Harockerce What a beautiful movie!

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Lechuguilla A fictional, semi-plausible story about Chicago's O'Leary clan precedes the main event ... the real-life Great Chicago Fire, which consumes the final twenty-five minutes of the film's plot. Mrs. O'Leary (Alice Brady) overlords her three grown sons who set up shop and endeavor to make names for themselves in the bustling city, in the 1867 to 1871 time period.The plot focuses mostly on two of the sons: Jack (Don Ameche) who strives to be a lawyer in the conservative, moralist mode; and Dion (Tyrone Power), a conniving, dishonest opportunist and master manipulator. These two are at odds on most things, but as O'Learys, they sometimes manage to act as bonded brothers. The dialogue line: "We O'Learys are a strange tribe" recurs often. Belle Fawcett (Alice Faye) is the story's love interest. She's a glamorous, talented singer and showgirl who performs on-stage at the Senate, a high-priced show palace, complete with chandeliers and top hat wearing VIPs.As we would expect for a film in the disaster genre, all this character hubbub contains lots of dialogue, and an underlying sense of doom, since viewers know ahead of time that the melodrama is getting ready to end, courtesy of Mrs. O'Leary's cow.In point of fact, the idea that the fire began because a cow kicked over a lantern in a straw filled barn is patently false. However, the fire did indeed start in or near the O'Leary residence at 137 DeKoven Street which today, interestingly, houses the fire department's training school.Almost all buildings plus sidewalks, at the time of the great fire, were made of highly flammable wood. There hadn't been rain in months. And a strong wind propelled the spread of the fire. Special effects for the fire sequence are quite good, given the era of filmmaking. There are lots of close-ups in this sequence, probably because the whole affair was filmed on studio back lots; there are a few long shots, but not many. Overall, the film's B&W photography is okay. But it seems grainy by today's standards.My main complaint is that the film spends too much time on the O'Leary family melodrama, and not nearly enough time on the fire disaster. Would like to have seen the interior of the Senate as it burned. As I recall, all of the camera shots of the fire were exterior shots.As a disaster film, "In Old Chicago" parallels the film "San Francisco", about the great 1906 earthquake. I think I like "San Francisco" better. But "In Old Chicago" is worth viewing, mostly for the final twenty-five minute fire disaster sequence.

edwagreen There were so many similarities to this wonderful film as well as "San Francisco," the film from the year before. Both had dance hall queens, politics at its worst, and disasters depicted on the screen as never before- earthquake and that terrible fire.As the tough, but understanding mother with wonderful values, Alice Brady was awarded the best supporting actress award for her grand performance. She was equally assisted by Tyrone Power, Don Ameche and Alice Faye, all of whom would appear together in "Alexander's Rag Time Band."Politics, as we know, is a dirty business but when it divides families, things really can't get much worse. Given the advent of the great Chicago family,just when the political pot was boiling, gave this film so much steam to plod ahead.Don Ameche is perfect as the ideal brother who became mayor of the town; but at a cost. Tyrone Power was in fine shape as his gambler brother, and Alice Faye, the dance hall girl, Power loved showed had what it took in the part. Brian Donlevy is at his ferocious best as the rascal who brought about the tragic ending.

CCsito Many people are more familiar with Gone with the Wind than this movie when it came out 1 year earlier. From seeing this movie, I noticed certain common traits that both movie share. The epic Chicago fire of 1870 is shot on a very large scale with a cast of thousands. It rivals the burning of Atlanta from Gone with the Wind. The movie has a black woman worker for the main female lead in the film similar to Gone with the Wind. And the movie has probably the strongest speech at the end of the movie (by the O'Leary's mother character) that rivals the ending speech from Gone with the Wind. The movie concerns the O'Leary family who move to Chicago in search of new opportunities. A single mother and her three sons live and grow up in the city. One of the sons (Tyrone Power) meets and falls in love with Alice Faye. The plot and storyline of the movie is somewhat weak and could have used some revision to make the movie better. The movie's strong points are the shots of the Chicago streets, the staging of the Great Fire, and the large cow stampede scenes. This is one of the earlier disaster movie themes that took quite a lot of cast members and staging in order to execute the overall disaster event.

kenjha It must have seemed like a no-brainer to make a film about the Great Chicago Fire. Unfortunately, no brains were used in developing the story that would climax with the fire. The story about sibling rivalry between the sons of Mrs. O'Leary, whose cow supposedly started the fire, is incredibly lame and dull. The melodramatic script is unbearably syrupy in handling the mother-son relationship on one hand while romanticizing sexual assault on the other hand. Power looks very handsome but is somewhat lackluster as the bad brother while Ameche has the thankless role of the good brother. Brady's thickly-accented performance is hardly Oscar-worthy. At least the fire is well filmed.