I thought I knew the basic pantheon of filmed-in-San-Francisco noir classics. The Lady Vanishes. Experiment in Terror. Fog Over Frisco. Thieves Highway. Dark Passage. The Sniper.

So imagine my excitement when, on Public Domain Day in 2021, I came across a black-and-white San Francisco movie I hadn’t yet seen: The Man Who Cheated Himself. What’s more, it starred Lee J. Cobb?! And John Dall, star of the noir Gun Crazy as well as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope?!? I pressed play and settled in.

I soon realized the film had a closer relation to Hitchcock than previously surmised. After a few telltale details, I stopped following the plot and began honing my hypothesis: that Hitch had lifted San Francisco locations and scenes wholesale from The Man Who Cheated Himself for his masterpiece, the San Fra

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