Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Powerful

Must See Movie...

Brilliant and touching

Nob Hill versus the Gold Coast of San Francisco at the turn of the century. As the film went along, I thought for sure that everything would turn with the coming of the 1906 earthquake. This never did materialize but we have a very good film nonetheless.For a charge, George Raft isn't his usual gangster self. He runs a hall at the Coast and is even against corruption and when he falls for Joan Bennett, a classy dame from Nob Hill, he is fooled to support her brother for District Attorney, and therefore alienates the others of the town, and loses the affection of Vivian Blaine, who sings for him while having great love for him.In the same year that she made the memorable A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Peggy Ann Garner made this film as well and she steals it as the Irish lassie who came over to be with her bartender uncle only to learn of his death upon her arrival. By a quirk of fate, she introduces Raft to Bennett who had traveled with her and the picture goes on from there.The set designs are absolutely opulent and the color of Natalie Kalmus was never better. Beautifully realized view of a wonderful point in history.

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!

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!