House on Telegraph Hill (1951) is a thriller about a Nazi concentration camp survivor, Victoria (Valentina Cortesa), who assumes the identity of her friend Karin who died in the camp. Victoria's family was killed by the Nazis and she has no one to go home to, so after the camp is liberated, Victoria, who has taken possession of her friend's identification papers, heads to America using Karin's identity. As Karin, Victoria finds herself living in a mansion on San Francisco's Telegraph Hill. She's now married, pretending to be the mother to a son, and the next in line to the Dernakova fortune. Things at first appear to go well for Victoria but then strange things begin to take place and Victoria doesn't know what to make of them.
The film, directed by Robert Wise, is shot in beautiful black and white with much of the filming taking place in the Telegraph Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. The film stars Richard Basehart, Valentina Cortesa, and William Lundigan.
1541 Montgomery Street, San Francisco
Julius Castle, 1541 Montgomery Street
The mansion in the film is actually what used to be Julius Castle, a restaurant designed to look like a castle, located at 1541 Montgomery Street on Telegraph Hill. The filmmakers added on to the exterior of the building to hide the elements that would reveal the building to be a restaurant. Julius's Castle was built in 1923 by Italian-born architect Louis Mastropasqua for another Italian who immigrated to San Francisco, restaurateur Julius Roz. The attraction unfortunately closed in 2008 and the building is currently for sale. According to Preservation Nation, the restaurant has had many celebrity visitors, everyone from the likes of Sean Connery, Robert Redford, and Ginger Rogers, to the entire cast of The Empire Strikes Back.
View of San Francisco from Telegraph Hill
View of San Francisco from Telegraph Hill
Photo Credit: The Imperfect Traveller
Above is a view of San Francisco seen during the beginning of the film, when Victoria arrives in her new city. Just below that is a photograph of the city from the blog The Imperfect Traveller that was taken from Telegraph Hill. You can see there are now many more high-rise buildings in the distance, including the famous Transamerica Pyramid building, San Francisco's tallest skyscraper, which wasn't built until 1972.
San Francisco seen from The House on Telegraph Hill
In the scene below, Victoria runs into her friend Major Marc Bennett (William Lundigan) at a market located at 301 Union Street, not far from the mansion location.
Victoria stops by a market at 301 Union Street
Looking towards 301 Union St. from Montgomery St.
Victoria and Marc at the market. The NW corner of Union and Montgomery can be seen in the background.
NW corner of Union St. and Montgomery St.
Looking down Union St. towards Castle St.
Looking down Union St. towards Castle St.
Looking down Montgomery St. from Union St.
Looking down Montgomery St. from Union St.
In this next scene Victoria is seen driving away from the house on Telegraph Hill. She starts at 1541 Montgomery Street and once she starts winding down Telegraph Hill she realizes her brakes have been cut and she can't stop. She ultimately crashes at a dead end street located on Montgomery Street near Montague Place.
Victoria leaves the house at 1541 Montgomery St.
Looking down Montgomery St. from the site of the house.
Victoria heads down Lombard St. towards Grant St.
Looking down Lombard towards Grant.
Looking up Lombard from Grant.
Looking up Lombard from Grant.
Turning from Chestnut St. onto Leavenworth St.
Looking up Chestnut from Leavenworth.
Turning from Montgomery to Union.
Looking down Union towards Calhoun Terrace.
Victoria turns onto Calhoun Terrace.
Victoria heads down Montgomery St. towards Montague Place.
Montgomery St. at Montague Place.
Victoria crashes at Montgomery and Montague.
Looking down Montague Place from Montgomery.
Victoria begins to be suspicious of all the strange events taking place around her and goes to meet Marc Bennett at his office. In the scene below, she is in a taxi that is driving down Post Street towards Market Street. The taxi pulls over and Victoria gets out and runs into what used to be the Crocker Building. The Crocker Building, which survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, was demolished in the 1960s. To see what this building once looked like visit this great site, SepiaTown.
Post Street near Market Street.
Post St. at Market St. Crocker Galleria is on the right.
Victoria arrives at the Crocker building on Post St.
Post Street near Market Street.
Victoria approaches the Crocker building on Post St.
Looking down Post Street towards Market St.
Victoria meets up again with Marc at the San Francisco Yacht Club off of Marina Boulevard. In the first comparison you can see the Golden Gate Bridge and in the second comparison we get a glimpse of the Exploratorium, a "museum of science, art and human perception."
Marc meets with Victoria at the Yacht Club.
The Yacht Club off of Marina Boulevard.
Victoria and Marc at the Yacht Club.
The San Francisco Marina Yacht Harbor.
Screenshots (c) Twentieth Century-Fox, present day images, except where noted, (c) 2012 Google.