Bullitt, 1968
Director
Cast
visit the film locations
San Francisco: Flights: San Francisco International Airport
Tourist info: San Francisco tourism
Stay at: the Mark Hopkins San Francisco, 1 Nob Hill, San Francisco (tel: 415.392.3434)
Trivia
See more of San Francisco in Basic Instinct and Vertigo.
Bullitt location: Frank Bullitt’s apartment: Taylor Street, San Francisco
Brit director Peter Yates set the industry standard for car chases in this San Francisco based police actioner.
Bullitt location: Ross is spotted in the hotel lobby: Mark Hopkins Hotel, 1 Nob Hill, San Francisco
Detective Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) has to track down killers before the fact leaks out that a prize witness has been offed. The doomed witness, Johnny Ross, is first spotted by the baddies in the lobby of the de-luxe Mark Hopkins San Francisco, 1 Nob Hill.
As you might deduce from the address, this grand San Francisco institution was built on the site of one of the city’s most prestigious mansions. See it also in Harold Robbins’ 1978 motor industry potboiler The Betsy and 1969 shocker Daddy’s Gone a-Hunting.
But it’s downhill for Ross from here: the rather less grand hotel where he is installed stood on Embarcadero, at the foot of the double-deck Oakland Bay Bridge, but has since been demolished.
Bullitt location: Bullitt stocks up on TV dinners: VJ Groceries, Clay Street, San Francisco
You can see Bullitt’s apartment, unchanged, at 1153-1157 Taylor Street, a stylish 1906 three-story frame building at the corner of Clay Street. Across the road you can still shop at VJ Groceries, where Bullitt stocks up on TV dinners.
Bullitt location: Chalmers serves a writ on the police chief: Grace Cathedral, 1051 Taylor Street, San Francisco
The church, where Chalmers (Robert Vaughn) serves a writ of habeas corpus on the police chief, is Grace Cathedral, 1051 Taylor Street, a couple of blocks south of Bullitt’s home, which is also featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s final film, Family Plot.
Bullitt location: Bullitt meets the informant: Enrico's, Broadway at Kearney Street, San Francisco
The bar where Bullitt meets up with informant Eddie is also still in existence. It’s Enrico’s, 504 Broadway at the corner of Kearney Street, site of the car chase in Basic Instinct.
The car chase, with Bullitt’s Mustang Shelby famously bouncing over the city’s hills, was filmed largely on Fillmore Street, between Broadway and Vallejo Street.
The climactic shoot-out took place in San Francisco International Airport.
