Petulia - The Danner Residence
CitySleuth had fun finding this one. There's a flashback in the movie, lasting no more than four seconds where we see Petulia's father-in-law Mr Danner (Joseph Cotten) and his wife in a spectactular living room at their home. But where was this house? There are no clues whatsoever in the movie other than that one brief shot. But fear not - CitySleuth tracked it down, it's in Sausalito, and he was recently invited there to get matching photographs.
Then ... The striking feature of the room is this remarkable fanshell window.
... and Now, the room has to this day remained largely unchanged, exceptions being changes to the wall at far right and the refinished fireplace hood in the near right corner.
... and Now, from outside, the house is well-hidden on a hillside but the distinctive window is just visible from the street below.
CitySleuth is withholding the home's street address to respect owner privacy but a hillside view of the house is shown below. From its vantage point high above Bridgeway between Atwood Avenue and San Carlos Avenue (map), it enjoys a sweeping view across the Bay towards San Francisco. The house was originally built in the late 19th century by Melville Attwood, an immigrant mining engineer from England, then remodelled to its present form in 1961 by French architect Walter Nemhauser, a former owner.
So how was the house found? Serendipitously the movie DVD included a bonus feature Petulia: The Uncommon Movie with footage of the film crew setting up in a house misleadingly described by the narrator as being "somewhere In the suburbs of San Francisco". It's clearly not Petulia's house but CitySleuth surmised it must be the Danner house. Brief window views from the home in the documentary suggested it could be Sausalito; a study of hillside photos of east-facing houses pinpointed the site.
... on location ... The crew carries massive lighting fixtures into the house along a suspended walkway.
... and Now, here's the walkway, still there. Its railing design invokes a marine rope theme.
... on location ... The crew set up the lights above the living room. This is the window view that led CitySleuth to Sausalito.
... and Now, the same view, looking south along the Sausalito shoreline (part of the fanshell window is visible downstairs at lower left).
... on location ... Here's director Richard Lester and Joseph Cotten admiring a view of San Francisco across the bay. They are on the same balcony seen above - note in both Then and Now the same little shoreline projection, one of the clues in pinpointing the location.
... on location ... Look at this fascinating shot below - what on earth is that circular hole they are filming through? (That by the way is the camera being set up next to the fireplace hood to film the brief movie shot seen at the top of this post).
... and Now, it turns out to be the small oculus at the radial 'center' of the fanshell window! (seen in the shot at the top of this post). The shot above was filmed from the east balcony looking through it across the living room. Neat. Here's the matching photo, below, showing some changes to the fireplace.
Why was so much cost and effort expended for a mere four seconds of footage? Most likely it was filmed as a longer scene that ended up on the cutting room floor (Mrs Danner is speaking in the brief shot but there's no dialog heard).