Then ... Tim's idea of a date with Brenda is to to take her to a local airport. They drive onto the tarmac between two hangars.
In the storyline this scene was set in the Bay Area but it was filmed at Clover Field in Southern California at what is now Santa Monica Airport. Here's an early 1930s vintage photo of Clover Field; at that time there were just three hangars - the one on the left was the first to be built. The arrow shows the path of Tim's car in the movie.
By 1940 a much larger hangar had been added alongside the first three as well as the sprawling Douglas Aircraft plant next to it at 3000 Ocean Park Boulevard. The path taken by Tim's car is again marked, on the left. Douglas Aircraft Company became a major defense contractor during WW II employing 44,000 working 3 shifts seven days a week.
Brenda is about to find out there's more to Tim than she knew - it turns out he's an ace aircraft designer for the Crane Aviation Company. They pull up and look skyward where a test pilot barrels Tim's latest experimental plane through its paces.
Then ... The plane lands and taxis up to them - the pilot is effusive in his praise. The Douglas plant is In the background at left and the structure in the center is the large hangar seen in the photo (two above) next to the plant. Douglas Aircraft's original Clover Field hangar is on the right.
Here's another aerial photo of the airfield, taken in 1940, with a good view of the buildings seen above. The arrow points to another plane which happened to be parked near the same spot as Tim's was.
... and Now ... the same site today, alongside Santa Monica airport. The newer, longer runway was built on the golf course seen in the lower foreground above. The Douglas plant and hangars have since been torn down, replaced by business parks; the arrow points approximately to where the location above was. The Sunset Park neighborhood of single family homes surrounding the airport mostly sprung up during WW II to house the Douglas Aircraft workers.
Tim persuades a very nervous Brenda to climb into the aircraft with him for what will be her first ever plane ride. "Contact!", he calls and the propeller is cranked. Looking at this slick flying machine makes it hard to believe that heavier-than-air machine flight began only 36 years earlier.
The aircraft in the movie was a Phillips Aeroneer. This 1940 photo taken while it was in the Bay Area for the filming was at the San Francisco Bay Airdrome, an east bay airfield that used to be next to where Alameda Naval Air Station is now. The tail is marked with its identification number NX16075 but also sports 'Crane Aviation Co. XPT', its name in the movie (check it out above). By this time the aircraft had been bought by MGM studios who featured it in many movies, usually using renowned stunt pilot Paul Mantz, who flew it in this movie. (Photo by William T. Larkins).
Stett, the Director's assistant, phones Caul and confirms he has the tapes. He tells Caul to come to the office for his fee.
Then ... Caul makes his way along a corridor at One Embarcadero Center (described here earlier). The camera glimpses a building through the corridor window with other construction activity behind it.
and Now ... This is the 33-story 100 Pine Center office building, barely completed when the movie was filmed. It is now surrounded by many more Financial District high-rises built during the construction bonanza starting in the 1960s. The shot was filmed high up on the south side of One Embarcadero Center.
Then ... Citing leaseholder privacy the Center's owners were reluctant to allow CitySleuth to search out the office so he will use clues from its window views to deduce the specific location. From inside the office this view looks northeast across Treasure Island to the East Bay hills.
and Now ... using the amazing Google Earth app we can hover above One Embarcadero to see the same view today, indicated by the arrow. The above view could only be seen from a north or east facing window from One Embarcadero, the only one of the Center's four high-rises built at that time (clue # 1).
Then ... Stett and the Director (Robert Duvall, in an uncredited cameo role) are listening to the tapes, the confirmation of his wife's affair making the Director both agitated and angry. From here there's a window view looking west between Sacramento and Clay towards the Fairmont Hotel Tower (with the flag) and the tall, narrow 1250 Jones apartments to the right.
and Now ... One Embarcadero is at center in the lower foreground and the yellow arrow indicates its west view; the white arrows point out those two buildings mentioned above. Armed with this clue # 2 we surmise that the Director's office must have windows facing west and north.
Then ... The camera has panned to the left of the movie frame above (the orange artwork is the link between these two interior shots); it shows Caul taking his money and we see there's a corner part to the office with windows looking out to the south and west. Interestingly the model of One Embarcadero Center in the corner coupled with another model of the site area on the table in the interior shot above suggests the Director is the developer of the Center.
and Now ... here's that same view today, far more cluttered. This clue # 3 then tells us this office must have windows facing north, west and also south. Only a small number of offices at One Embarcadero can boast of this but ... which of those is it?
This recent photo of the west side of One Embarcadero Center reveals that only the top three floors of the two tallest columns have windows facing north + west + south. Now refer back to the Then image (three above) that looks out from a north facing window across Treasure Island. It offers clue # 4 - see the narrow deck outside the windows? As viewed from the third office it appears to be at the rooftop of the column of offices on the far left in the photo below. Too, clue # 5, in the south view above there appears to be a concrete detail outside the window; it looks like the rooftop corner of the office column next to it. So the location is the 41st floor and the office is suite 4150, outlined below; the current lessee is Kokka & Backus, an I.P. law firm.
Then ... Our guilt-stricken protagonist takes the packet of money but disgustedly flings it across the lawn in front of the Alcoa Building across Clay Street from One Embarcadero Center (map). But second thoughts give him pause ...
Then ... Greed trumps guilt and he picks up the money. The building's entrance has its name on it - The Alcoa Building.
and Now ... there's since been a name change - it's now One Maritime Plaza. The seismic upgrade continues around the perimeter, advisable perhaps in this shake-prone city but detracting from the building's original levitated appearance.
Police informants are part of the fabric of crime investigation especially when leads are scarce. In their search for the source of the automatic weapon used in the bus massacre Jake and Larsen meet one such snitch at Enrico's in North Beach.
Then ... For this scene the director populated the curbside dining area with an odd array of characters ranging from hippie to dippy. The restaurant diagonally across the street is Swiss Louis, at that spot since 1936, and the Transamerica pyramid looms in the background.
... and Now, Enrico's started serving italian cuisine to customers at 504 Broadway near Kearny Street in 1959 (map) eventually closing in 2006. Today the site houses a lunch spot, Naked Lunch, and sensibly the cosy outside dining space was retained.
... a few years earlier ... Below, the same location appeared in this scene in the 1968 movie 'Bullitt'. The striped awning kitty-corner across Broadway is at the long-lived Swiss Louis restaurant - it subsequently moved in 1978 to its current location at Pier 39.
Then ... Information from a snitch is usually unreliable at best and all they gleaned from the meeting was a name, Rodney, that may or may not turn out to be useful. As they leave Enrico's you can just see the awning sign of the adjacent drag venue Finocchio's at 506 Broadway. They then turn at the fish and chip shop on the corner and head up Kearny Street.
... and Now, the metal framework of the former Enrico's awning is still in place, a skeletal reminder of what used to be, as too is the stunted remnant of the corner power pole. The Kearny steps have since been renamed for Peter Macchiarini, a local jewelry designer and founder of a number of San Francisco street fairs. Finocchio's has become home to the Pier 5 law firm.
Viewed from across Broadway Finocchio's is pictured here alongside Enrico's in an early 1960s image. It featured cross-dressing entertainment from 1936 until it closed in 1999. A must-see for visitors of the day, it remained a city favorite over the decades. Check out this TV feature on the club from 1980.
Then ... Their car is parked a short way up Kearny on a block so steep that steps replace sidewalks the whole way up on both sides. Fortunately Jake knew how to curb his wheels, second nature with San Franciscans, but that looks like a No Parking sign up the way; certainly parking is prohibited here today.
... and Now, some updated ductwork on the left, repainted exteriors, otherwise there are no significant changes.
Mary and Brenda stop by a store to make a phone call. Mary, sassy as ever, hectors the man hogging the phone, Tim Nolan (Walter Pidgeon). He doesn't mind, in fact he rather takes a shine to Brenda. But she resists his efforts to get to know her, wanting no part of a new male friendship.
Then ... Tim is a determined man and he manages to find out her address. He pulls up across the street from her apartment on Lombard Street. With Angel Island and Pier 37 lining up in the distance, this must be the junction with the north end of Kearny (map).
... and Now, This block of Kearny has been developed quite a bit since then, including these houses, but Angel Island and the site of the demolished pier 37, now a marina, are still visible from here.
Then ... Tim looks up to her apartment on the top floor of 301 Lombard Street at the base of Telegraph Hill ....
... and Now, it's been over 70 years but you'd hardly know it comparing the houses today.
Then ... As Tim wonders how best he should make contact a deliveryman arrives and calls Brenda from an outside phone. She buzzes the door open for him and before it closes Tim urges his dog Smitty to follow the man. He then returns home and, craftily, awaits a call from Brenda.
... and Now, here's the same, identical, front door today. (By the way, check out the gawkers reflected in the doorway glass above, watching the scene being filmed).
Then ... Sure enough, Brenda reads the dog's name tag and calls the phone number on it (Tim's). When he shows up she's taken aback and accuses him of dirty tricks but he sweet talks her into a date (face it, how could she resist Walter Pidgeon's voice, one of the most mellifluous in the business?).
... and Now, CitySleuth has explained earlier that the apartment scenes were filmed in a studio using photo and projected video backgrounds for the views. The window view above is a photo plate of Yerba Buena Island and part of the Bay Bridge span taken from the Coit Tower parking lot at Pioneer Park. From that same location today trees block that view but here's how it looks from close by at the top of Telegraph Hill Boulevard.