San Francisco Books
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San Francisco Films
* Barbary Coast (1935) 
Drama starring: Edward G. Robinson, Walter Brennan, Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea Director: Howard Hawks, William Wyler
A money hungry young woman arrives in San Francisco to meet her intended husband, the owner of a casino. This film gives us a glimpse of San Francisco in the gold rush days, a man who refuses to be dragged into the corruption of the time, and the role of newspapers and vigilantes in the old West. 1935 Academy Awards Nomination: Best Cinematography
Barbary Coast (wikipedia)
* San Francisco (1936)
Musical Comedy
Starring: Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
San Francisco (wikipedia)
* The Maltese Falcon (1941)
DVD - Mystery
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor
Director: John Huston
Sam Spade, a private detective, gets involved in a murderous hunt for a valuable statuette.
View Trailer
* Gentleman Jim(1942)
Starring: Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith
Director: Raoul Walsh
Set in 1880s and 1890s San Francisco, this is the story of the legendary fight between heavyweight champ Jim Corbett and John L. Sullivan. Flynn often said this was his favorite film. View Trailer
Out of the Past (1947)
DVD - Classic Black & White film noir.
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Robert Mitchum,
Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Features Kirk Douglas in an early role. Mitchum is hired by Douglas to find Jane Greer who has absconded with his money. He traces her to Mexico and then falls for her which complicates matters a little getting him deeply involved in blackmail and murder. Jane Greer is great as is the excellent supporting cast. Classic Black & White film noir.
* The Lady from Shanghai(1948)
DVD - Drama
Starring:Orson Welles , Rita Hayworth
Director: Orson Welles
The Lady from Shanghai marked another artistic triumph and commercial failure for master filmmaker Orson Welles. It also chronicled the disintegration of his short-lived marriage to screen siren Rita Hayworth -- playing at times like an abstract commentary on their turbulent private life. View Trailer
* Celluloid San Francisco: The Film Lover's Guide to Bay Area Movie Locations by Jim Van Buskirk, Will Shank
This comprehensive guide to thousands of movie and television locations in the San Francisco Bay area includes easy-to-follow maps to identify significant historical film sites.
* Cinema by the Bay by Sheerly Avni
Featuring over 200 color photographs, Cinema by the Bay is the first major book to celebrate the movie studios and their films in the San Francisco area, including American Zoetrope, The Saul Zaentz Co., PDI, Pixar Studio, and Lucasfilm Ltd., as well as the independent filmmakers living and working there, from Chris Columbus to Clint Eastwood to Phillip Kaufman and Michael Ritchie. The first title to be published
by George Lucas books.
* San Francisco Noir by Nathaniel Rich
“San Francisco Noir is a rare book that lets you step into a dream. The dream is film—all the seductive phantoms of film noir that have haunted us for decades—and by discovering so carefully and describing so memorably all these fantasies, Nathaniel Rich has written a fascinating work of criticism disguised as a guided tour around a great city. ”—Martin Scorsese
* Forbidden Hollywood Collection: Volume Three (Other Men's Women / The Purchase Price / Frisco Jenny / Midnight Mary / Heroes for Sale / Wild Boys of the Road)
pre-Code movies from the 30's by the redoubtable William
A. Wellman a few photos
* The Independent Film Producer's Survival Guide: A Business and Legal Sourcebook by Gunnar Erickson, Harris Tulchin , Mark Halloran .gif){kind=small}
* Dark Passage (1947)
DVD - Film Noir
Starring: Humphrey Bogart , Lauren Bacall
Director: Delmer Daves
Film noir was at its peak in the late 1940s and this B/W is one of Bogey's best. From a cinematographer's point of view, this film was outstanding. I also enjoyed the atmospheric
feel of mid-century San Francisco. Lauren Bacall's Art Deco apartment where she hides Humphrey Bogart is located at 1360 Montgomery Street on San Francisco's Telegraph Hill. View Trailer
* I Remember Mama (1948) DVD
Starring: Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes
Director: George Stevens
George Stevens's charming film features Irene Dunne as Mama in one of her finest performances. The film is narrated by Mama's daughter Katrin (Barbara Bel Geddes), recalling the trials and tribulations of her family in turn-of-the-century San Francisco.
Starring: Joan Crawford ,Jack Palance
Director:David Miller
Joan Crawford gives a find performance and Jack Palance is amazing effective playing against type
as a leading man. Despite a slow start, this is a fine suspense thriller that earned Oscar nominations for both of them. It aslso was nominated for the striking black and white photography.
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* Harold
and Maude (1971)
* Butterflies
Are Free (1972)
* American
Graffiti (1973)
* The
Conversation (1974)
* Smile (1974)
* High
Anxiety(1978)
* Invasion
of the Body Snatchers (1978)
* Escape
From Alcatraz (1979)
* The
Frisco Kid (1979)
* Time
After Time (1979)
* The
Presidio (1988)
* Tucker--The
Man and His Dream (1988)
* Pacific
Heights (1990)
* Flashback (1990)
* Basic
Instinct (1992)
* The
Last of His Tribe (1992)
* The Last Yahi (1992)
* Sister
Act (1992)
* Heart
and Souls (1993)
* The
Joy Luck Club (1993)
*Mrs.
Doubtfire (1993)
*Interview
With the Vampire
* So
I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)
* Forrest
Gump (1994)
* Golden
Gate (1994)
* When
a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
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* The
Game (1997)
* Patch
Adams (1998)
* Homeward
Bound II - Lost in San Francisco (1996)
* Wildflowers (1999)
* The
Bachelor (1999)
* Bicentennial
Man (1999)
* Foreign
Correspondent (1999)
* Just
One Night (2000)
* Seven
Girlfriends (2000)
* Sweet
November (2001)
* Woman
on Top (2000)
DVD - Rated: R
Starring: Penélope Cruz, Murilo Benício, Harold Perrineau Jr.
* The
Wedding Planner (2001)