Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon) works at a public relations agency. One of his unofficial duties is to provide escorts for his clients. The movie begins with Joe working the phone, rounding up girls for a party being held on a yacht on the bay.
Then ... A cab pulls up alongside the bay and a young woman gets out.
... and Now, this is the St Francis Yacht Club car park at the West Harbor in the Marina district
(map). The bridge needs no introduction.
Then ... She makes her way towards a small boat berthed at the yacht club - in the background is a domed structure very familiar to San Franciscans.
... and Now, it's the Palace of Fine Arts fronting Baker Street at the eastern edge of the Presidio, built in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exposition
(map). Fans of
Vertigo may remember that Scottie and Judy
were once there.
Then ... Joe and the girls are waiting for her in the boat - she climbs aboard to a sharp dressing-down from Joe for not dressing up ...
"You're dressed wrong, it's supposed to be a cocktail dress ... something peek-a-boo!"
... and Now, as they head out Fort Mason is straight ahead with Marina Boulevard alongside the harbor off to the right.
Then ... Their tender pulls alongside the party yacht.
... and Now, but where was this shot filmed? Below is Citysleuth's best guess - looking towards Sausalito's Kappas Marina from close to where the 101 causeway crosses over Richardson Bay
(the arrow on this map would have been the likely camera location). Mist could have obscured the distant skyline in the movie but differences in the shoreline at left create some doubt. Can any reader confirm or correct this location?
On the yacht Joe realizes that the underdressed woman isn't one of the escorts after all, she's Kirsten Arnesen (Lee Remick), the secretary of the client hosting the party. He tries to make amends but she plays it cool. They couldn't have gotten off to a rockier start.
After the society party at Vera Simpson's mansion Joey and Ned, the bandleader, take Linda home.
Then ... They take the cable car to Nob Hill, seen here coming down Washington Street towards Taylor Street. (San Franciscans would never take this highly circuitous route from Telegraph Hill). Reader CDL has pointed out that this section of track was closed down in 1957 awaiting a new turntable at Hyde and Beach Street. Not a problem for the moviemakers from Hollywood - they used a motorized car with a bumper and fenders to hide the wheels.
... and Now, the cable car still runs down this street although the day Citysleuth was there it had broken down, foiling the perfect matching shot.
Then ... They hop off at the junction and walk along Taylor to the building at far right where Linda has a room. As the cable car heads over the incline we see a rear tire outside of the track, confirming that it is indeed a motorized version. Note too that this car is the 'double-ender' style, displaying 'Presidio Ave, California and Market Streets' front and back, unlike the Powell Street 'single-ender' that ran (and still does) down Washington (compare them here).
... and Now, the corner houses are mostly unchanged but several high rise buildings now block the view down Washington of the Ferry Building and the Bay Bridge except for part of its massive central caisson.
Ned opens the door of Linda's rooming house and the two men bid her goodnight. The building's address is 1250 Taylor Street (map) which, by the way, is just one block from Frank Bullitt's apartment in the movie Bullitt. A wider view of it is seen from across the street in the next image, a composite of several shots that gives an unobstructed view of the location.
Then ... Ned's place is one of the two up the stairs in the foreground below (1239 or 1241 Taylor) and after he retires, refusing to let Joey stay with him, Joey returns across the street to 1250 Taylor and rents a room there, conveniently as it turns out right next to Linda's.
... and Now, from the same spot. But Citysleuth wonders if this scene was filmed on a studio set modelled closely on the real location below. It has that 'slightly phony' look in the movie and the stair bannister, though similar, doesn't match exactly.
Another anonymous letter has arrived for Sheila, this one hinting at her involvement with Mason's death. So Mason had been wrongly killed after all. Rivera is now convinced the chauffeur Cobb must have sent them. In a rage he grabs him in a violent choke-hold.
To save his skin, Cobb blurts out that it was Sheila who had asked him to mail the letters! Rivera is shocked at the realization she was behind it - all because she was desperate to keep him from leaving. After a pitiful soul-searching exchange they kiss in an emotional embrace then look guilty as sin when they realize Cathy had walked in and overheard their every word.
Then ... Rivera by now is a basket case ... he tries to grab Cathy even as he babbles that they had to do it. She runs upstairs and locks herself in a bedroom but is forced to climb out of a dormer window as Rivera batters down the door. He climbs out after her ...
... and Now, this rooftop view at 2898 Broadway hasn't changed one bit.
Then ... Somehow Cathy reaches the safety of another window but behind her Rivera is less fortunate ... he slips and falls.
... and Now, it's still a long way down.
Then ... The ghosts of Cabot and Mason probably said a collective 'Amen' at the sight of Rivera's crumpled body on the vertiginous Baker Street steps (map).
In a closing shot that mirrors the classic movie Vertigo, Sheila, just like Scottie Ferguson before her, stares out in stunned disbelief, mortified by the loss of the one she so dearly loved.
Lester's scheme progresses well - he and Myra have become newlyweds. They spend their honeymoon at Myra's summer house, a delightful waterfront home on a steep hillside with spectacular views. The owners of the house, well aware of its association with the movie, generously allowed Citysleuth to visit and take the matching photographs below.
Then ... From the house a steep switchback path winds all the way down past a small cottage to a private pier.
... and Now, the house, still there and looking much as it did 60 years ago, is at 250 Beach Road in Belvedere, just a few miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County
(map). It faces Tiburon across Belvedere Cove.
Lester wakes up his new bride and suggests they go for a swim. This was filmed inside the house in the end room on the right on the exterior balcony (above). The room (below) was made into a bedroom with a fireplace and an exit door added on the left for extra effect. The balcony post outside the window can be clearly seen if you click on the photo above.
Then ... They exit the room and begin the descent to the pier far below. Although the movie convincingly makes it look like this is the door leading out of the bedroom (far left, above) it is in fact one floor below it.
... and Now, the boat dock at the end of the pier is smaller and an arbor has been added outside the house, otherwise it's the same.
Then ... Lester runs ahead ...
... and Now, the posts on the retaining wall support the arbor mentioned above.
... he pulls back, almost falling over the unprotected edge ...
"Whoah! It's a precipice! ... There isn't even a guard rail!"
Then ... This is what he saw that gave him pause.
Then ... They continue on down but play it safe by holding hands.
Then ... Almost there! These retaining walls were built to last with cobblestones from old San Francisco streets.
... and Now , the pathway has an added brick edging and the repainted cottage an updated window, otherwise there's little change.
Then ... As they run to the end of the pier we see the hills of Tiburon stretched out on the other side of the cove. The pier was built with sections of a catwalk used in the construction of the Golden Gate bridge.
... and Now, Tiburon has seen its share of development since 1952 but still retains its charm. The white building opposite is the Corinthian Yacht Club, established in 1886.
... on location ... The actors and reportedly up to one hundred support crew spent two days filming these scenes. The owners of the house at that time were Mr. and Mrs. Jack Heidelberg. CitySleuth thanks the current owners for sharing this on-location photo showing Mrs. Heidelberg and friends on her balcony watching Joan Crawford and Jack Palance rehearsing.
... and Now, the room above the exit door, the bedroom in the movie, has been extended out, one of the few exterior changes to the house.
Joan Crawford was known for corresponding diligently with friends and fans. Here's a letter of thanks she sent to Mrs. Heidelberg after the movie was completed (click on it to enlarge and note the misspelled name!)
The Barbary Coast bandleader tells Joey and Linda that they have landed a gig "at a society party on Nob Hill" at the mansion owned by Vera Prentice-Simpson (Rita Hayworth), a wealthy socialite widow. (But as we are about to find out, it wasn't on Nob Hill ...)
Then ... The guests roll up to the mansion by way of a large circular driveway with a grassy knoll in the middle. In the distance off to the right are a cluster of buildings on top of a hill.
... and Now, but this mansion doesn't exist and never has. It's a sneaky matte painting insertion. For the bottom half of the frame above the parking activity was filmed at the Coit Tower car park on Telegraph Hill. The matching recent photo below of Coit Tower shows a statue of Christopher Columbus on the knoll (why? ... he never set foot in North America), erected in 1957 not long after the movie was filmed.
... an aerial view ... this vintage aerial of Pioneer Park shows Coit Tower and the car park before the statue was installed. As we will see later in the movie there's a scene on Mrs Simpson's patio that was filmed on the lawn to the right of the tower. So the Coit Tower site itself
(map) was the virtual location of Vera Simpson's mansion.
What about those buildings off to the right in the first 'Then' image above? Although they too were part of the painting, they were images of real buildings atop Russian Hill. They can indeed be seen from Telegraph Hill - here they are below in a 1952 photo taken from the top of Coit Tower. The building on the left of the group is the prestigious 945 Green Street Apartments.
... and Now, the same buildings viewed through a gap in the trees from the car park today. Newer buildings intrude but the original three (arrowed) are still there.
The society party is a fundraiser and after Joey sings a wonderfully relaxed 'There's A Small Hotel' he persuades Vera to reprise, for a generous donation, an act she used to do in her former life as a striptease performer. In the number, titled 'Zip', Rita Hayworth spoke the lead-in lines but her singing voice was dubbed by Jo Ann Greer.
