Reel SF

San Francisco movie locations from classic films

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San Francisco movie locations from classic films

Play It Again, Sam - Fearful

April 30, 2019  /  CitySleuth

Over coffee Allan cannot stop thinking about his affair. He rationalizes that Dick is sophisticated enough to accept that his wife might fall in love with his best friend…

Other than the smiley face poster, (does it read ‘Chuckburger’?) there aren’t enough clues here to figure out where this cafe was.

 

Then … But then, alarmed, he worries that Dick might be driven to suicide once he finds out, imagining him marching to his demise into the swirling surf at Ocean Beach at the westernmost edge of the city (map)…

… and Now, the tide is out in this recent view looking south from near the Cliff House. (That’s one of Golden Gate Park’s windmills on the left).

 

Then … But wait, it could be worse … perhaps it will be Allan’s life at risk - the sight of an Italian movie poster prompts him to imagine an enraged Dick on a vendetta.

… a vintage photo, he was passing the Palace Theater, opposite Washington Square park at the junction of Columbus and Powell in North Beach (map). This is an image of how it looked when the movie was filmed at which time it was also showing Chinese movies and was known as the Pagoda Palace.

After being closed for years the theater was demolished in 2013 when it was deemed the ideal spot to extract the two boring machines that had dug the twin Central Subway tunnels extending the T-Third Street line from near the Giant’s ballpark 1.7 miles north into Chinatown. (Read more about that here). The photo below captures a piece of one of them being hoisted from the retrieval shaft in 2014 at the old theater site. (Watch a time-lapse video of both machines being removed here).

… and Now, a new retail/condominium structure has been built on the site retaining the blade sign as a reminder of its historic past.

 

Then … Allan pictures himself as a bakery worker being attacked by fellow worker Dick, first amusingly with bread dough then, more seriously, with a knife. Behind him there’s a turn-of-the -century Italian baking oven, a clue as to the location.

CitySleuth is often asked how he finds a location. His search for this one is but one example, involving many dead ends but at each one finding a further lead to pursue.

In the 1970s the North Beach neighborhood was home to a host of bakeries, a good place to start looking. CitySleuth visited them all: the Liguria Bakery at 1700 Stockton is still there but their oven doesn’t match this one; Danilo’s at 516 Green, now Baonecci’s, also still has its oven but again, different; the Italian-Swiss Bakery, most recently Sylvia’s Pastry, at 1501 Grant was gutted just weeks ago and its oven removed but an unearthed vintage photo showed it also to be different. CitySleuth spoke to the owner of the Victoria Pastry Co. that back then was at Stockton and Vallejo but he ruled it out as the place. The store at 1351 Grant that once housed Figoni Hardware still has ovens downstairs, unused for decades, but they don’t match either. Finally, a hot lead: at the venerable Gino and Carlo bar the owner pointed CitySleuth across the street to where Cuneo Bakery used to be.

… and Now, the Cuneo Bakery site was at 523 Green Street; it’s now a Copy Center and sadly its old ovens are no longer there. CitySleuth was referred to Mark Sodini, owner of Sodini’s Restaurant across the street who used to work at the bakery. He confirmed that the movie scene was filmed at Cuneo; what’s more, he was upstairs in the building while the scene was being shot downstairs. Cuneo Bakery relocated years ago to South San Francisco where it continues as a wholesale business. The current co-owner Wendy Mallegni is the daughter of the family who owned and operated the North Beach site and she too confirmed that the scene was filmed here at 523 Green.

With the movie oven gone a matching photo isn’t possible but the extant example across the street in the basement of Baonecci’s at 516 Green is very similar, possiby the same manufacturer, and is offered here as consolation. Compare it to the ‘Then’ image above.

17 - fearful 7 (danilos, now baoneccis.jpg
 
3 Comments
tags / Ocean Beach, North Beach

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers - Cab ride

April 14, 2019  /  CitySleuth

Then … The pod mob continues to chase Matthew and Elizabeth, here passing Beppino’s, a Ristorante and Bar inside the PSA San Francisco Hotel at 1231 Market near 8th Street (map).

… and Now, the hotel is now the Hotel Whitcomb. Beppino’s is long gone; its entrance too, having been closed off with a convincing match to the exterior facade.

 

Then … We next see them walking on Broadway at Columbus in the North Beach red light district having apparently shaken off their pursuers. The brick arches behind them belong to the Condor Club (map), notorious since the 1960s for being the first club in the nation to feature topless (and later, bottomless) entertainment by their star stripper Carol Doda.

… and Now, the brightly back-lit posters above belonged to the adjacent topless club, Big Al’s. It segued over the years into an adult bookstore then a grocery store and finally a smoke shop before closing down. It has been shuttered for years.

CitySleuth would be remiss not to let us sneak a peek at why Ms. Doda was smirkily dubbed “the new Twin Peaks of San Francisco”. Forty four injections of silicone reportedly boosted her reputation.

 

Then … A short way along the block they pass the Roaring 20s club then get into a cab parked alongside the Hungry I club (for some reason its sign had been sanitized by masking the word ‘NUDE’).

… and Now, the Hungry I was, and still is, on the corner of Romolo Place, a steep alley that heralds the slopes of Telegraph Hill. (But don’t confuse it with the historic 1950s beat/folk era Hungry I club which used to be located in the basement of the International Hotel two blocks away at 599 Jackson Street). After all these years the Roaring 20s too is still there; it too had a predecessor - Varni’s Roaring 20s at 807 Montgomery Street.

 

As the cab pulls away take a look at who’s driving, in a cameo role. It’s Don Siegel who was the director of the original 1956 version of this movie. Siegel directed many other movies including the 1971 San Francisco classic Dirty Harry, starring Clint Eastwood.

 

Then … On their way through a tunnel the cabbie is unusually curious about where they are going. He wants to know why and the simultaneous appearance of a pair of motorcycle cops makes them fear that they are in the hands of pod people.

… and Now, this is the Robert C. Levy, aka Broadway, Tunnel (map), an underground link between Larkin and Powell Streets in the Russian Hill neighborhood. Built in 1952, it has aged well over the years. CitySleuth has driven through this tunnel dozens of times but only occasionally has he seen a pedestrian on the noisy six-block-long walkway on the right.

 

Then … When the cab stops at a police roadblock they slip out and run off. The overpass in the background has an ‘early freeway’ look which may have been upgraded or demolished today - CitySleuth had a hard time finding it.

… and Now, but reader Notcom (see comments below) identified it as the Essex Street on-ramp leading to eastbound I-80 on Harrison Street (map). The overpass at right crossing Harrison is the Fremont/Folsom exit from westbound I-80. Upgrades have since changed this exit structure significantly. The commercial building at left wasn’t built until 1982, after the movie scene was filmed.

 
 
8 Comments
tags / Mid Market, North Beach, Russian Hill

Play It Again, Sam - Elated

March 31, 2019  /  CitySleuth

Then … Allan relives his tryst as he strolls the streets with a smile on his face: “I was dynamite last night … I gave her my best moves”.

… and Now, filmed at the junction of Vallejo and Buchanan Streets in Cow Hollow (map), the view looks north along Buchanan across the Marina and the bay towards Angel Island and Tiburon. The tall masts provide night-time illumination for the George Moscone Softball Fields.

 

Then … Next, a couple of sight gags; first a tiny tyke yaps at him as he walks by, startling him into jumping backwards. Perhaps the perceptive pup somehow knew he’d been a naughty boy.

… and Now, this is a block and a half south of the previous shot, in front of 2614 Buchanan between Broadway and Pacific (map), which just happens to be Linda’s house.

 

Then … And finally nobody notices as Allan nonchalantly slaps an unsuspecting man reading a newspaper, knocking him over the edge of a low wall. The camera’s telescopic lens expands and draws in the distant Bay Bridge.

… and Now, this is the Vallejo Street cul-de-sac above Montgomery Street in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood (map). Despite being 5 blocks from the waterfront there’s an unobstructed view of the Bay Bridge from here … well, absent the trees, that is. (Much as CitySleuth would have liked an unobstructed matching view of the wall it’s nigh on impossible to capture because of residents’ omnipresent parked cars).

16 - elated 3 now.png
 

Then … In an antique store Allan shops for a music box, presumably a gift for Linda. He bumps into his ex, Nancy, and when she asks about girlfriends he denies he has one. Guilt is starting to set in. As she leaves the store note the business across the street; its sign is mostly obscured by the door but it ends in ‘GUE’. This is the big clue as to the location.

Union Street in Cow Hollow used to be the go-to place for antique stores and the 1972 city directory lists a men’s clothing store at 1858 Union called Union Rogue (which matches the U…….GUE above). And, there was an antique store directly opposite at 1861 Union called Urban Antiques which must have been where the scene was filmed. In a comment below, reader Ron Morehen describes how he was recruited to walk back and forth outside the store while the shooting took place inside. He confirms it was on Union Street but recalls the name as Seawall Antiques. A later directory lists both Urban Antiques and Seawall Newthings Gifts as being at 1861 Union in 1973 but this was published at least a year after the filming took place. Urban or Seawall, either way the antique store was at 1861 Union Street in Cow Hollow (map).

1972 City Directory

… and Now, this is a photo of the most recent business at 1861 Union, called Eurasian Interiors. But when CitySleuth stopped by for a matching photo he found it stripped bare in the midst of a major interior remodel. The Union Rogue men’s store that was across the street is now Ambiance, a women’s boutique.

 
2 Comments
tags / Cow Hollow, Pacific Heights

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers - On The Waterfront

March 19, 2019  /  CitySleuth

Then … The chase continues along the waterfront towards Pier 33 with the vengeful pod people in hot pursuit of Matthew and his friends.

… and Now, The pier, on the Embarcadero near Bay Street (map), is now widely known as the ferry terminal point for daily Alcatraz Island visitors. What used to be a large doorway at far right, above, is now the Alcatraz Landing Cafe, below.

 

Then … They head into the cavernous pier, running towards us in this dramatic backlit shot.

… and Now, here’s the interior of Pier 33 on a quiet Sunday morning as CitySleuth found it when he recently stopped by.

 

Then … They exit a side door but their flight is arrested by a metal fence.

… and Now, This is is at the far end of the east side of the pier (map). As it turns out their chance of escape would have been stymied anyway by the waters of the bay. There’s now an additional fence erected in front of the original one.

 

Jack offers to divert the fast-approaching pod people. In the blinding glare of a helicopter searchlight aimed from above he kisses wife Nancy goodbye.

Then … He runs off, shouting loudly. But she chases after him.

… and Now, the landing runs alongside Pier 33 (it still has an old railway track, no longer in use) in this view looking back to the Embarcadero. One of the Alcatraz ferries is seen on the left.

 

Then … The ruse works; the angry aliens chase after them, leaving Matthew and Elizabeth safe, for now.

… and Now, dimly seen above but clearly visible in the daylight below are, from left to right on the skyline, The Transamerica Pyramid, the former Bank of America Center (now named 555 California Street) and Coit Tower, rising from the top of the Filbert Steps.

 
2 Comments

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