California film sites are not limited to the back lots of Hollywood, or indeed to surrounding multi-faceted, much-filmed Los Angeles. Kathy Arnold set out to explore the other options in The Golden State.
SAN FRANCISCO – HERE I COME
This is the year for cinema buffs to visit one of the most alluring film-set cities in the USA, for throughout 2018, the City By the Bay is commemorating the 25th anniversary of Mrs Doubtfire, the 50th of Bullitt and the 60th of Vertigo. Join a three-hour San Francisco Movie Tour and discover just how big a role the city has played as the bus passes by the main sites, actors-turned guides tell their stories and videos of the films roll.
For a more intimate experience, dine where the stars dined and stay where they stayed. For instance, view the Hillard family home featured in Mrs Doubtfire and then enjoy a meal at Bridges Restaurant, across the Bay in Danville, where Robin Williams transformed himself into Mrs Doubtfire.
The lobby of San Francisco’s landmark Mark Hopkins Hotel has changed little since part of Bullitt was filmed there
Then head to Nob Hill’s Mark Hopkins, a Bullitt film site, where the Top of the Mark bar provides terrific views of the famous Golden Gate Bridge. It, of course, was the dramatic backdrop for Jimmy Stewart’s rescue of Kim Novak in Vertigo. You can even stay where Novak’s character stayed in the Empire Hotel, now renamed the Hotel Vertigo.
Then catch a boat to the former prison island of Alcatraz, site of such movies as The Rock, The Birdman of Alcatraz and Escape from Alcatraz. Its new Behind the Scenes Tour goes to areas previously closed to the public.
NAPA VALLEY – WINNING WINES, WINSOME FILMS
Bottle Shock was the story of the Judgment of Paris, a wine tasting challenge in 1976 that pitted California against France. Top rating went to a chardonnay from the Napa Valley’s Chateau Montelena, near Calistoga, where you can visit, taste – and judge for yourself.
Thanks to Sideways, sales of pinot noir rocketed and visitors flocked to the lovely Santa Barbara County wine country. Like its hilariously oddly-matched heroes, Miles and Jack, you can breakfast at the Solvang Restaurant and taste at the Sanford Winery and the Fess Parker Vineyard.
SONOMA COUNTY – STRICTLY FOR THE BIRDS
The birds seen from Bodega Bay’s Tides restaurant are more friendly than they were in the movie
From The Birds and Peggy Sue Got Married to American Graffiti, Sonoma County has long attracted movie makers. Find everything from Don Corleone’s desk from The Godfather (at the Francis Ford Coppola winery, near Healdsburg) to The Birds’ Potter School House in Bodega on the two-day, self-guided itinerary, available on the Sonoma County website: https://www.sonomacounty.com/articles/sonoma-county-movie-locations-tour-itinerary
FLYING HIGH IN SAN DIEGO
Top Gun fans head for the Kansas City Barbeque, where Tom Cruise helped belt out Great Balls of Fire on the piano. For a real thrill, fly with a fighter pilot on the Top Gun Experience.
