Reel SF

San Francisco movie locations from classic films

San Francisco movie locations from classic films

One On Top Of The Other - Dead Ringer

Then … George exits the Broadway Parking Station on the left in North Beach at 425 Broadway, close to Montgomery Street (map). Across the street looking west down Broadway we see the colored signs of the Finocchio club at 506 Broadway, Vanessi’s restaurant at 498 Broadway and the Chi Chi club at 440 Broadway.

… and Now, All of those establishments have since closed - Chi Chi’s is currently The Cosmo Bar and Lounge - but parking is still available where the Broadway Parking Station was.

 

Then … He turns the corner and heads two blocks south to 807 Montgomery Street where he enters Varni’s Roaring Twenties nightclub, famous for its nude girl-on-a-swing. A gas station, Tripoli’s was adjacent to it on the corner of Jackson Street and the Jackson Square garage (with the Chevron sign) was on the corner across Jackson.

… and Now, the club closed down years ago; the building is now either vacant or closed during the pandemic. A new office building replaced Tripoli’s gas station in 1987.

In Blake Edward’s terrific 1962 noir Experiment In Terror, Glen Ford watches Lee Remick enter the same club, described in more detail here.

In 2010, Citysleuth took this photo of the club building which at that time was occupied by the law offices of well-known lawyer Arnold Laub, a risible change from its preceding licentious tenant.

 

Then … The club was on two floors. The upper was at street level; it had a large opening in the center, protected by a surrounding railing which allowed a clear view down to the lower floor where we see George walking to his table. Check out the girl-on-a-swing.

… and Now, Arnold Laub let Citysleuth access the building in 2010. This is the street level - the Montgomery Street entrance is straight ahead. By then the floor opening had been filled in and the space completely remodeled into offices.

 

Then … Jane figured out where George had gone and joined him. From here the railing at the upper level can be seen at the top of the stairs behind the girl-on-a-swing.

… in 2010 … the filled-in upper floor opening is partially visible here looking up from what used to be the club’s lower level.

 

To the titillation of the audience the featured stripper, Monica Weston (Austrian actress Marisa Mell, again) performs a strip-tease astride a gold-plated 1958 Harley-Davidson Duo Glide.

They both watch, open-mouthed - the stripper is a dead ringer for George’s dead wife, Susan. Meanwhile in the background we spot the insurance agent, still watching George’s every move.

 

On a trivia note, a year earlier George C Scott dined in the upper level of Varni’s Roaring Twenties club in the 1968 movie Petulia. There’s the girl-on-a-swing again! This scene was definitely filmed at Varni’s but differences in the railing and the swing details between the two movies gives Citysleuth a sneaking feeling that director Fulci recreated the club at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome (where most if not all of the movie’s interiors were filmed), inspired perhaps by Hitchcock’s studio recreation of Ernie’s restaurant in Vertigo.

 

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