Hitchcock Fans In Search Of Movie Locations Will Find The Bay Area...

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Hitchcock Fans In Search Of Movie Locations Will Find The Bay Area...

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Austin American Statesman
Oct 21 2008

SAN FRANCISCO — I've always wondered how Scottie got down from that building he was dangling from in the opening scene of "Vertigo." I've also wondered how the inquest went after a second, identical blond woman plummets from the top of the Mission San Juan Bautista bell tower.

Those are things we "Vertigo" lovers will never know, but as the film turns 50 this year, we can revel in director Alfred Hitchcock's classic, as well as his love for San Francisco.

The film is a virtual travelogue of the city, and although Hitchock shot his interiors on Hollywood sets, many of the locations for exterior shots remain to form the framework for a "Vertigo" lover's tour of the Bay Area.

You don't even have to worry if you're afraid of heights, because the really high locations — from the rooftops James Stewart scampered across in the opening shots to the lethal bell tower — don't really exist.

Also no longer in existence, sadly, is Ernie's, where Scottie (Stewart) first glimpses Madeleine (Kim Novak) dining. Ernie's closed back in the '90s, but I ate there before that happened, and I understand why it was one of Hitch's favorite eateries.

I tried to find Ernie's on a recent trip back to San Francisco. It used to be at 847 Montgomery St. Now, there apparently is no 847. A store called Carrots at 843 Montgomery St. looks like it has taken over the space.

Some of the other exteriors aren't around anymore, either, including the stores where Scottie transforms Judy back into Madeleine. (If you haven't seen the movie, you have no idea what I'm talking about, and you need to do something about that. Like rent the movie.)

Many of the outdoor locations, though, are still very much around. Here are some high points:

1. Scottie's apartment. It's at 900 Lombard St. — not on the crazy, crooked part of Lombard, but just below that on the hillside. The railing at the entrance has changed from one with a Chinese motif to your basic iron rail. The little shrubs outside the apartment are now very tall. And the door's no longer red. I don't know who lives there, and, no, I didn't knock on the door and say I'd just taken a dip in the bay and needed to dry off. But I was tempted.

2. Madeleine's apartment building. The Brocklebank Building is at the top of Nob Hill at the corner of Mason and Sacramento streets. The stately apartment building was once home to iconic San Francisco columnist Herb Caen.

3. Judy's apartment building. In the second half of the movie, Scottie discovers Judy (also known as Madeleine) living at the Empire Hotel, now the York Hotel, at 940 Sutter St. This is the perfect base for your "Vertigo" tour. The York is in the midst of a transformation into Hotel Vertigo (800-553-1900, www.hotelvertigosf.com; rates start at $139), with contemporary yet whimsical orange-and-white rooms with nods to the movie in the form of spiral-themed wall art and a burnt orange (Longhorns fans will love it) chair with the word "Vertigo" stitched on. And you can see the movie free in your room.

4. Fort Point National Historic Site (www.nps.gov/fopo). Built in the mid-1800s to protect San Francisco Bay (though it never got attacked), the fort is under the Golden Gate Bridge at the place where Madeleine jumps into the bay. There are no steps leading down the water and never were. If you wanted to jump — and don't; the water is very treacherous — you'd have to climb out on the rocks. Get to Fort Point on Muni bus No. 28 or 29.

5. The Palace of the Legion of Honor (100 34th Ave., www.famsf.org), the art museum where Madeleine stares at the painting of Carlotta. The painting, of course, never existed, but the museum is a fine one. On a hill at the western edge of town, it also offers one of the best views of San Francisco.

6. The Argonaut Book Shop, 786 Sutter St. This isn't the original Argonaut, which is believed to have been the inspiration for the Argosy Book Shop where Scottie and Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes) go to do research. It's a second location, owned by the son of the original Argonaut's owner. It's a delightful little book store.

7. Mission Dolores, 16th and Dolores streets. It's a working church. There's no gravestone for Carlotta Valdes (the ghost who supposedly haunts Madeleine) in the cemetery next to the mission, but the first governor of California is buried here.

8. Palace of Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon St. in the Marina District, where Scottie and Madeleine stroll. Built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, it's currently undergoing restoration. The gallery next door is home to the Exploratorium (www.exploratorium.edu), a science museum kids will love.

9. Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Boulder Creek, 65 miles south of San Francisco (www.bigbasin.org). Signage in the film implies that the woods where Scottie and Madeline wander are Muir Woods, in a national monument across Golden Gate Bridge to the north of the city. But although a tree cross-section that they inspect is a replica of one at Muir Woods (also a great place to explore redwoods), the shoot was here at Big Basin, home of the largest continuous stand of ancient coast redwoods.

10. Cypress Point, near Pebble Beach, on 17 Mile Drive along the shore of the Monterey Peninsula, about 120 miles south of San Francisco. When Madeleine runs away from Scottie in the woods, this is where she winds up. You can't run here from there. But it's a lovely spot.

11. Mission San Juan Bautista (www.old

missionsjb.org), 408 Second St., San Juan Bautista, about 90 miles south of San Francisco. This was the location for two key vertigo-inducing scenes. The mission, the stables — it's all there, except the tower where Scottie chased Madeleine and dragged Judy. That was never there; it was all models, matte paintings and trick photography. San Juan Bautista once had a steeple, but it was torn down years before the shoot. Since the movie was made, a bell tower has been erected on another part of the property, but it bears no resemblance to the one in the movie. It's smaller and has three bells, and there's really no place to hurl anybody off.

And that's a good thing.

Photo's: Paramount

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