San Francisco in general

...thinking about when I visited San Francisco & during a half day tour of the city had pointed out to me one or two locations were some of the classic movies of the 1960s & 1970s were actually filmed.

It was only when I looked into it for more details I realised many more films have been filmed in San Francisco. For any film fans who will be visiting the city here are locations of some famous films that were either filmed in the city ...
...that have been set in San Francisco & they are not in any particular order.

BULLIT
The iconic film with an iconic actor (Steve McQueen) driving around in his iconic car (Ford Mustang) featuring the most famous car chase in modern films.
Filmed in San Francisco in the spring of 1968 there are loads of locations in the city where it was filmed.
Part of the film featured the Daniels Hotel which in fact was actually ... more

I used to have a work colleague (who sadly died) who was a huge film fan, in all his spare time he & his lovely wife would be off to the cinema to watch the latest releases & spend their spare time at home watching just about every type of film imaginable. On their holidays they would go to Hollywood & see the film studios & sample the locations were many of the most famous movies were filmed.
They knew all the stars, all the producers, directors & just about everything else linked to the film industry. It was him I was thinking about when I visited San Francisco & during a half day tour of the city had pointed out to me one or two locations were some of the classic movies of the 1960s & 1970s were actually filmed.

It was only when I looked into it for more details I realised many more films have been filmed in San Francisco. For any film fans who will be visiting the city here are locations of some famous films that were either filmed in the city or in the surrounding districts. The list below is only a tiny number of films that have been set in San Francisco & they are not in any particular order.

BULLIT
The iconic film with an iconic actor (Steve McQueen) driving around in his iconic car (Ford Mustang) featuring the most famous car chase in modern films.
Filmed in San Francisco in the spring of 1968 there are loads of locations in the city where it was filmed.
Part of the film featured the Daniels Hotel which in fact was actually the Kennedy Hotel at the end of Howard Street, Embarcadero. In the film you could see a freeway behind the hotel but this is no longer there.
The hospital scenes were filmed at San Francisco general hospital on 1001 Potrero Avenue.
Bullit's home scenes were filmed on the south side of Clay Street just east of Taylor.
The church scenes in the film were taken form the Grace Cathedral Episcopal Church, 1100 California Street.
Enrico's Sidewalk Café is also seen on the film, it is located at 504 Broadway at Keamy Street.
By far the most famous scene is the car chase, if you go to You Tube you'll get a copy of the actual chase scene but if you want to know where the chase was filmed, read on.

It starts at the bottom of Bemal Heights where McQueen does a U-turn in his dark green Mustang on Army Street which is now called Cesar Chavez, just east of Bryant. The car wash in the opening scene has since gone & replaced by a self storage facility. It is in this scene were the 'baddies' are following him in their Dodge.
The next scene taken from inside the car is of him driving eastbound on Filbert Street at Mason. The gas station situated on a triangle that is caught on film is still there.
This is followed by him driving on the corner of Columbus & Vallejo & then a steep hill scene on this same road. It's on this steep hill where both cars become airborne as they drive over the crest of the hill.
Between Larkin Street & Francisco Street they collide with a Pontiac Firebird driving in the opposite direction.
Next scene from inside the car is of McQueen driving steeply downhill on Northbound Taylor Street, the steps on the left hand side of the picture is Macondray Lane, this is followed by passing San Francisco's City College, Chinatown campus at 940 Filbert Street.

On the next scene the filming was transferred to another area of the city although if you're not familiar with San Francisco you'd never know. This is the Marina district, as the car turns the corner the Fort Mason Centre is in the background. Next up is a frontal view of the car with the Marina Safeway in the background.

From here you get a rear side view of McQueen's Mustang as he drives along the Marina Boulevard & would then access the Golden Gate Bridge. However the local authorities wouldn't allow filming on the bridge as it would have meant temporary closure.
So the next scene jumps to McLean's Park on Mansell Street just west of University. As he drives out to the suburbs along Guadalupe Canyon Parkway he heads onto Brisbane to Daly City.
The filling station that they collide with was made up just for the film & never existed & where the chase concludes.

Other locations from the film include North on Mason Street close to the Fairmont Hotel, Mark Hopkins Hotel 999 California, the Renaissance Stanford Court Hotel at California & Powell, the St Francis Hotel on Powell Street at Union Square & 2700 Vallejo Street at Divisadero on Pacific heights. The Thunderbird Hotel seen in the film is now the Clarion Hotel 401 East Milbrae Avenue.

MRS DOUBTFIRE
A comedy classic from 1993 was mainly filmed in San Francisco & featured Robin Williams, Sally Anne Field, Pierce Bronson & Harvey Fierstien to name just four.
You may recall the scene in the film where Daniel Hillard (Robin Williams) is in the restaurant & has to do a quick costume change from Mrs Doubtfire to himself. This was filmed in the Bridges Restaurant, 44 Bridges Street, Danville, east of Oakland.
It is also in this area where the studio scenes were filmed when Daniel got himself a job at a TV studio. They were actually filmed at the KTVU 2 studios at East Bay.
Also in this area & used for filming is the Claremont Resort & Spa, 41 Tunnel Road, located in the Tilden Regional Park area north of Berkeley. It's here where Miranda Hillard (Sally Anne Field) receives negative comments form Daniel regarding her fling with Stuart Dunmeyer (Pierce Bronson).
Columbus Avenue in San Francisco is where Miranda fends off a mugger; in the background is an elegant pale green building which is the HQ of Francis Ford Coppola's movie empire.
Finally the family home used in the film is located at 2640 Stiener Street in the rather classy area of Pacific Heights in San Francisco.

THE TOWERING INFERNO
The 1974 classic film featuring a wealth of top names was filmed in San Francisco & Los Angeles. The hotel lower lobby scenes & entrance came from the Bank of America building, 555 California Street San Francisco.
Some of the other lobby scenes came from the Hyatt Regency Hotel, 5 Embarcadero in San Francisco. The shots of the fire station are from the San Francisco Fire Station in California Street.

DIRTY HARRY
Clint Eastwood's first Harry Callaghan detective classic from 1971, the opening scenes to the film came from the same Bank of America building, 555 California Street as the Towering Inferno scenes.
The murder in the swimming pool at the start of the film is from the Holiday Inn Select Downtown Hotel, 750 Kearny Street, San Francisco.
Many official buildings were used in the film & included California Hall, City Hall in Goodlett Place & Hall of Justice, 850 Bryant Street, San Francisco.
There is a part in the film where he comes off a street car & into a phone booth to make a call; this is filmed at front of the Mission Delores Park in the Mission District.
Other films scenes include the Kezar Stadium, Fredrick Street, Golden Gate Park, Marina Green in the Marina District, Mount Davidson Cross, Mount Davidson, Portsmouth Square, Chinatown, Washington Square, North Beach, St Peter & Paul Church, 666 Filbert Street & the Embarcadero.

MAGNUM FORCE
The follow up to Dirty Harry from 1973 was once again filmed in San Francisco; the Di Giorgios stakeout of Guzman was filmed at 2190 Washington Street, Pacific Heights & Guzman's luxurious living quarters was at 2200 Sacramento Street, Pacific Heights.
Harry's driving scenes on the windy back streets was filmed at Vermont between 20th & 22nd Streets, Potrero Hill.
Where the filmed the failed store robbery was at Cost Plus World Market, 2552 Taylor Street.
The Embarcadero Freeway was featured in the film but had to be demolished after the 1989 earthquake.
Other locations from the film include San Francisco International Airport, the Police Admin Building at Oakland (pistol range scene), Hall of Justice 850 Bryant Street, Fairmont Hotel, 950 Mason Street, Nob Hill, Broadway Tunnel, Russian Hill, 3rd Street Bridge, China Basin & 18th Street Overpass, Potrero Hill.

THE ENFORCER
The next follow up to Magnum Force from 1976 was The Enforcer & found Clint Eastwood filming in some of the same places as the previous ones such as City Hall & Hall of Justice.
However, the scene where Mustapha turns informant for Harry is filmed at 24th Street Mini Park, Mission District. Where he scales a fence & chases a bomber down a narrow street was filmed at Balmy Street, Mission District.
Other locations filmed include Alcatraz Island, The Fillmore, 3rd Street Bridge, China Basin & 23rd & Capp Streets, Mission District.

BASIC INSTINCT
The classic film featuring Michael Douglas & Sharon Stone was filmed in San Francisco. The blue building Douglas used as his apartment is located at 1158 Montgomery Street, San Francisco.
The couple hang out at Tosca, 242 Columbus Avenue for drinks & the Stetson Bar is actually Raw Hide II, a Country & Western lesbian bar located on 280 Seventh Street, San Francisco. However the false fronts of the bars were specially put together in a deserted alley below the Transbay Terminal deck at Mission Street & First Street.
Stone's luxury home was filmed at 2930 Vallejo Street in Pacific Heights. The car chase scene was filmed on Kearney Street & Telegraph Hill.
Many of the other scenes were filmed out of town in various locations but the final climax of the film came from 2201 Broadway, Oakland just over the Bay Bridge.
Incidentally gents, the scene with Sharon Stone being interviewed without her underwear was filmed in Hollywood!

THE BIRDS
Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller from the early 1960s was filmed mainly in Bodega in Northern California but the opening shot of Tippi Hedren walking into a pet shop was partly filmed at Union Square in San Francisco. It is here where Hitchcock makes his usual cameo appearance with a pair of dogs. The pet shop scene itself was filmed in Hollywood.

A VIEW TO A KILL
This was the 14th James Bond movie but Roger Moore's last one as 007, it also featured Grace Jones. As ever with James Bond movies it was filmed all over the world but part of it was filmed in San Francisco.
Some of the locations you will be familiar with thanks to the Dirty Harry film, such as City Hall. Bond meets a CIA agent at the famous Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.
The famous fire truck chase heads down the busy Market Street to the Lefty O'Doul drawbridge on Third Street at China Basin. The home of the oil heiress Stacey Sutton was filmed at Dunsmuir House & Gardens, 2960 Pearlta Oaks Court, Oakland now open for guided tours from April to September.
It is worth noting that the mine sequence in Silicon Valley was actually filmed in Amberley in England!

There are loads more films & TV programmes filmed in & around San Francisco. Personally, although I am not an anorak or a real film fan I still find it interesting to know that some of the places I ventured in San Francisco were used in some of my favourite films. 

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