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The Do List

A 1950 Noir, Filmed in San Francisco, That Just *Had* to Have Inspired ‘Vertigo’

Gabe Meline
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A man in a fedora and suit and tie looks sideways toward a woman, looking unsure
Lee J. Cobb and Jane Wyatt in ‘The Man Who Cheated Himself.’ (20th Century Fox)

I thought I knew the basic pantheon of filmed-in-San-Francisco noir classics. The Lady From Shanghai. Experiment in Terror. Fog Over Frisco. Thieves Highway. Dark Passage. The Sniper.

So imagine my excitement when, on Public Domain Day in 2021, I came across a black-and-white San Francisco movie I hadn’t yet seen: The Man Who Cheated Himself. What’s more, it starred Lee J. Cobb?! And John Dall, star of the noir Gun Crazy as well as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope?!? I pressed play and settled in.

I soon realized the film had a closer relation to Hitchcock than previously surmised. After a few telltale details, I stopped following the plot and began honing my hypothesis: that Hitch had lifted San Francisco locations and scenes wholesale from The Man Who Cheated Himself for his masterpiece, the San Francisco movie of all San Francisco movies, Vertigo.

Exhibit A: A gripping rooftop chase that starts on a fire escape, with Coit Tower in the background. Basically the opening scene of Vertigo.

A man in a suit and fedora runs across a rooftop with a city skyline in the background, in a still from a black-and-white movie

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Exhibit B: An important scene at Fort Point, with Cobb and Jane Wyatt driving along the shore, shot at almost the same exact angle as Scottie and Madeline’s approach in Vertigo.

A large sedan drives along a modest road, lined with a waist-high fence next to a body of water, in a still from a black-and-white movie

Exhibit C, and perhaps the most specific: A pan across the intersection of Eddy and Gough, with a clear background shot of the McKittrick Hotel, from Vertigo!

A police officer on a motorcycle leans into a corner turn with a large Victorian building in the background, in a still from a black-and-white movie

I checked my Hitchcock books: the Truffaut interviews, the Donald Spoto studies, the filming location goldmine Footsteps in the Fog. No mention of this clear theft er um borrowing er uh, inspiration!

So when the 4-Star Theater screens The Man Who Cheated Himself on Thursday, Aug. 14, expect a few annoying know-it-alls like myself to tut-tut, point at the screen, and mutter about gray-area plagiarism while everyone else is just trying to enjoy the film.

Do I remember anything about the plot? Not really. A murder coverup, the usual noir stuff. But as a precursor to a movie I’ve seen maybe 50 times, I’ll never forget it.

‘The Man Who Cheated Himself’ screens Thursday, Aug. 14 at the 4-Star Theater (2200 Clement St., San Francisco) at 7 p.m. Tickets and details here.

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