This story of the San Francisco Tenderloin and the 1906 earthquake centers on four strongly drawn characters played by four major stars. The lead, of course, is Clark Gable as Blackie Norton. The prototype for Gable's role was Wilson Mizner, a gambler from the Barbary Coast and a close friend of Miss Loos. Mizner embodied the "imagination and braggadocio" that Loos saw as characteristic of San Francisco. Gable is perfect. His Blackie Norton...