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Mission Dolores Church and Cemetery, San Francisco, California

Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions.

Hitchcock's Films

Vertigo (1958)

Mission Dolores was used as the location of Carlotta Valdes's grave in Vertigo. The gravestone inscription reads:

        CARLOTTA
         VALDES

          born
     December 3, 1831
          died
      March 5, 1857

Location filming took place on September 30th and October 1st, 1957, and were the first scenes of Vertigo to be shot with the the principal cast members. The large whitewashed walls of the building create an unusual soft light within the cemetery and that contributed to the dreamlike atmosphere of the scenes in the film.[1]

Unusually, the film crew failed to remove Carlotta's gravestone after filming was completed and it became a popular tourist attraction until staff at the Mission decided the fake stone wasn't in keeping with the nature of the cemetery.[2]

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Film Frames

Selection of film frames: Filming locations for Vertigo (1958) - Mission Dolores Church and Cemetery

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Notes & References

  1. Vertigo: The Making of a Hitchcock Classic (1998) by Dan Auiler, pages 72-75
  2. Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco (2002) by Jeff Kraft & Aaron Leventhal, page 98-101