1940-41 SAN FRANCISCO AMATUER HOME MOVIES ON DVD

Evocative silent Kodachrome compendium of San Franciso scenes just before the U.S. entered World War II, concentrating on aerials, Chinatown, Market Street, and transportation scenes. Comprehensive film of San Francisco, California and vicinity shot in the summer of 1941.

We start with  great aerial views from a plane. From the looks of things, I thought this was obviously a small craft plane that he rented out privately, but as he gets to the airport, I find that I was mistaken, it was a United plane! So gee, I think planes in those days took aerial tours of the city before they landed.. So off we go! Our cameraman wastes no time and goes downtown! The first shot he gets is rather strange, as he goes down Market Street in a cablecar.. Almost the same set up as the After The Fire in 1909 short on the archives. Very eerie, and I wonder if he knew about the film.. Then we take a grand tour of the downtown, as he goes up and down Market, through Chinatown (Yes! Shanghai Lows!!) Gets shots of the irritated Chinese people, then goes aerial again.

Nice aerial series in every shot we see the shadow of the plane. Starts over Marin County, cuts to view of the wing of the plane and a residential development below, cut to green fields, cut to dry, brown land, cut to suburbs, and finally end with grassless land and the prominent shadow of the plane.

Pan of the airport's "passenger station" in San Francisco. People stand waiting for a plane to unload its passengers. The wing of the plane is in the foreground.

Medium shot of a sign stating "San Francisco Airport, Airline Passengers, August 1941." Cut to a nice pan of the San Francisco airportÑits parking lot and various buildings.

Another pan of the airport. It begins with the image of a plane taking off, moves over for us to view the "Skywalk Cafe" and cars driving along the road. Cut to the front of the airport where a man walks out of the center building.

Nice shaky driving POV down Market Street going towards the Embarcadero (bustling sidewalks and businesses to the side). Cut to a different view of people running across the street. We approach the waterfront building and can also see the Lincoln Hotel.

Interesting, chaotic shot at Market and Ellis StreetsÑwe see the tops of people's heads as they cross the street with the Embarcadero in the background. Ends with a pan up a tall building.

Cars make their ways down a Russian Hill street with a view of the Bay Bridge in the distance.

Beautiful shot from the bottom of a long street (on a hill). The sun shines at the top of the street the buildings and people on the sidewalk look dark in comparison.

worth noting: many short shots of Chinatown, schoolgirls, businessmen, shopkeepers, and more.

Nice pan of restaurant strip on Fisherman's Wharf Ñ Tom Tom's, Joe's, and others (nice signs). Sea gulls sit on top of the buildings, and cars are parked in front of the restaurants.

Montage of restaurants in Fisherman's Wharf. We see several crab and fish restaurants with nice signs and DiMaggio's (with a baseball atop the building). The tops of ships are visible behind the buildings.

worth noting: short shots of men working on a fish boat

Wobbly shot of a silver, seaplane taxiing on the San Francisco Bay before taking off. Cut to front view of the plane taking off into the air.

Soft focus of an old Key System electric train pulling into a station (people stand on the platform). People get on and off the crowded train.

This home movie focuses on San Fransisco and the Pan-Pacific Fair on Treasure Island. This is in Kodachrome, so of course, its just freakin gorgeous, although its all mostly scenic footage with nary a scratch of personal touches. What was so jarring about this film, and ultimately gets points deducted because of it, is that the filmmaker appears to not stand still for 10 seconds. Its quite funny actually, looking at the title cards and reading, for example, Mission Dolores, Cliff House, Golden gate Aquarium, and watch him plow through the locations in the first minute of the film. Having said that, this film is a lot of fun, as it shows SF during the pre-war years.

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