Best of San Francisco

With its photogenic hilltops, sparkling views, Barbary Coast-beatnik mystique, and atmospheric fog, San Francisco's a great place to make a movie, as generations of filmmakers have discovered. Begin your minitour of local cinematic haunts in front of the Fairmont, the setting for the 1967 stinker Hotel, then cross Sacramento to the Brocklebank Apartments, home to Kim Novak in Vertigo and Kelly LeBrock in Lady in Red. Walk a block west to Taylor -- up the hill is the doctor's office where Edmond O'Brien learns he has a couple days to live in the thriller D.O.A. -- and head north. 1153 Taylor (near Clay) is Steve McQueen's apartment in Bullitt; the V-J Grocery across the street is where he buys his TV dinners. Bits of What's Up, Doc? and The Presidio were filmed along this stretch of Taylor, and Lee Remick's apartment house in Days of Wine and Roses is No. 1425. For an invigorating finale, glance up Jackson to see where the cable car was blown up in The Rock.