peggy Ann Garner and she will always be my little angel! Peggy Ann is not with us anymore having died on Tuesday, October 16,1984 but she will always live in my heart through her great performances.GOD BLESS YOU,SWEETHEART!