Supplemental Material: San Francisco Flicks

While I’m posting, I might as well add a List of Works Consulted to the San Francisco report. The following films were highly useful in gathering supplemental information… Dark Passage (1947) with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The first half of the movie is a little show, and is shot from a weird first-person perspective — a device that needed to be employed because midway through the film Bogey gets radical plastic surgery to escape the law. When the wraps come off he looks exactly like Humphrey Bogart. There are some nice 1940s views of the city in the film, and the obligitory “throw someone from a high place” shot. This time it’s the Golden Gate bridge overlook. Rating: 7… Bullitt (1968) features Steve McQueen as the original no-rules cop. The chase scenes on urban San Francisco hills are crazy. Much of the film is silent, or at least dialogue free. It is all very stylish too. Rating: 8… Dirty Harry (1972) is the other legendary San Francisco action flick, and clearly borrows a lot from Bullitt. San Francisco is used very well in the film – to the point where it feels like one of the characters. Rating: 9… Live Nude Girls Unite! (2000) is a documentary about a SF peep show’s struggle to become unionized. It provides an interesting glimpse at the relationship between San Francisco’s bohemian past (and present), exploitation, and progressive politics. Rating: 7… Vertigo is the other required SF film, but you don’t need me to tell you about it’s creepiness and falling from high places-ness. Rating: 9.