Reel SF

San Francisco movie locations from classic films

San Francisco movie locations from classic films

Filtering by Tag: Lower Haight

Walk A Crooked Mile - Expendable

Then … The FBI agents follow communist sympathizer Radchek to a house in the Hayes Valley/Lower Haight district where he has rented a room in a Victorian Italianate building with three identical side-by-side units - 151, 153 and 155 Octavia Street bordering Rose Street (map).

and Now, that building has been torn down, replaced as has so often happened with a contemporary structure, 200 Rose Street, contributing no architectural interest whatsoever. Because of its ground floor garages this is one of the thousands of so-called ‘soft’ structures in San Francisco that are vulnerable to the next big earthquake unlike the extant solidly magnificent Victorians still standing across Rose Street.

 

Radchek climbs the middle set of stairs. Later he tells a contact that he is staying at “153 Octavia Street, 2nd floor front” which is the correct and precise address; unusual for a film script not to use a fictitious address, even back then.

Then … Ahead, Page street crosses in this view down Octavia from the newel post of the staircase above and that’s the Page Street Market on the corner at 198 Page.

Later … this 1991 view across Page and down Octavia shows dramatic changes. By 1959 the double-decker Central Freeway had been built after widening Octavia by razing several blocks of houses on its east side. The Page Street Market would have been under the freeway at the right edge of this photo.

and Now, another dramatic change! The freeway, damaged in the 1989 earthquake, was closed in 1996 and torn down in the early 2000’s, transforming Octavia into a wide, tree-lined road free of concrete blight.

 

O’Hara wiretaps Radchek’s phone and hears him speak to a contact - ‘Igor’. Not much to go on, but a definite lead.

Shortly afterwards they find, apparently deemed expendable by his contacts, Radchek’s murdered body in his room. The search for the FBI agent’s killer goes on.

 

The Laughing Policeman - Find Rodney

    Following up on the snitch's lead Jake sends Larsen and Larimer to root out suspect Rodney Davis.  They head to a neighborhood where the locals' sixth sense is evident as their unmarked car cruises by...

    ... and again here ... (anyone recognize these two locations? Tell CitySleuth!).

 

Then ... As they approach their destination they pass a brick-walled corner bar, the notorious, if not nefarious, Hank's 500 Club at 500 Haight Street on the corner of Fillmore in the Lower Haight (not to be confused with the other 500 Club at 500 Guerrero in the Mission).

... and Now,  it's still brick-walled but now has windows and a slimmed-down corner post.  The Wonderland Chinese restaurant is the current tenant.

 

Then ...  They pull up in front of the American Veterans Club at 530 Haight and the street kids scatter (map).

... and Now,  not a fictitious name, this was a real club at this location but it had closed down at the time the movie was filmed.  Today The Mad Dog In The Fog bar is the occupant. (Note the lumpy road patch - typical of today's SF streets - the roads were in much better shape 40 years ago).

 

Then ...  As they enter the club we see Lou's and Brown's Used Furniture store at 525 Haight across the street.

... and Now,  the Indian restaurant Tandoor on Haight has occupied 525 Haight in recent years but in 2014 a Chinese eatery, Ming Yao H, took over, daring to offer direct competition to Wonderland a half block away.

 

Then ...  They stumble on an illegal gambling game inside the club.  Larsen flaunts his authority by mixing up their chips...  Duhhh!... not surprisingly when he asks if anybody knows Rodney Davis he's met with peeved silence.

... and Now,  the Mad Dog In The Fog bar has replaced the unpretentious surroundings above with a Falstaffian conviviality.  The round pillars are still there, behind the bar which has been pushed out and extended.

 

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