great san francisco movies
Fincher’s ZODIAC and THE GAME
Zodiac
D.O.A.
Dog Fight
Born to Kill
Milk
Just because A View To a Kill takes place in San Francisco… Hell, Jade is better than that!
Zodiac
Point Blank, at times
Ummmmm…
My favourites:
The Times of Harvey Milk
Medicine for Melancholy
Thieves’ Highway
Point Blank
& of course ‘The Streets of San Francisco’ (TV) !!!
What’s Up Doc?
San Francisco
Time After Time
The classics. “Out of the Past” and “The Maltese Falcon”.
But truly, “Vertigo” is the ultimate Frisco film.
Times of Harvey Milk… yes, Grey!
What’s Up, Doc? …yes, Brad!
The Maltese Falcon… yes, Bobby!
Foul Play (OK, its not “great” but its fun and prominantly features the city.)
THE LINEUP (1958, Don Siegel) has a San Francisco car chase ten years before Bullitt.
MAN-TRAP (1961, Edmond O’Brien) has a San Francisco airport shootout and car chase seven years before Bullitt, although the action then shifts back to L.A.
THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN (1973, Stuart Rosenberg) is a good SF-based policier with Walter Matthau, Bruce Dern, Louis Gossett and Anthony Zerbe, among others.
PORTRAIT IN BLACK (1960, Michael Gordon) is a good melodrama set in SF with Lana Turner, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Ray Walston, John Saxon, Sandra Dee, Lloyd Nolan and Anna May Wong.
DADDY’S GONE-A-HUNTING (1969, Mark Robson) was an abortion-themed thriller with good SF location work.
Winter by Nathaniel Dorsky
The End by Christopher Maclaine
I seem to remember The President’s Analyst (1967) was pretty much filmed in SF, but haven’t seen it in a while. James Coburn is brilliant as the titular character, and the premise I seem to remember was that the country was really being run by the telephone companies? Plus ca Change!
Maybe not a great movie but San Fran- PACIFIC HEIGHTS (1990)
Michael Keaton stars as a creepy sociopath leasing an apartment from naive landlords Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith.
3 unavailable films from San Francisco:
The Crazy Quilt
Funnyman
Riverrun
All by John Korty, a pioneer of American independent film. These films are, collectively, my Holy Grail.
The End is pretty friggin’ great.
And for what it’s worth, the chase scene in The Rock makes good use of those crazy streets. Sure, Bullitt, Vertigo, and Point Blank do it well, but there weren’t enough trollies derailed.
—PolarisDiB
Ah, my hometown!
Yeah, THE ROCK- finally someone mentioned the obvious, love it or hate it c’mon lads!
From the top of my head..
GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS-( ’70s)
THE TOWERING INFERNO
CRUMB
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM
Film Noirs!
DOA DEAD ON ARRIVAL
OUT OF THE PAST
LADY FROM SHANGHAI
THE SNIPER
POINT BLANK
ESCAPE IN THE FOG- Does anybody knows if this is on DVD, Bud Boetticher fans?
Bullet
Zodiac
The Bridge
“San Francisco” with Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy
Zodiac, absolutely!
The Conversation
Milk
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (I can’t walk through City Hall Plaza without thinking of Donald Sutherland screaming)
The Birds (the first 10 minutes are in SF, anyway)
Vertigo
I’ve left out The Maltese Falcon and Out Of The Past because I don’t think they were shot here at all.
P.S. message to Bobby Wise: please don’t use the “F” word! Call us SF, Yerba Buena, or just San Francisco.
Mastroianni
Vertigo
Bullitt
Dirty Harry
The Conversation
A View To A Kill
what else…?