on 8/16/2024, 4:52 pm
David-Elijiah Nahmod's piece, with some nice then-vs.-now photos, was originally written when the Castro featured DARK PASSAGE in a double bill with CASABLANCA.
It's worth a revisit, and it's worth a hope that sometime soon DARK PASSAGE will get another night of glory in a Noir City lineup that will recreate (at least in part) the original slate of films screened back in 2003, which cannily celebrated San Francisco noir. Given all that's happened over the years--and since March 2020--a reprise of that show seems timelier than ever. (Hard to say, though, whether Eddie will send such a valentine to his home town, given that it's more difficult to "franchise" such "metro chauvinism" across the country.)
Still, you could leave a candle burning in the window (next to that Bogart cutout that was placed in the Montgomery St. apartment building used as a key setting in DARK PASSAGE)...
Meanwhile, the fate of Julius' Castle remains as murky as many a substandard noir, with little action or traction evident due to the COVID shutdown. The attached link, from 2019 when there was a brief flurry of optimism that the fabled hillside bistro with the sensational bay views would reopen, captures a number of those indelible vistas, which are sadly interspersed with images of a long-mothballed establishment.
https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/Julius-Castle-Telegraph-Hill-North-Beach-reopen-13775003.php#taboola-14
Given that the Castle has been shuttered since 2007, those Blackboard denizens who made the pilgrimage there during Noir City 4 are part of a dwindling group who actually had a meal at the legendary establishment. Be sure to (re-)visit the pictures that accompany Jessica de Guzman's 2019 profile...
2024 UPDATE: Hope still has a pulse for a re-opening at JC, where renovation continues; no re-opening date has been announced, however...
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