San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now

“It ain’t over until the Sing Fat lady sings!” (Thumbnail image)

Foggy San Francisco, along with Los Angeles and New York is one of the best locations in the world for examples of the dark and mysterious genre known as film noir (black film). The following are some of the many images of film noir with San Francisco locations.

Arthur Franz, the “Sniper” runs up the rickety wooden Filbert Steps of Telegraph Hill after shooting another woman to death with his scope rifle. “This is developing into a very bad habit!!!!” This 1952 movie amazes me for its frankness of the subject matter, and its weird attempt to show understanding for this creep at the film’s ending. It’s also an extremely interesting movie; have a shot at it sometime. (Oooohhhh, Tim!) The wooden steps were replaced in the 1970’s, and the old warehouse below the steps, in the 1980’s.

A cab pulls up to Pier 5 on the Embarcadero with Tom Conway, the “Falcon” inside in the 1945 thriller ‘The Falcon in San Francisco’.

The Falcon putting the moves on a female suspect in front of Pier 5:

Stefanie Powers, nearly being run over on her way to 25th and Clement to be kidnapped by Ross Martin, in one of the last great film noir movies to be filmed in San Francisco, ‘Experiment in Terror’ from 1962.

Burritt Alley, where Sam Spade’s partner Miles Archer was “done in” by Brigid O’Shaughnessy in the Maltese Falcon, as depicted in the Humphrey Bogart film, and the actual alley. The red-brown colored building at the far left was not there when the book was written, and was the empty lot where Miles body rolled down to Stockton Street.

“Hi ya, Babe!”

“Get lost, creep!”

Not from a noir movie, but that girl in the Fred Lyon picture reminds me of Lauren Bacall. This flower stand was, and still is in front of the old I Magnin Store, now Louis Viutton across from Union Square.

I love it when I find an old Film Noir flicker with terrific San Francisco locations! Here, Glenn Ford approaches the Lefty O’Dould Bridge as the gates close in the 1949 crime thriller ‘Mr. Soft Touch’ He’s being chased by the “Mob” after robbing one of their casinos. That’s AT&T Park in the background now instead of the ship.

  Ford smashes through the gate without stopping.

The drawbridge rises forcing the mobsters to give up the chase. This was another hairy stunt you couldn’t get permission for today; if that car doesn’t stop, the driver goes over the edge!

Ford makes his getaway as the drawbridge rises behind him.

Ford’s lost the gangsters chasing him, but now he has the police after him. In the next scene, he’s in North Beach turning onto Union Street from Kearny.

He then turns right into Varennes Alley; not geographically coordinated with the previous scene, but that’s Hollywood.

Ford stops halfway down Varennes Alley and drops stolen money into a garbage can, five hundred thousand dollars, right around here. Where is that garbage can? WHERE IS THAT GARBAGE CAN????

Ford exits the alley at Union Street with the cops hot on his trail.

  Well, at least they didn’t get it!

Bob Hope leaves his office in the Trafalgar Building on California Street Hot on the trail of Dorothy Lamour and Peter Lorre in the comedy ‘My Favorite Brunette’ from 1947. The Trafalgar Building was demolished and is now a parking garage. Click on the link below for an update that I posted on this movie in January of 2017.

https://sfinfilm.com/2017/01/07/my-favorite-brunette-revisited/

A publicity still, and a behind the scene shot showing a sound man from ‘Mr. Soft Touch’. Still looking for this location. (Thumbnail image)

Addendum: In January of 2022, I was able to find this location with the help of one of the members of the San Francisco Remembered Facebook group. Check out the link below to the post that helped me find out the answer to where this location was.

Outclassed again (For Judy)

Two photos on the Baker Street steps at Broadway in the 1950’s, and a really dumb way to treat a broken leg! Trees have obscured the view from where the little guys were, but you can still see the dome of the Palace of Fine Arts near where the lady was. This is where the house was in the previous post with the photo from ‘Portrait in Black’.

Some interesting San Francisco buildings. At the left: The fictional building that would soon catch fire in the 1974 blockbuster ‘The Towering Inferno’. I still don’t know how this movie won an Oscar for cinematography! The Bank of America Building on California where some of the movie was filmed is, usually, a dark brown monolithic looking thing, but if you take a picture at the right spot, and the right time of day, it makes a good comparison. Second from the left: This image from some remarkable live footage at the Ferry Building was taken on Market Street the day after the 1906 Earthquake. For reasons that I’ve never really understood, the Ferry Building does not face Market Street squarely. That’s just one of those things I’ve always known, but never thought much about until now! Second from the right: I don’t know who lives in the mansion at 2898 Broadway in Pacific Heights. Probably, somebody with a stately name like Mrs. Basington-Basington or something, but it was used as the setting of Lana Turner’s home in the 1960 crime thriller ‘Portrait in Black’. At the right: The Columbus and Kearny intersection after the 1906 Earthquake; the City goes back about its business. That’s the steel skeleton of the Columbus Tower Building, now owned by Francis Ford Coppola. To the left of it was the Montgomery Block Building, built in 1853. This haunt of just about every prominent writer to visit San Francisco from Bret Harte to Mark Twain survived the 1906 Earthquake, and was demolished in 1959. The Transamerica Pyramid now occupies the spot.

Although set in Chicago, Francis Ford Coppola filmed the court trial scene for his 1988 movie ‘Tucker: The Man and His Dream’, starring Jeff Bridges with a cameo from his father, Lloyd, in Downtown Oakland. This location is at the Oakland City Hall and the Frank Ogawa Plaza. (Thumbnail image)

This 1974 episode of ‘The Streets of San Francisco’ filmed at the Montgomery Street BART Station was, surprisingly, well done, for what was sometimes a hokey TV show! “Buddy Boy” and Papa Cop (Michael Douglas and Karl Malden) crossing Sansome Street to the BART entrance for the Montgomery Station to break up a drug deal going down. Number One Bush Plaza with the Crown-Zellerbach Building is in the background.  

That happens to me all of the time too; the escalator is, usually, coming up when I’m going downstairs, and going down when I’m headed up. 

The Sansome Street entrance to BART: 

“Here, Buddy Boy. This BART arrest is on me.” I’ve been riding BART since it opened, and I don’t remember ever being able to get a ticket by feeding coins into the gates! Besides, they’re police officers conducting a drug bust; I don’t think that they have to pay! 

BART updates; brought to you by the now defunct Crocker Bank.   Closing the deal.  

Busted!  

One of the bad guys bolts for the exit with “Buddy Boy” hot on his tail! 

The bad guy gets Michael Douglas to drop his gun on the stairs by taking a hostage at knife point on the BART escalator. No Officer would do that today, and it’s unlikely any would have back then. 

But Mike’s not giving up.  

“You’re going down, dude!”  

  “Buddy Boy” takes down the knife wielding bad guy after a violent struggle. After everything is over, a concerned citizen asks if he can be of help. The look on Michael Douglas’s face tells it all. 

Off to jail. That’s 575 Market Street today under construction in the background of the TV show image.

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The marvelous Sutro Baths, and all that’s left today.

Point Lobos, before and after Sutro’s :

A wonderful image from John Martini’s book ‘Sutro’s Glass Palace’ of what the bathhouse looked like inside: That railing the lady is leaning against might have been the same spot where Eli Wallach gets a little pushy in some images you’ll see in a moment.

In the 1950’s, the swimming pools were converted to an ice skating rink.

Sutro’s burned down in June of 1966. That’s the Louis Restaurant on the right. It’s been there since 1937, and is one of my main pit stops for breakfast when I’m in the area.

The ruins of the Sutro Bath House; gone forever.

   It’s still the best look at Sutro’s you’ll ever get. When Eli Wallach tries to convince the head of organized crime, “The Man” who’s confined to a wheelchair, why he’s coming up short on a heroin shipment deal in the 1958 film ‘The Lineup’, “The Man” slaps him, and tells him, You’re dead!”. Not a good idea! Eli kicks him through the rail to his death on the ice skating rink below, taking out a skater, as well.