HYPERLINK "http://videos.theonion.com/avclub_video/2011/poppilgrims/POP004-Vertigo_02.flv" \t "_blank" http://videos.theonion.com/avclub_video/2011/poppilgrims/POP004-Vertigo_02.flv Brian Berrebbi Host: When the A.V. Club travels we always make time to visit pop culture landmarks. If something memorable happened in the world of film, TV, Books or music we want to go there. We’re not just tourists, we’re pop pilgrims. Now pretty much everyone knows San Francisco’s Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world. I traveled just one block south and you will find a hidden pop culture gem 900 Lombard the house from Vertigo. Jeffrey M. Anderson of Cinematical.com tell us where we are and why we’re here? Jeffrey M. Anderson Cinematical.com: We are at 900 Lombard Street which is Jimmy Stewart’s Apartment in Vertigo. Jimmy Stewart plays Scottie who is a retired police detective and he’s hired to follow this man’s wife to find out what she’s up to and he thinks that she may be in danger and she follows her around for awhile, she jumps in to San Francisco Bay, he rescues her and brings her back to his apartment and that’s the first time we see the apartment. He gets a phone call, goes together and comes back and she’s gone. And then the next in the film she returns to his apartment to apologize. Madeleine is unable to remember where the apartment was and she finds it via the landmark of Coit Tower which you can see out the front window and when you’re inside Jimmy Stewart’s apartment. Although I don’t think that— Brian Berrebbi: Yeah. Jeffrey M. Anderson: I don’t think it’s really shot inside this building. Brian Berrebbi: Right up the block is the infamous stretch of-- Jeffrey M. Anderson: The crookedest street in the world. Brian Berrebbi: It is the Crookedest Street in the World, okay. Jeffrey M. Anderson: It’s go to location for the city but obviously because of the steepness of the hill and the weird crookedness of the hill, it is meant to be a metaphor for it as Vertigo and the way that everything is kind of you know a little bit lopsided and a little bit dizzy for him. Brian Berrebbi: Let’s take a walk over the house and get a closer look. The house is a little different than we think; the roofers weren’t there in the original movie. Jeffrey M. Anderson: That ladder wasn’t there. Brian Berrebbi: Yeah so the lot is changed. Jeffrey M. Anderson: This bush isn’t here in the movie, obviously because you can see the iron grate when they arrive. I have to look at the film again and see if there’s a baby bush in there. This is the same bush 60 years later. Okay so they painted the door but it does have an old fashioned door knocker on it and an old fashioned door knob. Brian Berrebbi: Do you guys know this is the house from Vertigo, you know the Hitchcock movie? Those guys don’t know that they’re working on a piece of film history. Jeffrey M. Anderson: Yeah Brian Berrebbi: How was the geography of here, and Lombard and of San Francisco used in a building? Jeffrey M. Anderson: It’s a movie where there’s a lot of following through the city. There’s one character following another through the city and so it’s the sort of personality, the city comes through it’s pretty much the ultimate San Francisco movie. Brian Berrebbi: You think it’s the ultimate I— Jeffrey M. Anderson: It’s too San Francisco. With Tokyo story is to Tokyo, I think. San Francisco is such a strange town. It’s a town where there’s people are known for being liberal here but it’s also a town where people are sort of a little more open and free. There’s a lot of certain exploring of self in this town so Vertigo is a movie where a lot of identities at stake and there’s a lot of people sort of trying to figure out who they are and trying to uncover who somebody else is and that kind of thing. Brian Berrebbi: Thank you Jeff and you could see more of Jeff’s work at the San Francisco Examiner Cinematical.com and Commonsense Media. Thank you for being here today with us. Jeffrey M. Anderson: Thank you. Enjoy the rest of our free— town. Brian Berrebbi: Got it. 900 Lombard Street San Francisco, CA Behind the Scenes with FIAT There is no bell tower at the Mission San Juan Bautista. Hitchcock added that. Vertigo underperformed commercially upon its release, which Hitchcock supposedly blamed on Stewart’s age. (He was 50.) He never worked with Stewart again. Co-star Kim Novak said Hitchcock balmed her too—he originally wanted Vera Miles, who had starred in his 1956 film The Wrong Man. Miles and Hitch cock would work together again on Psycho in 1960.