Gambling halls, nightclubs, ambitious showgirls, Nob Hill socialites, and a doozy of an earthquake Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracey are a few of the plucky denizens whose spirits can't be crushed by a mere 8.6 temblor. And of course there's that fabulous song! 1936 (115 min)

Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) return home to Nob Hill to find a murder among their very own family. One murder leads to another, and the quick-quipping sleuths and their faithful dog, Asta, are soon buried under a wealth of conflicting clues. A young Jimmy Stewart joins the fun. One of 6 films directed by W.S. Van Dyke in 1936! 113 min.

SAN FRANCISCO follows films from Library of Congress showing San Francisco before and after the Quake, "The City Quakes: The San Francisco Earthquakes of 1906 and 1989" in 3-D presented by Bob Bloomberg, plus rare surprises. "The City Quakes: The San Francisco Earthquakes of 1906 and 1989" (18 min.)

The great earthquake and fire of 1906 was the first natural disaster of its kind to be covered as a major media event. Photographers from around the world converged on the devastated city, some of them shooting in the popular new medium of stereo photography. This show features their fascinating 3-D images, as well as never before seen stereo photos of both the 1906 and 1989 Loma Prieta quake. (Original score by Robert Bloomberg.)

Plus THEY SURVIVED THE '06 EARTHQUAKE - live performance of excerpts Multi Ethnic Theater's production with eyewitness accounts from the famous and not so-so-famous.

Pre-Code girls-in-prison drama has everything. Gun moll Barbara Stanwyck is thrown into San Quentin (which looks more like a summer resort than a house of detention), where she becomes a hard-bitten prison-block leader, spearheading a jailbreak. 1933 ( 69 min)

One of the fastest-moving crime melodramas of the 1930s Fog Over Frisco still leaves viewers breathless. Top-billed Bette Davis plays giddy heiress Arlene Bradford, whose perverse fascination with gangsters gets her mixed up in a stolen-securities scheme and murder. 1934 (68 min)

"The Birds Is Coming." Hitchcock's classic about a woman (Tippi Hedren) and mass bird attacks that follow her. Not for the squeamish; a delight for those who are game. Hold on to something and watch. Script by Evan Hunter, loosely based on Daphne du Maurier's story. 1963 (120 min)

Burt Lancaster is Robert Stroud, a withdrawn prison inmate who cures a sick bird that flies into his cell. While serving a life sentence, much of it at the notoriously brutal Alcatraz he becomes a noted ornithologist, aborts a riot, starts a romance, and gets his story out through a determined reporter (Edmond O'Brien). Based on a true story. Directed by John Frankenheimer. 1962 (143 min)

Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, and Kim Novak star in this Rodgers and Hart musical adaptation of John O'Hara's story about a wealthy former stripper who agrees to finance a cocky saloon singer's San Francisco nightclub if the he will abandon the woman he loves. Great songs include "I Could Write a Book," "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" and "The Lady is a Tramp." 1957 (111 min)

Entertaining drama about a gold-digger (Miriam Hopkins) who arrives in San Francisco with dreams of wealth, eventually hooking up with the ruthless gangster (Edward G. Robinson) who controls the town before she falls in love with an idealistic farmer (Joel McCrea). Directed in fast-paced style by Howard Hawks. 1935 (90 min)

"I want to report a murder...mine." So begin this famous film-noir murder mystery with an inventive twist: the victim as "detective," desperately trying to solve his own murder. An accountant on vacation in San Francisco gets a dose of lethal, slow-acting poison. He then begins a desperate search for the individual responsible for his impending demise. 1950 (93 min)

[first lines] Homicide Detective: Can I help you? Frank Bigelow: I'd like to see the man in charge. Homicide Detective: In here... Frank Bigelow: I want to report a murder. Homicide Captain: Sit down. Where was this murder committed? Frank Bigelow: San Francisco, last night.

Homicide Captain: Who was murdered? Frank Bigelow: I was

A salesman marries a wealthy woman from a blue-blooded L.A. family and a street-smart waitress in a San Francisco Chinese restaurant. Driven to this agonizing extreme more by his big heart than lust, the bigamist strains to keep his double life a secret from the women he truly loves. Edmond O'Brien, Joan Fontaine and Ida Lupino (who also directed). 1953 (80 min)

An absent-minded professor (Ryan O'Neal) and a flaky college girl (Barbra Streisand) in Peter Bogdanovich's hilarious salute to the screwball comedies of the 1930s. Riotous SF chase scenes in pursuit of all of the following: stolen top-secret government documents, missing jewels, and lost igneous rocks. Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars and Austin Pendleton will make you laugh aloud. 1972 (94 min)

Woody Allen's directorial debut is a riotous mockumentary about a crook who tries to pull off heists and robberies in The City by the Bay but never to any avail because of his incredible incompetence -- such as using a fake gun made of soap--and getting caught in the rain. 1969 ( 85 min)

Bank Teller #1: Does this look like "gub" or "gun"? Bank Teller #2: Gun. See? But what does "abt" mean? Virgil: It's "act". A-C-T. Act natural. Please put fifty thousand dollars into this bag and act natural. Bank Teller #1: Oh, I see. This is a holdup?