The Exiles was filmed entirely in and around the Bunker Hill neighborhood of late 1950s Los Angeles. So why include it in a San Francisco movie location blog? Well, two reasons. First, CitySleuth found out the hard way after scouring the city a number of times for locations featured in San Francisco movies that they had been filmed in Bunker Hill. As it turns out, L.A.'s Bunker Hill and S.F.'s Telegraph Hill had much in common with their turn-of-the-century wooden buildings, steps and steep streets. And second, because in researching these sites over the years CitySleuth has come to know and love the old Bunker Hill so well despite never having been there and despite its total erasure by the end of the 1960s. So imagine his delight in coming across this wonderfully restored movie and witnessing the preservation of sorts of so many locations from a bygone era. Such nostalgia, ergo it cried out to be shared.
Before we get to the movie, here are three scenes from different San Francisco films that stymied CitySleuth for a while before he zeroed in on Bunker Hill ...
Woman On The Run (1950) ... The police arrive to investigate a murder at the top of a steep flight of steps. This was filmed on Court Hill above the Hill Street tunnel in Los Angeles' Bunker Hill neighborhood. The building to the left at the bottom of the hill is the Bunker Hill Central Police Station at 1st Street and at right, receding south into the distance, is Hill Street and downtown Los Angeles.
... and Now, the steps and tunnel are gone and the hill flattened - here's Hill Street looking south from 1st Street today. The police station on the corner is gone too but worse, to the dismay of many, the very soul of the old neighborhood has been ripped out.
Sudden Fear (1952) ... An enraged Jack Palance aims his car at his wife Joan Crawford (who turns out instead to be his lover Gloria Grahame). Again, this is in Bunker Hill where she is running past the Mission Apartments at the corner of 2nd and Olive.
... in 1948 ... here's the same building in this vintage photo which also captures the balustrade above the 2nd Street tunnel and, below it, the Hotel Astor on the corner of Hill Street.
... and Now, again unrecognizable. Because of neighborhood ethnic cleansing, those wonderfully evocative old places now seem like figments of the imagination.
The Sniper (1952) ... Arthur Franz is seen walking on a street with a distinctive building behind him. This is Court Street on top of Court Hill in the Bunker Hill neighborhood and to get there he has just climbed the steep Court Flight steps leading up from Broadway between 1st and Temple. The building behind him across Broadway is the old Hall Of Records.
... c. 1940 ... this vintage photo shows a wider view looking down the same stretch of Court Street revealing more of the Hall Of Justice with City Hall behind it. The structure at the end of the street was the upper terminus of the Court Flight railway, still operational at that time but closed down and demolished by the time The Sniper was filmed.
... and Now, Court Street, and indeed the entire Court Hill, has been eradicated to make way for this parking lot. City Hall is in the background but the old Hall of Records, which would have been at the left of this photo, was torn down in 1979.
Joe's drinking habits have not gone unnoticed at his office. He is
demoted to a smaller account and, worse, the customer is in Houston
requiring lots of visits away from home.
Then ... He meets with his clients amongst a forest of derricks.
... in 1930 ... It's highly unlikely the director flew his leading man to Houston to shoot this scene. Why should he when there were lots of oil fields in and around Los Angeles? CitySleuth postulates that the scene was either filmed at the Signal Hill oil field at Long Beach (map), or a photo backdrop of Signal Hill was used in a studio setup. The photo below shows Signal Hill in the 1930s covered with derricks. The site was still producing when the movie was filmed.
... and Now, Signal Hill was originally
so-named by early Spanish settlers because of the local Indians' use of
the 365 foot hilltop to send smoke signals. After oil was
discovered in 1921 Signal Hill,
completely surrounded by the city of Long Beach, incorporated to minimize oil revenue taxes and by 1980 up to 300 wells
had produced 900 million barrels of oil. With its oil field mostly
depleted it is now a residential and commercial town. There are still
some producing wells dotted around; two nodding donkeys are seen below outside
Curley's, the venerable cafe at 1999 E. Willow Street near Cherry that
has been serving oilmen since 1932.
... and Now, a solitary reminder of the past stands at E. 27th and N. Olive Avenue.
Unlike the stage show which leaves Joey stranded on his own, the movie has a happy ending ... it is a Hollywood musical after all.
Linda pleads with Vera to reopen the club but she won't relent until Vera offers to leave. That achieved, Vera tells Joey not only that she's changed her mind but that she wants to marry him. But Joey refuses and for the first time Vera realizes that his feelings for Linda are genuine.
Then ... Joey returns to the empty club for one last sentimental look then leaves, with a passing farewell to the T-Bird. "So long little bird, don't pick up any nails".
... and Now, the same bird's eye view, shot from the apartment building next door, gives us another perspective of that incongruous privacy hedge.
Â
Across the street in Vera's car, she and Linda watch him leave. By now Vera has reconciled herself to her loss and motions Linda to go for it.
Then ... and go for it she does ... in front of the mansion he tells her to "beat it" but a passionate street-side kiss melts his butter and off they go, together. But wait a minute, what's wrong with this location shot?
... and Now, here's the real location below, viewed along Washington past the Spreckels Mansion from the Octavia Street corner. If the wall wasn't hidden you would quickly realize that it doesn't match the wall above - because it was a studio creation with a painted cityscape in the background.
... from 1956 ... this is obvious by comparing the wall in the movie above with the real wall seen in this vintage photo of the mansion as it was shortly before the time of the filming. Note the absence of trees and the presence of cable car tracks - this photo was taken just before they were torn up for good.
Then ... The schmaltzy 'Into The Sunset' shot is a view of the Golden Gate Bridge taken from between the St. Francis and the Golden Gate Yacht Clubs in the Marina district (map) with lurid sky no doubt courtesy of the art department.
... and Now, from the same spot today.
Then ... Lester desperately scours the downtown streets for the fleeing Myra. When he spots her he chases her through a maze of dark streets, back alleys and narrow stairways, all filmed not in San Francisco but in the Bunker Hill neighborhood of Los Angeles. During the chase Jack Palance, always a fitness nut, demonstrates his athleticism with several vaults, as below, over fences and railings.
... from the 1950s ... the building on the left, above, is the Boswell (aka Bozwell) Apartments at 245 S. Flower Street, below. In this vintage photo the alley steps and the handrail Lester vaulted over are along the left side of the building (that same lamppost on the pavement helps confirm the location). The apartments are next to the St. Regis Apartments, partially visible on the right. Modestly narrow in width, the Boswell stretched way back, motel style, half a block in length.
... and Now, the Boswell is long gone, but it would have been alongside this high-rise apartment tower, part of the Bunker Hill Towers complex, viewed from S. Flower Street near W. 3rd.
Then ... She gives him the slip and he continues to prowl the streets in his car. Meanwhile Irene is walking home, wearing a dark coat and white scarf, just like Myra. Here, she crests a steep block and crosses the street.
... from 1948 ... This vintage photo reveals where this corner was ... the Claridge Hotel at 428 W. 2nd in Bunker Hill.
Then ... Lester rounds a corner in a shot highlighted by the noir-lit building at the top of the street.
... and Now, this view looks west up 2nd Street to Grand Avenue. The lighted building above is the Dome Hotel Apartments. Today the same location is unrecognizable thanks (or no thanks depending on your point of view) to the redevelopment in the 1950s and 60s during which Bunker Hill was literally scraped away then built over. The corner spot where the Dome stood is now a part of a large open parking lot.
... from the glory days ... but we can at least enjoy photographs from the past - here's a closeup of the onion-topped Dome Hotel Apartments in its prime. Apartments started at $50 per month… furnished!
Then ... Lester mistakes Irene for Myra and angrily aims his car at her as she turns back and runs down 2nd towards Olive past a rather distinctive building.
... from 1948 ... here's the same building in this capture from a wonderful 1940s Bunker Hill video. It's the Mission Apartments at 504 W. 2nd Street at Olive. The corner building across Olive is the Claridge Hotel seen earlier in this post behind Irene as she crossed Olive. This informative image also captures the Hotel Astor on the corner of Hill Street and the balustrade above the 2nd Street tunnel.
... and Now, again, unrecognizable. Those wonderfully evocative old places now seem like figments of the imagination.
On a trivia note, Patricia Knight and Cornel Wilde were filmed in the 1949 movie Shockproof at this same location.
And it was used again in Stanley Kubrick's 1956 movie The Killing when Sterling Hayden drives to the Mission Apartments for a meeting.
Then ... Getting back to this movie ... at the last second Lester, his rage turning in an instant to horror, recognizes Irene and hits the brake. In a twist that punishes the schemers and spares the intended victim he plows into her and they are both killed, pinned by the up-ended car where it comes to rest in front of the side of the Claridge Hotel across Olive. In 1950s Hollywood movies, crime doesn't pay.
... from 1948 ... this vintage image gives us a daylight view of the same spot.
... and Now, this location has become a parking lot. Thankfully Los Angeles' art deco City Hall in the left background was left untouched by the wrecking ball.
As a bonus, here's a look at the fatal denouement from the reverse angle - the arrows overlaid on this 1940s photo show the path of Lester's car from the Dome Hotel Apartments on Grand Avenue, down 2nd Street past the Mission Apartments, striking Irene on Olive and coming to a halt alongside the Claridge Hotel just off the picture at far left.
