When I was a kid I saw a movie and I only remember one scene from it. Either a woman or man in a wheelchair at the top of a hill. A cat jumped onto their lap, startling them, and the wheelchair goes down the hill at top speed. Is this scene from this movie?
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Same here..I saw it as a kid, and I believe you're right.
There are other scenes I vividly recall and wish I could FIND this film in any format!
I lived in San Francisco in the early 80s. The house where this was filmed looked exactly the same - right down to that terrifyingly steep sidewalk next to it. I recognized it immediatly.
It was built in 1913 by a man who made a fortune importing sugar from South America. But they only used the exterior; I very much doubt the people who lived there let them film inside.
I think they did film inside the house. The reason Eleanor Parker's character descends the steep sidewalk is because she sees someone moving about inside the window. She would have a better view of that window from further down the hill. But that's when her electric wheelchair short circuits. There's also another scene that takes place in what I think was Aunt Dani's bedroom. The interior shots very clearly show the windows with a view of the same steep sidewalk. Also, the shape of the windows are very distinctive, and are a perfect match to the exterior shots. So it seems logical that they shot inside the house. Also, the period detail and interior furnishings are all quite appropriate for the age of the house and the date of the filming.
I saw this film for the first time in 1969 when I was 14. I never forgot the wheelchair scene. What a great idea! A runaway wheelchair on a steep S.F. sidewalk. Brilliant!
A couple of years ago, when I discovered Google Earth for the first time, I decided I would try to find the house. I remembered that the house was across the street from a park. I first thought maybe the park was Buena Vista Park, so I did a street view spin around but didn't recognize any of the houses. Then I looked at a map of S.F. and found Lafayette Park. That looked promising, so I took a spin around and found the house, and the sidewalk that Aunt Dani almost lost it on. It blew my mind! Here it was 40 years later and and it was all there. The landscaping had grown in some, but there were those same windows!
Interesting.
shareI've seen a production still showing how they filmed that scene. They built a steel turntable on the front of a camera truck, attached a wheelchair to it and had the star Eleanor Parker strapped in the chair as they drove it down the hill. The chair spun around on the turntable and at the bottom of the hill was a cross street with a stop sign facing them. If they hadn't stopped in time the wheelchair would have gone out into the intersection because it extended a good four feet in front of the truck. I can't imagine what Ms. Parker was thinking, as she spun around on that contraption barrelling down the hill, but I suspect the look of terror on her face was somewhat real.
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