Vertigo (1958)
The Movie
Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo has been a huge audience favorite since it premiered in San Francisco at the Stage Door Theater at 420 Mason Street on May 9, 1958. The confusion of James Stewart's character Scottie is perfectly captured as he follows the entranced Kim Novak's Madeleine around the vertiginous streets of the city. Obsession is the key word here when he is drawn not once, but twice, into the suffocating embrace of a beautiful woman.
The Story
Detective Scottie Ferguson (Stewart) is hired to trail Madeleine (Novak), the wife of an old acquaintance, and report back on her strange wanderings. She leads him all over town and beyond and appears to be possessed by the spirit of her great grandmother, Carlotta Valdes. After succeeding in saving her from a suicidal jump into San Francisco Bay then failing to save her, because of a vertigo attack, from a fatal fall at a California Mission, he is almost catatonic with grief until he sees a woman on a downtown street who looks remarkably like Madeleine (Novak, again). The mystery deepens when he cannot resist once again imposing himself on her ...
(Watch the trailer)
The Locations -
- Rooftop Chase The rooftops of 1302 to 1360 Taylor Street --- 1329 Taylor Street (where the camera was)
- Midge's Apartment 298 Union Street at Montgomery Street
- Gavin Elster's Office Bethlehem Shipyards, Illinois Street and 19th Street, Potrero Point
- Ernie's Restaurant 847 Montgomery Street
- Madeleine's Apartment Brocklebank Apartments, 1000 Mason Street, at Sacramento
- Scottie Follows Madeleine - 1 Brocklebank Apartments to Podesta Baldocchi Flower Shop
- Flower Shop Alley Ashburton, off Grant Avenue between Sutter and Post--- Claude Lane, near Sutter Street and Kearny Street--- 239 Kearny Street's Rear Entrance in Claude Lane
- Flower Shop Podesta Baldocchi, 224 Grant Avenue, Union Square
- Scottie Follows Madeleine - 2 Claude Lane to Mission Dolores
- Cemetery, Mission Dolores, Dolores Street between 16th and 17th Streets
- Scottie Follows Madeleine - 3 Mission Dolores to Palace of the Legion Of Honor
- Art Gallery and The Portrait Of Carlotta Palace of the Legion Of Honor, Lincoln Park
- Scottie Follows Madeleine - 4 Lincoln Park to the Western Addition
- McKittrick Hotel The Henry F. Fortmann Mansion, 1007 Gough, at Eddy
- Argosy Book Shop 225 Powell Street, between Geary and O'Farrell
- Gavin Elster's Club Pacific Union Club, 1000 California Street at Mason, Nob Hill
- Scottie Follows Madeleine - 5 Lincoln Park to Fort Point
- Fort Point Marine Drive, the Presidio
- Scottie's House 900 Lombard Street at Jones, Russian Hill
- Scottie Follows Madeleine - 6 Brocklebank Apartments to 900 Lombard Street
- Communing With The Redwoods Big Basin Redwoods State Park
- At The Coast Cypress Point, 17 Mile Drive, Monterey Peninsula
- Scottie Can't Sleep Stockton Street at Geary, Union Square
- Mission San Juan Bautista Highway 101 south of the 156 East turn-off--- The 156 East turn-off--- Mission San Juan Bautista
- Death Plunge Mission San Juan Bautista
- Madeleine's Inquest and Grave Site Plaza Hall, Mission San Juan Bautista--- Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, Section 'I', Colma
- Nervous Breakdown East view from the Top O' The Mark--- 355 Buena Vista Avenue East--- City vista from Twin Peaks
- Look-alike 224 Grant Avenue, Union Square
- Empire Hotel 940 Sutter Street
- Palace of Fine Arts Baker Street at Beach, Marina district
- Resurrection Ransohoffs, 259 Post Street, Union Square--- Empire Hotel, 940 Sutter Street
- Carlotta's Necklace Mission San Juan Bautista