Reel SF

San Francisco movie locations from classic films

San Francisco movie locations from classic films

Vertigo - Resurrection

  Scottie continues dating Judy but he has a definite agenda in mind ...  when they stop at one of San Francisco's many downtown flower stands he suddenly informs her he wants to buy her some clothes.

 

Then ...  He firmly guides her across the road to Ransohoffs, the swanky downtown ladies clothes store.  Reflected in the window above, and through the flower stand below, we can see a Florsheim Shoes store on the corner.

... and Now,  this is on Post Street, a half block from Union Square (map).  There's still a flower stand at the same spot but Florsheim's, on the corner of Stockton Street, is now Johnston & Murphy.  Ransohoffs, at 259 Post, closed in 1976 and until recently was another ladies clothes store, Escada.  The site is currently vacant.  Note too that the one way traffic has been reversed.

 

    In Ransohoffs (filmed on a recreated studio soundstage) Scottie seems to know what he wants.  He picks out a grey suit just like the one that Madeleine used to wear and, against her uneasy protests but intent on making her over, persuades Judy to wear similar shoes and have her hair dyed blonde.

 

Then ... While she is at the hairdressers he returns to her room at the Empire Hotel (described earlier here) and anxiously awaits her return.

... and Now,  CitySleuth explained in an earlier post how director Hitchcock shot the hotel room scenes on a studio soundstage, basing its layout on the Empire's room 401 except that he reversed the layout.  Below is the matching, reversed photo from room 401 of the hotel today (now the Hotel Vertigo).

 

Then ...  Judy returns, watched by Scottie from the doorway of her room (again, filmed on a studio set).  But something isn't quite right - he doesn't like the way she is wearing her hair.

... and Now,  the corridor outside the real room 401.

 

  "Please, Judy" - he implores her to put her hair up.  She does so, behind the closed bathroom door, and again he waits, on tenterhooks.  Bernard Herrmann's suspenseful music rises to a haunting crescendo and she emerges, ghostlike, an apparition.  Madeleine is resurrected.

 

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