Key to the City (film)


Key to the City is a 1950 American romantic comedy film starring Clark Gable and Loretta Young as mayors who meet at San Francisco, and despite their contrasting personalities and views, they fall in love. It marked the final film role of Frank Morgan and Clara Blandick.

Plot

Steve Fisk is the mayor of a town called Puget City. At a convention in San Francisco, he mistakes Clarissa Standish, the mayor of Wenonah, Maine, for a "balloon dancer" he was expecting.
A former longshoreman, Steve feels that Clarissa might be too refined a woman for him, but he is definitely attracted. He needs to be careful, however, because a crooked city councilman Les Taggart would love to have any hint of scandal to use against Steve politically back home.
Steve proceeds to inadvertently get Clarissa arrested twice - first after a brawl in a Chinatown restaurant, then on their way to a costume party. A photographer clicks a picture of Clarissa making it appear she is at the police station for public drunkenness. She does not think it funny, but her uncle, Judge Silas Standish, is privately delighted that the prim Clarissa seems to finally be loosening up.
The balloon dancer, Sheila, shows up, causing Clarissa to conclude incorrectly that Steve is going to see her. And she is irate when Steve disappears, unaware that he had to hurry home for a hastily called council vote. The truth is, Steve wants to marry Clarissa, and cannot wait to present her with the key to his city.

Cast

According to MGM records, the film earned $2,296,000 in the US and Canada, and $677,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $298,000.