Where was So I Married an Axe Murderer filmed?

At the beginning of the movie, the audience is introduced to Charlie MacKenzie and his cop best friend Tony Giardino who are sitting within Café Roads, a popular café for up-and-coming poets in San Francisco. Charlie and Tony talk about life while talking about Charlie’s plans for later. Tony asks Charlie, “So, what are you gonna do tonight?” Charlie takes time to think and replies with, “Well umm… I’m gonna do a poem about Sherri.”

To note, while in San Francisco, the general trend was that the residents seemed to favor coffee-houses over bars, which made sense to film the introduction in a café as it was more popular. The introduction of the movie featuring the interior of Café Roads was originally shot within Picaro Café, but then Mike Myers decided to reshoot the scenes at a different venue. The final shooting location for the interior of Roads Café was at Rococo Showplace which is at 165 -10th Street at Howard.

Getting there is a relatively easy task as you can take the public transportation available at Market Street to get up the street where you can take a turn at 10th street.

After his successful night out at the Roads Café, we see Charlie enter a store called “Meats of the World” where he looks for meats his parents might appreciate. In the store, he meets Harriet Michaels, and he asks her, “Yes, uh, do you have haggis?” She later gets him the one haggis he asks for and an awkward interaction occurs where he explains to her that his parents are Scottish before paying and maintaining eye contact with her for an uncomfortably long period of time.

This scene shot at “Meats of the World” was actually shot in a store that is now called North Beach Pizza and set the scene for Harriet’s introduction to the movie. With San Francisco not being too complicated of a city, it's relatively easy to get to this location.

Drive along Kearny Street and then make a turn on Columbus Avenue and then another small turn to go up Grant Avenue. So I Married an Axe Murderer’s film locations were set throughout the city so you should be able to see the building they used when you come up Grant Avenue on your right.

As Charlie visits his parents for dinner, we see that Tony has arrived beforehand. As Charlie heads off to the kitchen to help his mother prepare dinner, we see a little bit of interaction between Tony and Charlie’s father, Stuart. Mike Meyers’s performance as Charlie’s father was based on the mannerisms that his father displayed.

They begin discussing theories that there is a secret society that controls the whole world, with five prominent members. When Tony asks, “So who’s in this Pentavirate?” Stuart responds without missing a beat and says, “The Queen, the Vatican, the Gettys, the Rothschilds, and Colonel Sanders…”

The moment where Tony laughs at Stuart’s comments concerning Colonel Sanders and starts impersonating him was not scripted. He did really lose control and laugh as Stuart, played also by Mike Meyers.

This entertaining scene utilizes a small San Francisco house as its backdrop as before Charlie enters the house, the audience sees him pull up to a home whose occupants can be heard from the outside. One of the many, So I Married an Axe Murderer, filming locations, this house can be found in San Francisco.

To get to the home used for the exterior of Charlie’s family house, you can drive along Parnassus Avenue and turn on either 5th or 4th Avenue, and then turn on Hugo Avenue where you can spot the house with the number 327a.

The captain of the police force confronts a dejected-looking Tony as he asks for his report on a recent incident. Clearly worried for Tony, the captain asks, “Tony, I don’t want to intrude, but you seem a little down.” Tony begins explaining that he has doubts about being a cop and it’s because he can’t do the things the cops in the movies do, like hanging onto the railings of a helicopter. Instead, all he’s doing is filing paperwork which he feels is not a solid use of his time. At the end of it all, the captain exclaims, “Hey, somebody needs a hug!”

This, So I Married an Axe Murderer film shoot took place within the War Memorial building just opposite the San Francisco City Hall. The grand pillars and concrete structure with high ceilings make it look like a legitimate police office. Nowadays, visitors aren’t able to see the set but can still visit the memorial to pay respects to the veterans who fought in wars.

To get to this location, you can exit the Central Freeway and head up Mission Street where you then take a turn on South Van Ness Avenue. From then on you can see the memorial on your left-hand side.

As Harriet and Charlie walk through San Francisco downtown at night, they pass by some Russian sailors who talk amongst themselves as they decide whether Harriet is pretty or not. The first sailor says, “She’s a little thin.” To which the second sailor mentions, “She looks really good to me.” Harriet responds to them in perfect Russian saying, “Yes, very good.” The first sailor says, “Oh, she understands Russian.” And finally, Harriet leaves them saying, “See you later, boys.”

In the draft, Harriet was supposed to be previously married to a German martial arts expert as opposed to a Russian one. So instead of overhearing the two Russian sailors, she was supposed to overhear a German man propose to his girlfriend in German.

This scene in So I Married an Axe Murderer was shot in the beautiful Palace of Fine Arts. This building was originally built for an international exposition to exhibit works of art and as of now is the only structure from the exposition that survives onsite.

To get to one of San Francisco’s most recognizable landmarks, you can drive along Divisadero Street and then up Lombard Street to Richardson Avenue where you make a turn to enter Lyon Street to reach your destination.

The scene opens with a saddened Charlie reading the papers on his terrace overlooking the rest of his neighborhood when he hears the sound of his telephone ringing. When he picks it up, it’s his best friend Tony who’s calling him. Tony calls Charlie to update him on news that might still be important to him saying that “…somebody just turned themselves in for the murder of Ralph Elliot.” Charlie asks, “What about the other murders?” to which Tony replies with, “If you gotta know, so far she just confessed to one murder.”

This scene was shot in one of the more scenic areas of San Francisco, particularly where Charlie lived. The house is located along 28 Aladdin Terrace and it overlooks some of the neighborhood as the area it's in is very hilly. To get to the specific house they used to film the scenes of Charlie on top of his terrace as well as within his house, you can travel along Pine Street and then make another turn to travel along Taylor Street. You then have to carefully look between all the alleyways to find 28 Aladdin Terrace.