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This is a list of fiction movies which have featured cable cars in some way. It is not a complete list and I am always open to suggestions.
- After the Thin Man
- Birds, The
- Crime of Passion
- Dark Passage
- D.O.A.
- "Daydreams"
- Fog Over Frisco
- Fools
- Foul Play
- Gathering of Eagles, A
- I Love a Soldier
- In Harm's Way
- In Love and War
- Man's Favorite Sport
- Memoirs of an Invisible Man
- Moran of the Lady Letty
- Mr Billion
- No Escape
- Pal Joey
- Rock, The
- Shoot to Kill
- Starlift
- Walk a Crooked Mile
- Woman on the Run
After the Thin Man
Thanks to Jack Tillmany for suggesting After the Thin Man, the second entry in MGM's long-running series about Dashiell Hammett's characters Nick and Nora Charles.
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| Screen capture from After the Thin Man, showing Powell Street car 510. Thanks to Jack Tillmany. |
Nick and Nora, played by William Powell and Myrna Loy, arrive at the Third and Townsend station in San Francisco. As the ride through the city in their open car, they pass Powell Street cable car 510.
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| Title screen of After the Thin Man. Thanks to Steven Hill. Visit his Movie Title Screens Page. |
Released: 1936
Directed by: W.S. Van Dyke
Written by: Dashiell Hammett (original story), Frances Goodrich
Check the Internet Movie Database
The Birds
The Birds is one of Alfred Hitchcock's scariest movies.
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| Title screen of The Birds. Thanks to Steven Hill. Visit his Movie Title Screens Page. |
The movie contains brief glimpses of cable cars during the opening scenes around Union Square in San Francisco.
Released: 1963
Produced by: Alfred Hitchcock
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Written by: Daphne Du Maurier (original story), Evan Hunter
Check the Internet Movie Database
Thanks to Joe Lacey for recommending this movie.
Crime of Passion
Crime of Passion is a movie that I have not seen.
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| Title screen of Crime of Passion. Thanks to Steven Hill. Visit his Movie Title Screens Page. |
Jack Tillmany reports that the movie, about an advice columnist, played by Barbara Stanwyck, starts out in San Francisco. There's an establishing shot of a California Street cable car heading down the hill from Powell, but nothing more, and we soon move to Los Angeles.
Released: 1956
Produced by: Herman Cohen, Robert Goldstein
Directed by: Gerd Oswald
Written by: Jo Eisinger
Check the Internet Movie Database
Dark Passage
Dark Passage is my favorite Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall movie. The film was made during Hollywood's rediscovery of location shooting; it features wonderful shots of the Bay Area. Lauren Bacall drives through the Waldo Tunnel when there was only one bore. She lives in an Art Deco apartment building by the Filbert Steps. The subjective camera at the beginning is done well. The romance between the leads is moving and well-motivated. I particularly like the supporting characters, including Agnes Moorehead as Madge and Housely Stevenson as the creepy doctor.
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| Title screen of Dark Passage. Thanks to Steven Hill. Visit his Movie Title Screens Page. |
Bogart leaves Madge's apartment house at the top of the Chestnut Street steps and catches an O'Farrell, Jones, and Hyde cable car. He is shown hopping onto the left front bench in a moving shot taken from the car. Remarkably, he hops off Powell Street car 520 at Market. This trip was not possible until ten years later when the O/J/H and the Washington/Jackson lines were combined into the Powell/Hyde line.
Released: 1947, Warner Brothers
Produced by: Jerry Wald, Jack Warner (executive producer)
Directed by: Delmer Davies
Written by: Delmer Davies
Check the Internet Movie Database
D.O.A.
D.O.A. is a dark mystery about a poisoned man searching for his own murderer. It was filmed on location in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
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| Title screen of D.O.A.. Thanks to Steven Hill. Visit his Movie Title Screens Page. |
Edmund O'Brien, staying at the Saint Francis Hotel, hops on inbound Powell Street car 519. Miraculously, he hops off an outbound car at Powell and California. In the Los Angeles scenes, there are some nice shots of LA Railway PCCs.
Released: 1950
Produced by: Joseph H. Nadel, Harry M. Popkin, Leo C. Popkin
Directed by: Rudolph Maté
Written by: Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse
Check the Internet Movie Database
Daydreams
"In 'Daydreams,' a two-reel comedy from 1922, partially filmed in San Francisco, Buster Keaton, as the hapless hero, is pursued by cops, escapes by grabbing a Northbound Powell Bay cable car, which he rides around the turntable at Bay Street, and hops off later on Columbus Avenue. Later, there's a gag wherein a legion of cops are hiding on what appears to be an empty MSRY #27 Line streetcar on Second Street, and he once again attempts an escape by taking a ferryboat.
"Interesting to note that this makes TWO films from 1922 both of which show the Powell Street cable car on the turntable at the Bay Street terminal, the other one being Moran of the Lady Letty with Rudolph Valentinto, which I reported to you previously."
Released: 1922
Produced by: Joseph M Schenck
Directed by: Edward F Cline and Buster Keaton
Written by: Edward F Cline and Buster Keaton
Check the Internet Movie Database
Fog Over Frisco
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| Title screen of Fog Over Frisco. Thanks to Steven Hill. Visit his Movie Title Screens Page. |
Released: 1934
Produced by: Henry Blanke, Robert Lord
Directed by: William Dieterle
Written by: George Dyer, Robert N. Lee
Check the Internet Movie Database
Fools
Jack Tillmany reports that the movie, which stars Jason Robards and Katherine Ross, features a dream sequence in which Jason Robards performs as a mad scientist. His laboratory is the cable car barn. Robards plays a retired horror film actor.
Released: 1970
Produced by: Henri Bollinger, Robert Yamin
Directed by: Tom Gries
Written by: Robert Rudelson
Check the Internet Movie Database
Foul Play
Thanks to Jack Tillmany for reminding me about the one appearance of a cable car: "... in the lengthy and totally nonsensical chase that defies all logic as well as San Francisco geography, there's a brief shot of a Westbound California Street cable car crossing Larkin Street; that's all there is, there isn't any more."
Released: 1978
Produced by: Peter V. Herald, Edward K. Milkis, Thomas L. Miller
Directed by: Colin Higgins
Written by: Colin Higgins
Check the Internet Movie Database
A Gathering of Eagles
Jack Tillmany reports that "about an hour into Gathering of Eagles (1963), there's a bit of cable car action, the usual thing, (518 Southbound & 513 Northbound) on the Hyde Street hill. 513 conveniently stops ON THE DOWNGRADE, ostensibly to pick up Rod Taylor & Mary Peach, but they are never seen on boarding or riding the car, probably never left the studio."
Released: 1963
Produced by: Sy Bartlett
Directed by: Delbert Mann
Written by: Sy Bartlett (story), Robert Pirosh
Check the Internet Movie Database
I Love a Soldier
I Love a Soldier was a wartime romantic comedy-drama filmed by Paramount Pictures in San Francisco between October and December 1943, and premiered in San Francisco (probably at the Paramount) on August 15, 1944. Paulette Goddard plays Eve, a welder in a shipyard who spends her nights dancing with soldiers and sailors due to ship out immediately. Eve wants to avoid getting emotionally involved and having her heart broken, but then she meets Sonny Tufts, who tries to change her mind. Barry Fitzgerald, plays a curmudgeonly surly cable car gripman.
There are no less than five almost identical shots of 518 westbound on Jackson Street between Taylor and Jones, where Goddard allegedly lives with her two girlfriends. Another character played by Beulah Bondi lives in one of the well known Washington Street mansions, and there's one very brief shot of 517 passing by from the rear. At one point in the story, the principals go to Playland at the Beach (introduced via a terrific longshot of WWII crowds), with a visit the Fun House; yes, we see Laughing Sal and some of the interior. There's a Tunnel of Love ride (non-existent in San Francisco, it's done in the studio) and some rear projections of the midway and some of the rides.
On no less than four separate occasions we bid farewell to departing soldiers boarding eastbound Southern Pacific trains at the Oakland Mole. Three times, Goddard returns to San Francisco via Ferry Boat (the "Berkeley" in one shot), and on one of these there's an air raid drill and blackout, but Sonny Tufts assures the audience that the planes heard overhead are ours, not "theirs." That must have been a relief to wartime audiences, especially in San Francisco, where such practice alerts were all too common.
What's supposed to hold your attention for almost two hours, is a lengthy, rather tedious romance between the principals, in which Goddard doesn't want to get married until after the war, and Tufts can't anyway because he's already got a wife back east who's divorcing him. Yawn. The trials and tribulations of some even less interesting subsidiary characters only make it longer.
Critics at the time were unkind. After its San Francisco premiere, it did not open in New York City until the following November, a sure sign that Paramount knew they had a turkey on their hands. The New York Times trashed it, saying "the situation here presented is so contrived that its syntheticness is only emphasized by a background of buzzing shipyards and departing troop trains."
By 1946 the film was still being shown in SF, no doubt because of the local angle, at sub-run theatres such as the Embassy and Downtown, but by the end of the year had finally run out of steam and was put back on the shelf, as was the custom.
Once upon a time, this reviewer heard rumors that a Sacramento-Clay cable car, out of service by the time the film went before the cameras, was used in this film, and it was towed in order to effect movement. I saw no evidence of this. Perhaps this was the original plan, there may have been some publicity about it, but it didn't work out. Washington-Jackson cable car No. 518 is obviously operating normally uphill on Jackson Street in exactly the same manner as Powell-Hyde cable cars do today. All five shots of 518 are taken from approximately the same angle, with a glimpse of the Bay Bridge in the distant background.
Released: 1944
Directed by: Mark Sandrich
Written by: Allan Scott
There is a famous urban legend about Sonny Tufts.
Check the Internet Movie Database
In Harm's Way
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| Title screen of In Harm's Way. Thanks to Steven Hill. Visit his Movie Title Screens Page. |
Paula Prentiss, playing the wife of officer Tom Tryon, walks out of an apartment building at Hyde and Lombard and boards outbound car 512. This is an anachronism because the O'Farrell Jones and Hyde line still ran during the war, using California-type cars. In any event, it's a nice shot. In order not to waste time between takes, Preminger used two cable cars. In addition to car 512, car 514 was also used. Decals were put on 514 that read "512." Thanks to Phil Hoffman for this information.
Released: 1965
Produced by: Otto Preminger
Directed by: Otto Preminger
Written by: James Bassett and Wendell Mayes
Check the Internet Movie Database
In Love and War
In Love and War (1958) is a decent film dealing with Marines and their romantic involvements as well as psychological problems during WWII; some of it takes place in San Francisco. There are the usual postcard exteriors, including a pair of California Street cable cars passing each other on the hill between Powell and Stockton. Since the film was in CinemaScope and Color, contemporary exteriors had to be used, so there are lots of anachronisms, such as 1950's automobiles and the SP sign on the Southern Pacific building which don't fit into the 1940's environment."
Released: 1958
Produced by: Jerry Wald
Directed by: Philip Dunne
Written by: Anton Myrer (novel) and Edward Anhalt
Check the Internet Movie Database
Man's Favorite Sport
In Man's Favorite Sport, partially filmed in San Francisco in 1963, Rock Hudson, who is supposed to be working at Abercrombie & Fitch, drives his sports car up California Street, passes a Westbound cable car at Mason, and makes a left turn down Mason Street to Pine.
Nothing more of interest in that one.
Released: 1964
Produced by: Howard Hawks, Paul Helmick
Directed by: Howard Hawks
Written by: Pat Frank (story "The Girl Who Almost Got Away"),
John Fenton Murray and Steve McNeil.
Leigh Brackett (uncredited)
Check the Internet Movie Database
Memoirs of an Invisible Man
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| Title screen of Memoirs of an Invisible Man. Thanks to Steven Hill. Visit his Movie Title Screens Page. |
The bad guys are based in a hotel at California and Jones, so there are frequent glimpses of passing California Street cars. Chevy Chase rides a Powell Street car to Market while on the run.
Released: 1992
Produced by: Bruce Bodner, Dan Kolsrud, Arnon Milchan (executive producer)
Directed by: John Carpenter
Written by: H F Saint (original story), Robert Collector, Dana Olsen, William Goldman
Check the Internet Movie Database
Moran of the Lady Letty
Thanks to Jack Tillmany for suggesting it. It includes a nice shot of a Powell/Mason car at the Bay and Taylor turntable.
The book and the movie resemble Jack London's The Sea Wolf: A rich, irresponsible young man winds up on a ship and learns to be a real man.
Released: 1922
Produced by: Famous Players-Lasky Corporation
Directed by: George Melford
Written by: Frank Norris (original novel), Monte M. Katterjohn
Check the Internet Movie Database
Mr Billion
Thanks to Jack Tillmany for suggesting it. Jack reports that "A California Street Cable Car figures in the finale of Mr. Billion (1977), filmed, in part, in San Francisco in 1976, but it's a phoney. The front panel still reads "Presidio Avenue" and the side panel still reads "California Street Cable R.R. Company" so it's obviously a movie prop, not a real live operational cable car."
The story involves a rich man who leaves his fortune to his Italian nephew. To collect, the nephew has to get to San Francisco by a certain date. It is not a very good movie.
Released: 1977
Produced by: Steven Bach, Ken Friedman, Gabriel Katzka (executive producer),
Sheldon Schrager (co-producer)
Directed by: Jonathan Kaplan
Written by: Ken Friedman, Jonathan Kaplan
Check the Internet Movie Database
No Escape
Just for the record: TCM unleashed a rarely seen turkey titled No Escape (1953), (AKA City on the Hunt) which supposedly takes place in San Francisco. Watching it was like a 75 minute root canal. They keep throwing in postcard like views of SF to remind you where you were, but the actors (if you can call them that) never left the cheap studio sets, and only their doubles were seen in long shots in a couple exterior shots. About 40 minutes into the film, there's the traditional Powell & Market shot, with 521 doing the usual turnaround. Then Lew Ayres (a good actor, but in his decline here)& Marjorie Steele (inept and grating) supposedly board 525 (seen in another Powell Street shot), and exchange some inane conversation while sitting in the front section, but it's all done in the studio on a mockup cable car, not a real one. The only other exteriors of note were a nice, but all too brief, shot of Mason and Market, with a Muni N car headed Eastbound, and a brief establishing shot of the Ferry Building, with Twin Fageol TCs doing the loop.
File and Forget.
Released: 1953
Produced by: Matt Freed and Hugh Mackenzie
Directed by: Charles Bennett
Written by: Charles Bennett
Check the Internet Movie Database
Pal Joey
Joey gets run out of a town in the Central Valley and arrives at the Oakland Pier. He rides a ferry to San Francisco. In one scene he gets off of an O'Farrell/Jones/Hyde car with Kim Novak. Novak and Rita Hayworth wear some remarkable costumes.
Released: 1957
Produced by: Fred Kohlmar
Directed by: George Sidney
Written by: John O'Hara (original play), Dorothy Kingsley
Check the Internet Movie Database
The Rock
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| Title screen of The Rock. Thanks to Steven Hill. Visit his Movie Title Screens Page. |
The only cable car in the movie is a fake one that explodes during a chase scene. I mention the movie because I remember walking to a doctor's appointment along Bush Street and seeing cable car tracks on Hyde Street. I had to stop and think for a moment because there haven't been tracks there for a long time. When I got closer, I saw that they were painted on the street.
Released: 1996
Produced by: Kenny Bates, Jerry Bruckheimer
Directed by: Michael Bay
Written by: David Weisberg (story) & Douglas Cook
Check the Internet Movie Database
Shoot to Kill
Stephen Goodman recommends the movie because it "starts with an interesting opening as the credits start and you see and hear this silver thing going from the top to bottom of your screen. It's the Powell Street cable. The camera then pulls back to reveal the track then looking up Powell reveals a lone cable car. A great movie! Only a few shots were taken in SF however as 99.8% was shot in BC and Vancouver."
Released: 1988
Produced by: Ron Silverman
Directed by: Roger Spottiswoode
Written by: Michael Burton, Daniel Petrie Jr
Check the Internet Movie Database
Thanks to Stephen Goodman for recommending this movie.
Starlift
Starlift is a movie that I have not seen.
Jack Tillmany reports that: "In WB's Starlift (1951), there's an establishing shot of San Francisco, with a nice shot of a meet between 507 & another car on the Powell/Bay line, but nothing more. The picture is insufferable."
Released: 1951
Produced by: Robert Arthur
Directed by: Roy Del Ruth
Written by: Karl Kamb (writer), John D Klorer (story and screenplay)
Check the Internet Movie Database
Walk a Crooked Mile
Jack Tillmany reports:
"Much of the first half hour was filmed in SF in 1948, in some unusual places, Clay & Larkin, Octavia North of Market, for example. There's just a single cable car shot on California Street that's only in the background, so it barely qualifies at all.
"There's also a distant shot, from above, of an N Car heading West on Duboce from Market, but other than that, no streetcars either. It has the U.S. Maritime Service promotional paint job, so it's probably 148,which ran a lot on the N Line around that time.
"I figure sooner or later someone is going to ask aboutthis one, so you can file this info. It's a darn good film about the FBI (Dennis O'Keefe) and Scotland Yard (Louis Hayward) working together to oust some Commies from a secret atomic project."
Released: 1948
Produced by: Edward Small, Grant Whytock
Directed by: Gordon Douglas
Written by: George Bruce (writer), Bertram Millhauser (story)
Check the Internet Movie Database
Thanks to Stephen Goodman for recommending this movie.
Woman on the Run
Woman on the Run is a neat romantic thriller from 1950 about a San Francisco woman (Ann Sheridan) who, along with an intrepid newspaper reporter (Dennis O’Keefe), goes in search of her in-hiding husband after he witnesses a gangland murder -- she must find him before the underworld does. Depicting marital estrangement while offering up a vivid, progressive portrait of feminine strength; the film is a superb showcase for Miss Sheridan, who balances resentment, fear, and ferocity with graceful fluidity while navigating the winding tale’s shadowy twists and turns. There are many tense moments along the way especially when Miss Sheridan ends up riding on a roller coaster. Despite views of Playland’s "Laughing Sal" this action is filmed at Santa Monica’s Ocean Park. The actress’ forcefully nuanced performance is nicely counterbalanced by O’Keefe’s charmingly blunt one-dimensionality. Robert Keith is first-rate and intriguing as San Francisco police inspector Ferris.
There are many street scenes of San Francisco of 1949. We see Muni "Iron Monsters," including an A-type of the F-Stockton, then new trolley coaches the highlight being a Twin, and yes Sheridan and O’Keefe ride a cable car -- a California Street Cable Railroad California car up Nob Hill to Powell Street. Cable car trackage is seen from the rear window of a Desoto Yellow Cab.
Released: 1950
Produced by: Howard Welsch; Universal International Pictures
Directed by: Norman Foster
Written by: Norman Foster
Check the Internet Movie Database