San Francisco Noir: The City in Film Noir from 1940 to the Present

by Nathaniel Rich

All cities have their secrets, but none are so dark as San Francisco's, the city that Ambrose Bierce famously described as "a point upon a map of fog." With its reputation as a shadowy land of easy vice and hard virtue, San Francisco provided the ideal setting for many of the greatest films noir, from classics like The Maltese Falcon and Dark Passage to obscure treasures like Woman on the Run and D.O.A. , and neo-noirs like Point Blank and The Conversation . Readers visit the Mission Dolores cemetery where James Stewart spied Kim Novak visiting Carlotta's grave in Vertigo ; the Steinhart Aquarium, where a steamy love scene unfolded between Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai ; and the Kezar Stadium, where Clint Eastwood captures the serial killer, Scorpio, in a blaze of ghastly white light in Dirty Harry . In this guide to the great films noir and the locations where they were shot, the mythic noir city meets San Francisco's own dark past. With period film stills.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Media Tie In, Noir

168 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2005

About the author

Nathaniel Rich is an American novelist and essayist. He is the author of Losing Earth: A Recent History, which received awards from the Society of Environmental Journalists and the American Institute of Physicists and was a finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award; and the novels King Zeno, Odds Against Tomorrow, and The Mayor's Tongue. He is a writer-at-large at the New York Times Magazine and a regular contributor to Harper's and the New York Review of Books. His next book, Second Nature: Scenes from a World Remade, will be published in late March. Rich lives in New Orleans.

Reviews

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not much of a film buff, but when an acquaintance recommended this book it sounded like a fun way to get a feel for the city that I just moved to. Reading the two pages of commentary on each of 41 noir films made in San Francisco gave me a good sense of the genre and a different perspective on the city. I've been enjoying selecting movies to watch (a few are not easy to locate) and added quite a few to my Netflix queue.

[Darin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives condensed synopses of 41 noir and neo-noir movies film in San Francisco with a brief write-up about a location from the filming. For the most part, the details are correct but a few minor details are incorrect. The biggest complaint I have about the book, though, is that endings or spoilers are given in the few paragraphs that describe the films. It was still an interesting and mostly accurate book about San Francisco cinema.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice short look at several film noir and neo-noir movies filmed in and around San Francisco. Not all of these films are good, but it doesn't matter, since part of the fun is in discovering which locations are still intact and which ones have changed.

[Hal Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick little fun read, part film guide, part city guide, and right up your alley if you have attended the San Francisco's Noir City Film Festival.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stories of San Francisco....a nice variety. Enjoyed it.

[Jacob Ide · Rating 4 out of 5]

Less a book of film criticism, more a location guide for notable noir films. If ever I decide to do a Sam Spade vacation in San Francisco, this will be my Bible.

[Ogden Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summaries of noir movies shot in San Fran. Sort of interesting. I have seen very few of the movies they talk about.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Superficial (catalog entries, really) but entertaining historical snippets

[Michael Flick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very brief summaries of 40-some noir films set in San Francisco with precise location information.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun "reference" kind of book. I just re-watched the Maltese Falcon again (w/Humphrey Bogart et al) after reading this and realized that, yes, it is not actually filmed in SF, they just have cleverly tricked you into thinking that it is!

[Bill Yarrow · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good intro. Inaccurate summaries.