Reel SF

San Francisco movie locations from classic films

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San Francisco movie locations from classic films

Filtering by Tag: Van Nuys

Walk A Crooked Mile - Rough Stuff

August 20, 2020  /  CitySleuth

Here’s another shot of the Elite Laundry, located at 14519 Sylvan Street in Van Nuys. (It was described in more detail in the previous post).

Agent Grayson has managed to get a job at the laundry and is in a good spot to watch incoming customers. He watches as Dr. Neva, one of the senior scientists, drops off her laundry.

 

Then … He observes the man at the counter slip one of her handkerchiefs into a package, picked up shortly afterwards by Krebs, one of the spy ring members. Below, Krebs is seen leaving the laundry which back then was one of many small shops and stores lining the block.

and Now, the building that housed those stores looks very different now. It dates back to 1922 but was extensively changed in 1988.

 

Then … Krebs walks on, passing a large plumbing and appliance store that conveniently displayed its name on the window …

and Now, a street directory identified this location - the J. Hokom plumbing showroom at 860 N.Highland Avenue - but it’s in Hollywood, miles from Van Nuys. A not unusual geographical hiccup for the moviemakers but confusing for locals in the audience. The building is still there today.

13 - after laundry 1956 rev.png
 

The FBI agents have no intention of allowing any more secrets to be spirited out of the country so they waylay Krebs, snatch the package and take the handkerchief to a lab for analysis. Sure enough, it yields yet another formula.

 

It’s not easy being an FBI agent - Krebs, still bruised from his earlier roughing-up from O’Hara, turns the tables and regains possession of the handkerchief while dishing out revengeful rough stuff. He leaves the agents to his henchmen … “You know what to do …” but a brave, unfortunately sacrificial, intervention by Grayson’s landlady enables their escape.

 
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tags / Van Nuys, Hollywood

Walk A Crooked Mile - Clandestine Meeting

July 29, 2020  /  CitySleuth

Braun is picked up at the airport and driven straight to a clandestine meeting at a local store.

Then … The meeting takes place in town. The first clue that led CitySleuth to the location was a glimpse of blurry ‘Grain & Feed Co.’ lettering on the side of a nearby store as the car drives by.

Then … They turn left and pull up outside the Lakeview Art Shoppe, a fictitious name but filmed at a real place across the street from the Grain & Feed store. The clue to that building is its blade sign, Pacific Finance Loans, a company that had several branches throughout California.

… and Now, here’s the same building today … on the corner of Friar Street and Vesper Ave in Van Nuys in Southern California; Pacific Finance Loans was at 14560 Friar Street. It made loans for a number of uses including furniture and this appears to be their furniture display space at the Van Nuys branch. The building dates back to 1946, now addressed as 14554 Friar. The business across the street back then was the Van Nuys Grain & and Feed Store at 14555 Friar Street.

 

Here are two 1948 newspaper ads confirming the location. (Apparently the newspaper typesetter suffered from dyslexia … Feed & Grain instead of Grain and Feed).

 

In a back room in the Art Shoppe Braun meets with members of the spy ring (including, in an early role, Raymond Burr on the left) and informs them that he is taking over operations now that Comrade Radchek has been eliminated.

 
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tags / Van Nuys

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