Words by Johanna Harlow
San Francisco has a reputation for attracting some real characters. The City by the Bay has long been a favorite filming location. Remember when Scottie from Vertigo visits the graveyard at Mission Dolores and Eddie from Venom battles it out in the Tenderloin’s alleys? Or The Maltese Falcon’s Sam Spade witnessing a boat go up in flames over at the Ferry Building? And who isn’t familiar with the Fuller House family’s home in the row of Victorians known as the Painted Ladies? But it doesn’t take a trip to SF to find filming locations close to home. We have our fair share of scenic cinema-scapes right here on the Peninsula.
Our region’s stately mansions have been the settings for outlandish parties, while our sweeping natural landscapes have also graced the big screen. Classrooms and courtrooms, bridges and bluffs, these Peninsula places can’t help but capture the imagination. “We have everything,” says SF Peninsula’s film commissioner Cam Newton. “We have vast open spaces. We have mountains. We have what look like deserts. We have quaint downtowns. Every setting that you could possibly hope for in a movie is all within a half-hour drive.”
You may have stood in the same places where Robin Williams, Brendan Fraser, Jennifer Lopez and Zac Efron delivered iconic lines. You may even have attended school where Michelle Pfeiffer played an inspirational teacher. Check out the scene at these cinematic settings.
Cover Photo Courtesy of: Mike James / Interior Photo: Jeff Bartee
George of the Jungle Swings by Filoli
Pick a genre, any genre, and there’s probably a film that features Filoli. Fantasy, action, rom-com, drama, soap opera, thriller, musical—they’ve all been shot on its grounds. Is it any wonder? Those who have wandered the historic estate’s idyllic gardens and admired its ambitious architecture understand its magic. You’ll spot an aerial view of Filoli’s mansion and clocktower in the opening credits of every episode of the iconic 1980s soap opera Dynasty, and glimpse the estate’s gravel driveway during an unsettling scene in The Game, a thriller starring Michael Douglas.
Filoli’s ballroom, covered in murals and etched in ornate gold trim, has long drawn filmmakers. It’s been the site of a seductive dance during a pre-war Shanghai flashback in The Joy Luck Club and where Joanne and Maureen of Rent belt out the song “Take Me or Leave Me.” In George of the Jungle, everyone’s favorite ape man horrifies high society when he piles food from the buffet onto a serving tray lid he’s turned into a makeshift plate, then tucks a banana into his tux. This luxurious hall is also Joe’s home gym in Heaven Can Wait, a harp positioned right beside a rack of weights.
Photo Courtesy of: Brandon Price
High School Musical Sings at Stanford
Remember the plucky cast of High School Musical? As the theater kids and athletes ponder where to attend university in the trilogy’s final film, Vanessa Hudgens’ character chooses Stanford. As she settles into college life, we see her walking the courtyard behind Wallenberg Hall. She and Zac Efron also share a sweet song and dance in the Papua New Guinea Garden—right after he stares deeply into her eyes and murmurs, “My prom is wherever you are.” Ah, young love.
A university known for its advancements in the sciences, Stanford also has a cameo in multiple episodes of the long-running TV show Myth Busters. Hosts Adam and Jamie tested out the college’s driving simulator at the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab for an experiment on driving with hands-free devices, tried out a mass spectrometer in an episode on germs and recruited the rowing team at the Stanford Rowing and Sailing Center to attempt the theoretical and outlandish sport of “row-skiing” (waterskiing behind a row boat). Bill Nye the Science Guy also filmed on campus, meeting with biologist and professor Chris R. Somerville to explore “Pollution Solutions.”
Photo Courtesy of: Don Debold
A Fishing Village Comes to Fitzgerald Marine Reserve
Did you know the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve served as a Shōwa period Japanese fishing village in 2016? For the movie adaptation of bestseller Memoirs of a Geisha, a film crew constructed a small hut along the bluffs of Moss Beach. Over two days, they shot the movie’s somber opening scene, establishing our heroine Chiyo’s impoverished childhood and the betrayal that sets her story in motion. Beyond that stormy ocean overlook, you’ll also recognize the cypress grove where a cart rattles along uneven ground. The film also shot verdant scenes at nearby Hakone Gardens in Saratoga and the Japanese Tea Garden at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
Photo Courtesy of: Dennis Jarvis
Flubber Bounces Around Kohl Mansion
Over the years, Burlingame’s Kohl Mansion has been the site of a few ghost stories—so is it really a leap to imagine sentient green goo bouncing off its walls? Flubber, starring Robin Williams as a scatterbrained inventor, used the mansion for exterior shots of the fictional Medfield College. But it’s not just an educational institute in this comedy—it’s home to Mercy Burlingame, an all-girls private high school since 1931.
No stranger to show business, Kohl Mansion was memorialized in film long before “the talkies,” serving as a key set on the silent 1921 film Little Lord Fauntleroy. Considering that the mansion once belonged to Frederick Kohl, heir to the Alaska Commercial Company, this locale seems a particularly fitting one for the story of a poor little rich boy.
Photo Courtesy of: Robb Most
The Escape to Witch Mountain Kids Enter Coleman Mansion
The Italianate Coleman Mansion might be held in esteem by historians and architects, but to the kids in Escape to Witch Mountain, it’s another jungle gym. In this 1975 Disney film, the first glimpse the audience gets of the manor-turned-orphanage is of youngsters shimmying up its Corinthian columns and sliding down the handrail flanking the front steps. In the real world, the Menlo Park estate was converted into a private school, not an orphanage—and some of its lucky students played extras in the film. You’ll spot a number of Peninsula School kids chasing each other around in the background while the camera follows Tony and Tia, a young psychic and telekinetic. The field trip to the cinema was shot nearby at the Fine Arts Theatre on California Avenue. It stopped showing screenings long ago—serving as an oriental rug shop, then ZombieRunner, the beloved cafe and running store—but you’ll still find the original marquee above the entry.
Photo Courtesy of: Robb Most
Harold & Maude Put Pedal to the Metal across Dumbarton Bridge
Harold and Maude are certainly one of the Bay Area’s odder film couples. In this cult classic, a death-obsessed young man who drives a hearse and has a habit of staging melodramatic fake suicides goes on wild escapades all around the Peninsula with his 79-year-old car thief of a girlfriend. Their misadventures take them from St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Palo Alto (where the couple first meet) to Marshall Street in Redwood City (where Maude “liberates” a street tree with the intention of transplanting it in the forest) to the old Dumbarton Bridge (where Maude peels off, a motorcycle cop in hot pursuit).
There’s more. Hillsborough’s Rosecourt Mansion along leafy Eucalyptus Avenue acts as Harold’s family home. In real life, the private residence belonged to George T. Cameron, publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle. And let’s not forget the scene at Mori Point, a picturesque spot in Pacifica where a car careens wildly off the cliffs.
Photo Courtesy of: Robb Most
The Wedding Planner Comes to Crystal Springs Reservoir
What better place for a wedding than Woodside? In Jennifer Lopez’s film The Wedding Planner, an idyllic scene takes viewers for a car ride along Crystal Springs Reservoir. As the camera catches fluffy clouds above that shimmering expanse of water, it reminds us that it might be time for another leisurely drive along Highway 35. Bay Area moviegoers will also recognize one of the places the bride-to-be checks out as a possible venue. It’s Filoli again, its grounds flush with springtime daffodils, tulips and flowering trees.
Photo Courtesy of: Robb Most
Dangerous Minds go to Class at San Mateo High School
Time to hit the books. Both San Mateo and Burlingame high schools were used for filming in the drama Dangerous Minds. Based on a memoir, the story relays the experiences of LouAnne Johnson, a U.S. Marine who became a teacher at Carlmont High School, a Belmont institute with a rough reputation back in the ‘80s. LouAnne must have been over the moon when she found out she’d be played by Michelle Pfeiffer.
Photo Courtesy of: Jerry Pierce
Bicentennial Man explores oracle
Can you really have too much Robin Williams? We think not. Bicentennial Man, the tale of a housekeeping robot who gains consciousness and learns what it means to be human, seems a fitting story for Silicon Valley. When the robot and his custodian pay a visit to NorthAm Robotics, they are actually outside Oracle Corporation in Redwood City. As the two of them share a heart-to-heart, the tech company’s impressive blue glass office towers gleam in the distance. Only a 20-minute drive down the road is the Martin family home. Their charming ivy-covered English manor house with wave-course shingles is the main house of the Fleishhacker family’s 74-acre Green Gables Estate in Woodside.
Photo Courtesy of: Hakan Dahlstrom
Mrs. Doubtfire visits San Mateo County History Museum
Raring for more Robin Williams? Mrs. Doubtfire may have mostly filmed in San Francisco, but Redwood City’s San Mateo County History Museum also featured in this beloved family film. Before it became a museum, this stately building with its stained-glass dome and stone eagles served as the old County Courthouse. You can still step into a fully furnished courtroom upstairs and imagine Robin Williams pleading his case with the judge. While you’re there, don’t forget to check out the museum’s exhibit on lawmakers and breakers with displays of sheriff’s badges and a pair of dueling pistols.