Reel SF

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 -

1. Rooftop Chase   The rooftops of 1302 to 1360 Taylor Street --- 1329 Taylor Street (where the camera was)
2. Midge's Apartment   298 Union Street at Montgomery Street
3. Gavin Elster's Office   Bethlehem Shipyards, Illinois Street and 19th Street, Potrero Point
4. Ernie's Restaurant   847 Montgomery Street
5. Madeleine's Apartment   Brocklebank Apartments, 1000 Mason Street, at Sacramento
6. Scottie Follows Madeleine - 1   Brocklebank Apartments to Podesta Baldocchi Flower Shop
7. 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
8. Flower Shop   Podesta Baldocchi, 224 Grant Avenue, Union Square
9. Scottie Follows Madeleine - 2   Claude Lane to Mission Dolores
10. Cemetery,  Mission Dolores, Dolores Street between 16th and 17th Streets
11. Scottie Follows Madeleine - 3   Mission Dolores to Palace of the Legion Of Honor
12. Art Gallery and The Portrait Of Carlotta   Palace of the Legion Of Honor, Lincoln Park
13. Scottie Follows Madeleine - 4   Lincoln Park to the Western Addition
14. McKittrick Hotel   The Henry F. Fortmann Mansion, 1007 Gough, at Eddy
15. Argosy Book Shop   225 Powell Street, between Geary and O'Farrell
16. Gavin Elster's Club   Pacific Union Club, 1000 California Street at Mason, Nob Hill
17. Scottie Follows Madeleine - 5   Lincoln Park to Fort Point
18. Fort Point   Marine Drive, the Presidio
19. Scottie's House   900 Lombard Street at Jones, Russian Hill
20. Scottie Follows Madeleine - 6   Brocklebank Apartments to 900 Lombard Street
21. Communing With The Redwoods   Big Basin Redwoods State Park
22. At The Coast   Cypress Point, 17 Mile Drive, Monterey Peninsula
23. Scottie Can't Sleep   Stockton Street at Geary, Union Square
24. Mission San Juan Bautista   Highway 101 south of the 156 East turn-off---  The 156 East turn-off---  Mission San Juan Bautista
25. Death Plunge   Mission San Juan Bautista
26. Madeleine's Inquest and Grave Site   Plaza Hall, Mission San Juan Bautista---  Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, Section 'I', Colma
27. Nervous Breakdown   East view from the Top O' The Mark---  355 Buena Vista Avenue East---  City vista from Twin Peaks
28. Look-alike   224 Grant Avenue, Union Square
29. Empire Hotel   940 Sutter Street
30. Palace of Fine Arts   Baker Street at Beach, Marina district
31. Resurrection   Ransohoffs, 259 Post Street, Union Square---  Empire Hotel, 940 Sutter Street
32. Carlotta's Necklace   Mission San Juan Bautista