At top and bottom, a couple of shots from my July 13 appearance in the Tenderloin Museum, talking up The Thin Man and with some snippets of the 1931 Falcon — high point being when we spotted the heart of the TL in a casual pan shot from that first film version of Hammett’s most famous novel.
I don’t recall specific TL locales in the 1920 silent Lon Chaney film The Penalty, but it certainly nibbles around the edges, with the scenes of robbing the Old Mint at Fifth and Mission, mere blocks from the doors of the Museum. And with tons of other locations from yesteryear — many of which may be found today.
On Thursday January 4 at 7p.m. I’ll be back in the Museum to introduce a showing of the movie, which as everyone knows I credit as the obvious source material for Hammett’s white hot Continental Op novel The Big Knockover.
Better yet, after we watch the saga of Chaney as a legless crime lord planning to knockover the Mint, the mysterious CitySleuth will do a PowerPoint presentation of Then & Now shots — screen shot from the movie/what is there today. I am in flat-out awe about the number of locations CS has tracked down, and I think you will be, too.
You don’t get any more Frisco than this evening — and what a way to kick in the New Year.
