For a fun look back at 1950's San Francisco watch the film noir classic '"The Lineup." It was a 1958 movie based on the TV series of the same name. "Too hot…too big…for TV!"
What the mostly daytime, sunny-skies crime flick lacks in true "film noir" visuals, is made made up by being a real time capsule. Lots of great details: the Embarcadero freeway is under construction, the Ferry Terminal tower with its twice-daily siren, Coit Tower as the tallest building in the skyline, Golden Gate park, and the Sutro baths with a peek-a-boo glimpse of the Cliff House. Eagle-eyed viewers will spot a blimp cruising along the coast.
(The cast is pretty great and filled with character actors of the time. I liked seeing Raymond Bailey ("The Beverly Hillbillies"'s Don Drysdale) as a hapless business man ensnarled in a drug-smuggling operation.)
