Reel SF

San Francisco movie locations from classic films

San Francisco movie locations from classic films

Impact - "Meet me in Sausalito"

  Walter is looking forward to a trip to Tahoe with his wife Irene.  To save him returning to San Francisco that day from a meeting in San Rafael she suggests they meet up "in Sausalito ... there's a drugstore on the corner opposite the square".

Then ...  the camera pan gives us a good look at the drugstore, Rexall's, at 690 Bridgeway and El Portal Street, below the Hotel Sausalito and close by the Sausalito ferry terminal (map).

... and Now,  the Mission-Revival styled Sausalito Hotel is still there, in fact, since 1915.  One of the pair of elephant statues alongside the compact Vina Del Mar park can be seen to the left - brought there in 1915 from San Francisco's Panama-Pacific Exposition.

 

Then ...  Walter pulls up in his Packard roadster and crosses over to the drugstore to wait for Irene.

... and Now,  more than 60 years on it's no surprise that all of the stores' tenants have changed.  The drugstore is now a Fine Arts gallery.

 

Then ...  Irene doesn't show up so Walter goes into the store and calls her. 

... and Now,  the phone scene was filmed in a studio with a background photo of the San Francisco skyline across the bay.  Here's the same skyline today taken just steps from the store.  It spans Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill at far left to the Marina Green at far right where the lone highrise on the skyline is the apartment building at 2500 Steiner at Jackson.

 

  Irene (Helen Walker) tells him she can't join him because of a toothache but asks him to go anyway and take along her cousin Jim who needs a ride across country.  Walter hasn't met Jim but, because it's she who must be obeyed, he agrees.

 

Then ...  'Cousin Jim' Torrence (Tony Barrett) is really Irene's lover so we fear for the worst when he shows up to meet Walter, below, outside the store at the edge of the bay.  (CitySleuth's mind boggles - how can Irene, who has everything in Walter ... a doting husband ... the trappings of wealth, fall for a loser like this?  Welcome to the wonderful world of noir!)

... and Now,  the imposing hoist is gone and instead we see the ferry docking pier.  The background, as above, shows Belvedere on the left and Angel Island on the right.

 

Then ...  Walter and Torrence exit El Portal Street and begin the drive east.  The stores opposite include a bank on the right at 715 Bridgeway and that's a clock (a closer look is shown below) hanging from the bank's overhead sign.

... and Now,  the traffic on El Portal now flows the other way and that building still houses a bank, Wells Fargo.

 

 

 

Then ...  Here's a closer look at the bank's clock outside 715 Bridgeway.  Note the pair of globe light fixtures below it ...

... and Now, ... there are still globe fixtures on either side of the stairway but the bank sign has been replaced by a smaller Wells Fargo sign and the clock is gone.

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