Reel SF

San Francisco movie locations from classic films

San Francisco movie locations from classic films

Dark Passage - Plastic Surgeon

  Parry has decided to undergo plastic surgery to drastically alter his appearance.  That way he improves his chances of avoiding arrest while seeking out the real killer of his wife.  He befriends a cab driver who just happens to know an off-register surgeon.

  The surgeon's address is not precisely defined in the movie - the address mentioned, 21 Plum Alley, is fictitious.  However, it can be inferred from the street scene below where Parry is hanging around outside the surgeon's address waiting for the appointed time.  A passerby walks up a hill which is so steep that the sidewalk is a staircase.

Then ...  This is the corner of Kearny looking down from Vallejo to Broadway (map).  The first vertical neon sign down the road on the left corner at Broadway belongs to the popular Vanessi's Restaurant, at that site since 1936.

... and Now, there is remarkably little change, but Vanessi's moved to Nob Hill in 1986 and eventually closed down in 1997.

 

The surgeon, Dr. Walter Coley (Houseley Stevenson, in a wonderful cameo) and the cabbie (Tom D'Andrea) are ready and waiting for Parry when he enters the house - cash changes hands and he goes under the knife.  Don't you love that cigarette!

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