Happy Anniversary, Café – I Left My Heart Again…

On September 13, 2009, I published my first post as a contributor to Rick Armstrong’s newly inaugurated classic film blog, The Classic Film & TV Café!  That first piece of mine was titled, “I Left My Heart…Five San Francisco Favorites,” and in it I proceeded to list and discuss five of my favorite films set in my favorite American city, a town just south of where I live now and where I once lived for many years. As part of my congratulatory return to the Café in tribute to its impressive tenth year, I thought it might be fun, for old times’ sake, to revisit the subject of that first blog post. So, here I offer, exactly ten years later, five more San Francisco-set favorite films.

Cleverly titled After the Thin Man (1936) this second - after The Thin Man (1934) - in the six-film series is the one I like best of all. It begins with stylish, martini-sipping, wisecrack-swapping Nick and Nora Charles returning home by train to San Francisco from the New York sojourn where the first film took place. The pair arrives at their mansion-with-an-amazing-view  (which looks like it’s either on Telegraph Hill or in Pacific Heights, both ultra-toney ) to find a “welcome home” party that’s already far past full swing. And poor Asta, their irrepressible fox terrier, comes upon an even more startling scene when he discovers that “Mrs. Asta” has, in his absence, been consorting with the Scotty next door. Pretty soon, once the party winds down and the Scotty is driven out, there’s trouble brewing, and murder, involving lots of shenanigans and tomfoolery until Nick reveals the killer in the final minutes of the third act. The plots don’t matter that much in Thin Man movies, they follow a pretty standard whodunit pattern. The attraction is in the characters – Nick, Nora and Asta – and the sophisticated, witty-banter-filled world they inhabit. It doesn’t hurt at all that Powell and Loy and Skippy (as Asta) are loaded with charm and chemistry and are, thus, entirely irresistible. Always interesting in the Thin Man films is the Runyonesque cast of characters Nick and Nora encounter on each case. Among the supporting folk in After the Thin Man is a very young James Stewart with a central role in this murder mystery. It’s interesting to watch him before he became a star and fully developed his onscreen persona.

The final scene, as Nick, Nora and Asta depart San Francisco by train, is quite cute but the change it portends will ultimately have the effect of taking some zing out of the series.

 

"...and you call yourself a detective..."

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Out of the Past (1947), Jacques Tourneur’s quintessential noir, is only partially set in San Francisco. Truthfully, among the film’s key locations – the others are rural Bridgeport, California, Acapulco, Los Angeles and Lake Tahoe – it’s not the most alluringly depicted of the lot. But San Francisco has gotten so much limelight in so many other movies that I won't quibble.

It makes sense, considering Out of the Past’s convoluted plot, that a convoluted series of locations is part of the story. The opening is set in rural Bridgeport, California, a small town in the Sierras, where Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) is leading the low-key life of a gas station owner/operator. Jeff’s tranquil idyll will be interrupted when an old acquaintance happens to catch a glimpse of him and then come looking for him. Jeff has a past. And into the past Out of the Past will go, in flashback, with voiceover narration. Back to New York, where Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) hired Jeff, then a private eye, to find the woman, Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer), who shot him and took him for $40,000 (close to $500,000 in 2019 dollars). Jeff will track her to Mexico and once there he will find her…and fall for her and not care when she tells him she didn’t take Whit’s money. Jeff will lie to Whit and say he couldn’t find her, then he and Kathie will steal away to San Francisco, hoping to escape the past together. This, of course, doesn't happen in film noir. So, when Kathie nastily double-crosses Jeff and leaves him holding the bag with a potential murder rap, he heads for the hills. Literally. And in Bridgeport he will open his gas station and meet Ann, a nice girl, and once more try to leave the past behind. But that will never be possible, and he will trek to Lake Tahoe to face Whit. And he will go to San Francisco once more, this time at Whit’s behest. And, finally, in the Sierra Nevada, he will meet his fate.

Some San Francisco locales depicted in Out of the Past were filmed on a backlot...

the fictional "Mason building" in San Francisco

But there are also some nice location scenes, too.

on Broadway in San Francisco

Even more evocative - to the point of transporting - are the Lake Tahoe and Mexico settings, some of it studio work and some of it shot on location. Credit for this goes to Tourneur, the art director and cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca (1948 Oscar nomination for I Remember Mama). 

Kathie's bungalow in Mexico

Whit's estate in Lake Tahoe

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Kim Novak, Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth in Pal Joey

Pal Joey (1957) began as a 1940 Broadway musical by Rodgers and Hart. The story, by John O’Hara, followed the exploits of a conniving Chicago nightclub performer, primarily a dancer, who gets involved with a wealthy married woman. Gene Kelly starred, and it was the part and the show that would launch him to stardom and send him to Hollywood. When Pal Joey was adapted to the screen 17 years later, Joey would now be a so-so lounge singer newly arrived in San Francisco. With Frank Sinatra in the leading role, adjusting the character’s forte was not only logical, but necessary. The 1950s Joey would be nicer and more likable than the 1940s Joey, and the wealthy woman (Rita Hayworth) would now be an ex of his, formerly a stripper known as “Vanessa the Undresser” who’d married money and is now a rich widow. Kim Novak was third on the bill as the naïve chorus girl Joey falls for. San Francisco would play a  supporting role, providing locales like the ferry building, Telegraph Hill, Nob Hill, Jackson Square, the Marina and Pacific Heights as a dreamy backdrop for all the drama and romance. It doesn’t stop there, though. Nelson Riddle would also be on hand taking care of musical arrangements, notably Sinatra’s renditions of “The Lady is a Tramp,” “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was,” “There’s a Small Hotel” and the medley, "What Do I Care for a Dame"/"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"/"I Could Write a Book." These performances alone would be worth the price of admission. The music, the racy elements (for the time) of the story, the glamour of Rita and Kim, and the tarnished charm of Ol’ Blue Eyes as Joey combined to make Pal Joey a very big hit that would go on to earn four Oscar nominations.

The Spreckels mansion served as the site for Chez Joey, Joey's club

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Bullitt (1968) provied Steve McQueen, already an A-lister when he filmed it, with his defining screen role. As maverick San Francisco police detective Frank Bullitt, McQueen is  the epitome of late '60s cool. The film was a monster hit and would turn out to be a precursor to the Dirty Harry franchise. In fact, McQueen was offered the Dirty Harry role (along with other renegade cop roles, like Popeye Doyle in The French Connection), but turned it (and them) down to avoid typecasting.

As James Stewart did in Vertigo, McQueen makes his way up, down and around the many streets of San Francisco in Bullitt, though in a hotter car at a higher speed. Location footage includes scenes in neighborhoods as diverse as Nob Hill,  Pacific Heights, the Embarcadero, North Beach, Potrero Hill, The Mission, South of Market (aka/SOMA) and downtown. McQueen, who produced, would choose Brit Peter Yates to direct because of his experience shooting on location for Tony Richardson and because of a film he’d made in 1967, Robbery, that featured an exciting car chase. Of course, the most famous sequence in Bullitt, it’s centerpiece, is a 10-minute car chase that winds through all parts of the city and climaxes in a takedown race over Mount San Bruno that ends in a deadly crash in Brisbane, a small town south of the city. That particular route was part of my daily commute for many years and every so often I’d think of that sequence when I reached the crest of the mountain and started down the other side. But I was never inspired enough to accelerate. Bullitt is another film in which the plot is incidental – a sort of MacGuffin. The real “story” is Steve McQueen’s character, Bullitt, and that tale is enhanced by the iconic chase scene – the “granddaddy of them all" – and the breathtaking city of San Francisco. For my full review of Bullitt on its 50th anniversary last year, click here.

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What’s Up, Doc?  (1972) was the second of the three films that made Peter Bogdanovich’s reputation as one of the top New Hollywood directors of the early 1970s (along with Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin and others). Before it had come his masterpiece, The Last Picture Show (1971), and following would be Paper Moon (1973). Bogdanovich’s standing - and career - as a director would suffer a dizzying plunge in the mid-'70s, but this was before that, and What’s Up, Doc? is an effervescent delight of a tribute to the screwball comedies of the '30s and '40s. Stars Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal share a fine chemistry and are supported by a dazzling ensemble cast including Madeline Kahn (in her film debut), Austin Pendleton, Kenneth Mars, Michael Murphy, Mabel Albertson and more.

Four identical bags...

What’s Up, Doc? has been referred to by some as a re-make of Bringing Up Baby (1938). It’s not. It’s not even a “loose re-make,” but it is a superbly crafted homage. The plot follows the confusion that is unleashed when four identical plaid suitcases arrive at the same San Francisco hotel at the same time. One bag belongs to musicologist Howard Bannister (Ryan O’Neal, wearing a pair of glasses a la Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby), and contains a set of important “musical rocks.” Another bag belongs to Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand), a wacky perennial college student who leaves chaos and trouble in her wake wherever she roams. Her bag is packed with her clothes and a dictionary. A third bag belongs to “Mr. Smith” (Michael Murphy) and contains confidential government documents. The fourth bag belongs to wealthy Mrs. Van Hoskins (Mabel Albertson) and holds her vast collection of expensive jewelry. As you might expect, an incredible mix-up occurs and madcap escapades ensue.

One of the highlights of What’s Up, Doc? is a riotous car chase through the city involving, first, a delivery bicycle and then a decorative VW Beetle. The sequence is a wild parody of the legendary Bullitt chase and ends with a splash in the San Francisco Bay. Written by Buck Henry (The Graduate), David Newman (Bonnie and Clyde) and Robert Benton (Bonnie and Clyde, who won Oscars for Kramer vs. Kramer and Places in the Heart) and based on a story by Bogdanovich, the film also features a soundtrack filled with songs, sung or just heard in the background, by Cole Porter, George Gershwin and others of that golden age of popular music. This is one film that deserves a whole lot more love and attention than it gets.

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Curious about my original five picks of 10 years ago? Click here. And if you have favorite San Francisco-set movies, tell me about it.

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Congratulations, Rick, and thank you for everything!

Bullitt: Steve McQueen Plays It Cool (What Else?)

Bullitt was not the film that established the Steve McQueen "cool quotient." Steve was displaying coolness earlier in the 1960s in movies such as The Great Escape (1963), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and The Thomas Crown Affair (1968). Heck, his character was even known as The Cooler King in The Great Escape (okay, that was a different kind of "cooler"). Yet, if Steve was already cool, Bullitt elevated him to a new level and became perhaps his most iconic film. Think of Bullitt and two things spring to mind: the high-speed car chase through San Francisco and the poster with McQueen in a dark turtleneck with shoulder holster looking...yes...pretty damn cool.

McQueen plays Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, a no-nonsense detective for the San Francisco Police Department. An ambitious politician (Robert Vaughn) handpicks Bullitt to protect a mob informant who's scheduled to testify at a Senate subcommittee hearing. Despite taking all the normal precautions, a professional hit man shoots the informant at the safe house. When the would-be witness dies in the hospital, Bullitt covers up the death. Bothered by too many loose ends (e.g., who divulged the location of the safe house?), he launches his own investigation--even as others look to make him a scapegoat.

In her big scene, Bisset's face is obscured
by McQueen's shoulder and green weeds.

Stripped of McQueen's charisma, the famous car chase, and the scenic splendor of San Francisco, Bullitt is just another urban cop drama. Veteran actors such as Simon Oakland, Don Gordon, and Norman Fell are in fine form, but they're just inhabiting stock characters: the tough, trustworthy boss; the loyal partner; and the agitated superior. Jacqueline Bisset fares even worse in a throwaway part as Bullitt's girlfriend, who--in her one meaty scene--gets saddled with insipid dialogue such as: "Do you let anything really reach you? You're living in a sewer, Frank, day after day." (Well, he's a police detective in a big city...who did she think she was dating?)

McQueen's Mustang GT appears in the rearview mirror as the chase gets underway.

The car chase officially begins at the 1:08 mark in the film when the bad guys in the Dodge Charger strap on their seat belts. The next seven minutes are a delirious combination of squealing tires, burning rubber, skidding turns, roaring engines, and speeding cars flying over the hills of San Francisco. Director Peter Yates and editor Frank P. Keller--who won an Oscar for his work--expertly cut between shots of the cars, the drivers' faces, and nerve-racking first-person views. I love the shot where the driver of the Charger looks through his rearview mirror and sees nothing but dust. Assuming that Bullitt's Mustang has crashed, a very slight smile crosses his face.

Steve driving his iconic car. Actually, two Mustangs were used in the film.

Stunt driver Bill Hickman.

Steve McQueen and stunt driver Bud Ekin drove the dark-green Mustang GT, while Bill Hickman drove the black Charger. Hickman was also behind the wheel in The Seven-Ups, which features--yes, I said it--an even more impressive car chase sequence. It was directed by Philip D'Antoni, who produced Bullitt. (For our picks for cinema's five best car chases, click here.) By the way, the Bullitt car chase is often listed as nine minutes long, but that includes a prelude in which the baddies tail Bullitt. It's when our hero craftily creeps up behind them--and the seat belts get clicked--that the high-speed chase officially starts. From that point until the fiery conclusion, it's almost seven minutes.

Robert Vaughn.

As for McQueen, he plays his authority-defying hero to perfection. In a typical scene, Bullitt even refuses to
back down from Vaughn's powerful politician, telling him: "You work your side of the street. I'll work mine." It's a typical McQueen role, but one that audiences expected at that point in the actor's career.

Yes, that's Steve McQueen!

Still, the huge success of Bullitt cemented McQueen's superstar status and enabled him to take more chances on future films. He collaborated with Sam Peckinpah on Junior Bonner and The Getaway (both 1972). The former contains what critics now consider one of McQueen's best performances. The latter was one of his biggest hits and also where he met his second wife (of three) Ali MacGraw. And in 1978, he was almost unrecognizable as the bearded, bespectacled protagonist in An Enemy of the People, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 1882 play.

The Five Best Car Chase Scenes in Movie History

I admit I’ve undertaken an impossible task—trying to sift through dozens of terrific celluloid car chases to come up with the five all-time best. And, no doubt, some readers will take offense that some splendid car chases were omitted. I know for a fact that my rankings will generate controversy. But differences of opinion are what make movie blog discussions fun…so bring them on! To narrow the scope a little, I’ve included only car chases from action films—no comedies this time out (and I apologize to fans of movies like It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and W. C. Fields’ The Bank Dick ).

1. The Seven-Ups (1973) – Philip D’Antoni¸ who produced Bullitt (1968) and The French Connection (1971), obviously knew a little something about car chases. The Seven-Ups is the only film he directed and its set piece is a New York City high-speed “duel” between a Pontiac Ventura Sprint coupe (driven by good guy Roy Scheider) and a Pontiac Grand Ville (the bad guys). Like Gene Hackman in The French Connection, Scheider does a great job of acting during the scene, pounding on the dashboard and swearing to himself. It’s a thrilling chase, but what sets it apart is the climax devised by stunt man extraordinaire Bill Hickman. Scheider’s Ventura skids under an 18-wheel truck, peeling off the top of the car…but leaving the driver (who ducks down on cue) unscathed.

2. Bullitt (1968) – In 9 minutes and 42 seconds, Bullitt redefined the car chase forever. It can certainly stake its claim as the most influential car chase and I suspect it ranks No. 1 on most lists. The San Francisco locale can’t be beat—helping to create iconic shots of the cars flying over the hills and careening around the tight curves. Director Peter Yates heightens the action with point-of-view and overhead shots. My only quibble: Steve McQueen and the driver of the car he's pursuing are the epitome of cool--so the scene isn’t quite as frantic and tense as the ones in The Seven-Ups and The French Connection. By the way, Bill Hickman drove the Charger.

3. The French Connection (1971) – William Friedkin’s Oscar-winning film featured a chase between a Pontiac LeMans commandeered by Gene Hackman’s police detective and an elevated train containing the baddies. Hackman accents the tenseness of the scene perfectly, pounding on the horn and yelling at pedestrians as he speeds through the streets of Brooklyn, often against oncoming traffic. Friedkin makes terrific use of tracking shots, sometimes showing Hackman zooming underneath the elevated train in a single frame. In addition to reuniting producer D’Antoni and stunt driver Hickman from Bullitt, The French Connection co-starred Roy Scheider and Tony Lo Bianco who would later appear in The Seven-Ups.

4. To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) – Friedkin returned to the car chase with a revved-up sequence in this tale of unethical Treasury agents out to nab big-time counterfeiters at any cost. A young William Petersen played the federal agent who is pursued through Los Angeles. After a gripping chase through parked trucks and tight streets, Petersen finds himself surrounded on all sides but one…which leads down a one-way street. He zooms down the highway against oncoming traffic, resulting in a harrowing scene that momentarily tops a similar one in The French Connection.

5. Ronin (1998) – John Frankenheimer (who directed The French Connection II…interesting how all these films connect in different ways) features a couple of car chases in this espionage thriller. The most famous one, though, pits a BMW 5 Series against a Peugeot 306 as they whisk through the narrow streets of Paris. The scene’s highlights are a nail-biting tunnel sequence and another pursuit down a one-way street.

Honorable mentions: The original Gone in 60 Seconds, Goldfinger (for its gadget-laden Aston-Martin), The Road Warrior, The Italian Job (1969), Vanishing Point, the Bourne movies, and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry.

All of my top five picks can be viewed on YouTube. So if you don’t remember The Seven-Ups, or haven’t seen the chase scene in awhile, just click here.

Differing opinions about my rankings and omissions are welcomed!