( A Bunker Hill movie in a San Francisco blog? CitySleuth explains why).
Homer and his buddies may spend all day hanging around at home but they usually go out at night. They deposit Yvonne at a local movie theater, the Roxie, before speeding off to hit the local 'Indian' bars.
Then ... This is the view looking north on Broadway towards 5th Street (map). The converging street lights, the highlighted tram rails, the flashing neon of three cheek by jowl movie theaters on the right, all add glitz to the scene. They are the Roxie, the Cameo and the Arcade, at 518, 528 and 534 S. Broadway.
... and Now, they say 'The Show Must Go On' but that's no longer true on Broadway, Los Angeles. All three theaters have closed but their marquees are still there, as too is the vertical rooftop Roxie sign. The tram tacks have long since been torn up.
Then ... In this shot in the opposite direction the Roxie and its neighbors are on the left.
... and Now, the harsh light of day and downtown changes over the decades - neon seems to be out of style theses days - have dimmed the excitement. At least the original twin-globe street lamps are still there
Then ... Yvonne buys a ticket at the Roxie's art deco booth. These shots were supposedly filmed on the same evening but the movie showing here is The Iron Sheriff from 1957 featuring Sterling Hayden whereas in the above view Lana Turner in Imitation Of Life from 1959 was on the bill, reflecting the extended period over which Kent MacKenzie filmed the movie.
... and Now, the lobby of the Roxie Theatre is presently a retail store. There are plans however to reopen it in a move towards revitalizing the neighborhood. Note the mosaic sidewalk pattern in front of the theater, still there after all these years.
Then ... As Homer and friends drive off we see Ohrbachs apparel store across the street and a Newberry dime store on the corner across 5th.
... and Now, the tenants and storefronts not surprisingly are different now.
When Yvonne leaves the theater she briefly waits but knows she isn't about to be picked up, left to find her own way home while the boys continue their carousing.
A liquor store owner has been shot in a robbery. The ballistics results show that the bullets match those that killed Frazer, but no gun has turned up. Cullen is understandably puzzled; after all, he tossed the gun from the Golden Gate bridge into the bay. He arranges to meet Lois at a park.
Then ... He makes his way up a path. Behind him a cable car rolls down the hill past a large mansion.
... and Now, this is Lafayette Park and the stately home is the Spreckels mansion at 2080 Washington Street (map), one of San Francisco's famous buildings and a city landmark. Sugar magnate Adolph Spreckels built the French Baroque limestone home in 1913 for his trophy wife Alma deBretteville. Alma was still living there when the movie was filmed; today it is the home of novelist Danielle Steel - she added the unsightly privacy hedge, below. The cable car rolls by no longer, this line having been discontinued six years later, in September, 1956.
Then ... Lois is waiting for him by a park bench. Across the street is the mansion's circular driveway.
... from the 1950s ... The over-the-top hedge now hides the driveway from this spot but this 1953 photo captures it. The original Washington Street entrance was abandoned in favor of the side entrance during Alma's tenure. Incidentally, the Spreckels mansion was featured two years later in the movie The Sniper and again five years after that in Pal Joey.
Then ... Cullen tells her about the latest ballistics evidence but she's more interested in asking him if he would marry her. Knowing she's been married twice before, he's reluctant to commit (er, and didn't she just shoot her last husband?). The view looks past Pacific Heights to Fort Mason and across the north bay to Alcatraz and Angel Island.
... and Now, Ms Steel's hedge is being sculpted but still gets in the way of the view across the Bay for passers-by at street level.
Joe has recovered from his relapse with the help of his A.A. friend Jim - what's more, he has managed to stay off the bottle for a year, commendable but spoiled by Kirsten's lack of interest in sobering up with him. She has left her home, her husband and her daughter then bounced from one bum to another before suddenly turning up unannounced to see him.
Then ... She walks up a steep street towards Joe's rented rooms in the fading Victorian on the right.
... in the early 1960s ... CitySleuth searched high and low in San Francisco before finally nailing this place - it was filmed in Bunker Hill, Los Angeles! The Victorian is no longer there but this vintage photo, taken about the time the movie was filmed, shows it as it was, the Chaspeak Apartments at 512 W. 2nd Street on the block between Olive (seen crossing behind Kirsten, above) and Grand Avenue (map).
In a heartrending scene Kirsten implores Joe to let her return home but he won't unless she commits to give up drinking. Unable to bring herself to do it she turns and leaves.
Then ... As she walks down the street we can just make out a railing spanning 2nd Street beyond Olive.
... in 1948 ... the daytime view in this vintage image reveals the railing to be the balustrade above the 2nd Street tunnel. The corner building at right, the one with the 'BAR' sign on it, above, was the Mission Apartments at 504 W. 2nd. (Ten years earlier the concluding scene in the movie Sudden Fear was filmed at this same junction).
... and Now, the Bunker Hill neighborhood was razed in the 1950s to clear the way for a huge Civic Redevelopment project; consequently the same view now is unrecognizable. The tunnel is still there but this section of 2nd Street has been rerouted around it.
It's a sad ending as Joe watches his wife go. He has turned her away so that, for his sake and their daughter's, he will have a chance to remain sober. We can only speculate as to whether they will ever see each other again.
( A Bunker Hill movie in a San Francisco blog? CitySleuth explains why).
Yvonne is married to Homer, an Indian from her same tribe. They live at 334 Clay, a narrow street between 2nd and 4th Streets passing beneath the Angels Flight funicular at 3rd.
Then ... Just visible here as she approaches the top of the hill, Yvonne climbs the sloping section of Clay from 4th Street.
... and Now, the street doesn't exist any more but the dotted lines superimposed on a recent aerial photo show approximately where it and her house used to be.
Then ... She passes 338 Clay, turns into 334, and heads along the side of the house to her rooms at the rear.
... a vintage photo ... here's a late 1950s or early 1960s photo of 334 (on the left) and 338 Clay Street.
... in 1966 ... just a few years later the house had been demolished, its location shown by the arrow. On the left down on Hill Street is the Grand Central Market where Yvonne did her grocery shopping.
... and Now, the same view today, with Grand Central Market still there on the left. The view now also includes the Angels Flight funicular, it having been relocated a half block from its original location at 3rd Street. Low-tech grass mowers keep the hillside tidy.
Inside are Homer, (Homer Nish, on the left), and a buddy. They and others who regularly drop in, all former reservation Indians, are unemployed and Yvonne laments in voiceover about how they spend all day hanging about doing nothing other than listening to rock music on the radio and reading comic books.