Vertigo and Mission Dolores

Last week Gail and I received the next movie on our Netflix quiche (that’s what we call it): Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. She had never seen it and I last saw it over 40 years ago so I didn’t remember much. I remembered it starred Jimmy Stewart. I didn’t remember Kim Novak. I forgot that it was set in San Francisco and I had no idea Mission Dolores was an important location in the film.

Gail and I were in San Francisco this past December for a conference. It was a quick trip but we did squeeze in a few touristy stops. Gail really wanted to see Mission Dolores, so we made sure that was one of them. Our weather was foggy and overcast that day, so we didn’t take as many pictures as we usually do. But I’m glad we took a few.

So, back to our movie. Vertigo was shot in 1958, when I was three years old, and only four years before Gail was born. It’s weird to think that the movie is now basically a period piece. I enjoyed seeing how people related to each other back in the late 50’s, the cars, the clothes, all that. It was even fun seeing how different the city of San Francisco looked 50 years ago. The movie itself is Hitchcock wonderful, but it is forgettable by today’s standards. I was a little disappointed that we got the colorized version. I’m certain it would have looked better in black and white.

Our favorite part of the movie, though, was to discover that Mission Dolores played such a big part in it! We had been right there just a few months ago! We walked the same steps that Jimmy Stewart, Kim Novak and Alfred Hitchcock had 53 years ago! That was really cool!

A few pics off the web:

And a few of our own: