Alfred Hitchcock’s San Francisco

No filmmaker is as synonymous with a place like Woody Allen is to New York City, Frederico Fellini was to Rome, or François Truffaut was to Paris. However, as photographed as San Francisco has been in movies and still photography, it never really had a filmmaker associated with the city as those aforementioned artists.

That's not to say there have not been great visual artists who captured the vibe of the city. Ansel Adams shot hundreds of photographs in San Francisco and Diego Rivera painted three billboard-sized murals honoring our city-by-the-bay.

Wayne Wang is a local writer and director who is most famous for the 1993 production of The Joy Luck Club, continues to be a prolific filmmaker, but has not made a major motion picture since then. One could also argue the director Chris Columbus, whose San Francisco films include Bicentennial Man, Nine Months, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Rent (which takes place in New York City, but shot in San Francisco) may also be considered as synonymous with the city.

If you stop any San Franciscan on the street and ask them to name a Chris Columbus movie shot in San Francisco, I doubt they can come up with one. Yet ask them about Alfred Hitchcock and they will most likely name one or two off the top of their heads.

Why is that?

Alfred Hitchcock made just two films in San Francisco, Vertigo and The Family Plot. But what about the 1963 film The Birds? The first ten minutes were shot around Union Square, but the rest of the film was shot in the tiny fishing hamlet of Bodega Bay, some 30 miles north of the city.

Vertigo from 1958, starred Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak. It is probably one of the best examples of locations in San Francisco on film and utilized many well-known places. But the film also features unknown buildings that became famous because of the film's notoriety.

In the film there is a short scene where Jimmy Stewart goes to an apartment a suspect lives in. Almost 70 years later, that unknown nondescript building is now the Hotel Vertigo; the only Alfred Hitchcock-themed hotel I know of. I’m sure if you are not familiar with the movie, it may seem like an unusual name for a hotel.

One of the more prominent locations was the Brocklebank Apartment Building on Nob Hill. This is the skyscraper Kim Novak's character pretends to live in, and where Jimmy Stewart's private detective character follows her.

The Brocklebank Apartment Building

Later in the he trails her to the graveyard at the Mission Dolores as well as a gallery in the Legion of Honor Museum, and even the Place of Fine Arts. He later follows her to Fort Point, at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, where she jumps into the bay. When he rescues her from the ocean, he takes what looks like a boat landing with steps that descend to the water. In a bit of Hollywood trickery, Hitchcock shot the exteriors on location, but had to create the steps in a studio because nothing like that actually existed at Fort Point.

The other film he shot almost entirely in San Francisco was ironically his last. The Family Plot from 1976 starred Bruce Dern, William Devane, and Karen Black. In that film the Fairmont Hotel is prominently featured, but the other uncredited star of the film is our own Grace Cathedral.

Grace Cathedral

In one of the most unique abductions I have seen on film, the intricate coordinated choreography of kidnapping a person under the noses of hundreds of people is why Alfred Hitchcock deserves the moniker, the Master of Suspense. City Guides Walking Tours even has an Alfred Hitchcock tour (which is excellent, by the way) as part of their list of sightseeing excursions in San Francisco.

Unlike other movies made here, Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco films inspire homages. Namely Mel Brook's 1977 Hitchcock-spoof High Anxiety, as well as countless stylish thrillers where a troubled detective might shadow a suspicious blond Femme Fatale. Basic Instinct, Pacific Heights, and The Black Bird are just a few of the San Francisco-themed films that owe a debt of gratitude to the master and borrow heavily from Hitchcock's style