San Francisco in Cinema: Woman on the Run

San Francisco's 1950 skyline is a cinema favorite. Today this skyline is buried in towers but can be conjured by the view from Calhoun Terrace seen here.
Woman on the Run is one of the absolute best San Francisco movies and one of the least seen. Without giving away spoilers from the relatively obscure 1950 noir story, it's about a sensitive man with a heart condition, the only witnesses to a mob murder, who goes into hiding. His estranged wife is not sympathetic to the police, whose previous witness was the victim! So you have the police, a murderer, and a woman, running all over San Francisco in search of the missing man. A picture postcard and more, Woman on the Run is deep in its authentically San Franciscan heart. Led around town by a clue from her artist husband, Ann Sheridan learns who the man really is and understands him through their life together as reflected in San Francisco. Sheridan is steely yet warm - part Joan Crawford, part Lucy. Directed by Norman Foster, with Ross Elliot as Frank Johnson and Dennis O'Keefe as newsman Leggett. The Johnson's apartment is a hybrid location named "136 Alta Linda Apt. 4D" in the script. From there Sheridan's adventure takes her to these stops and more:

Man Loh's Oriental Roof Garden
Sullivan's Grotto
Union Square
California and Powell
City Hall
Old St. Mary's
Playland
Embarcadero
Union and Montgomery
Washington Square
Fisherman's Wharf
Old Hall of Justice
Hart & Winston
Powell and Market

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