The movie has many scenes filmed both inside and outside the San Francisco Chronicle Building.
Then … For the exterior shots the movie crew filmed outside the Chronicle headquarters at 690 Market on the corner of Kearny (map). Built in 1889, the building is shown here viewed from the Call Building opposite. The Chronicle moved in 1924 to a new location at Fifth and Mission Streets across from the old U.S. Mint, so this building must have been vacant when the movie was filmed here the following year.
… and Now, 690 Market is still there; it became a for-lease office building after it was vacated in 1924, known as either the Old Chronicle Building or the de Young Building. In 2004 a developer secured a permit to double its height in return for seismic-strengthening and restoration of the original building. By 2007 the odd-looking 24-story hybrid structure opened as the Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences, offering condominium apartments in the $1 million to $4+ million range.
Then … Tom MacDonald (Ralph Lewis) has been the Chronicle’s assistant Chief of Printing for over 20 years. Here he is operating one of the newspaper’s printing presses. But this and all of the other Chronicle interior scenes were filmed in the new building just 3 long blocks away.
… in 1924 … here’s the new Chronicle Building at 901 Mission Street (map) the year it opened. Architecturally styled as Gothic Revival, it included an apartment below the clock for proprietor and publisher M. H. de Young who alternated between weekdays here and weekends at his Hillsborough residence. The building extended along Mission to the right and along 5th Street to the left as far as Minna Street. (Photo by Moulin Studios).
… and Now, the Chronicle is still housed here, but no longer occupying all of the building as some parts have been leased out during periods of downsizing. In 1968 the exterior was ‘modernized’ with stucco and some of its ornamentation was removed; it’s now arguably inferior compared to its prior grandeur. Note at far left there’s an added extension across Minna Street. Note too that one of the original arched entrance doors on Mission (behind the bus shelter, below) is no longer there.
Here’s Chronicle owner M. H. de Young relaxing in his palatial apartment in the new Chronicle Building in 1924. His permission would have been required for the moviemakers to film there a year later. (Photo by Moulin Studios).
Then … This shot of Tom in the Press Room shows the massive printing presses behind him. They were in a double-height space that extended vertically from basement level. On the left beneath the wall lamp are two man-lifts that transported employees down to and up from the sub-basement where the paper reels were stored. (there is a moment later in the movie when you see them being used).
… in 1924 … this vintage photo shows those same presses, 14 in a row, viewed from the other direction, with what appears to be man-lifts on the right. (Photo by Moulin Studios).
… in 1924 … photographer Gabriel Moulin took this photo of another pair of man-lifts elsewhere in the building. The one with the pole whisked the man down; the other, up. No way would OSHA allow their use nowadays. (Photo by Moulin Studios).
Then … Next, a brief shot shows newspapers sliding down a chute. The man on the right leans down from the back of a Chronicle delivery truck, scooping up the bundles.
This grainy 1920s photo shows the truck or one just like it backed up to the chute outside the building. The chute connected to a mailroom upstairs.
… in 1924 … this is the mailroom where the papers were bundled up prior to sending them down to the delivery trucks. The employees are all obediently posing for photographer Gabriel Moulin. (Photo by Moulin Studios).
Then … We see a vendor selling the papers on the corner of 5th Street, opposite the Chronicle building. The fenced garden fronts the U.S. Mint just off the frame on the left and on the right is the 5th Street Stage Terminal at the corner of Jessie, owned by the Pickwick Stage Lines. Market Street crosses in the distance.
… and Now, the 5-globe streetlight and an updated fire hydrant can still be seen at this corner today. The Pickwick Hotel across 5th on the right, built in 1928, incorporated the stage terminal which later became a Greyhound terminal (featured in the 1947 movie Dark Passage). It has long since closed down.
‘The Last Edition’ is a critically well-received silent movie that tells two stories in one: First, it presents a turbulent period in the life of an employee of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper - we watch him in quick succession experiencing disappointment, pride, shock, rage and redemption - and second, actual employees reveal how from start to finish a newspaper article is written, typeset, composed, printed and distributed.
Then … The movie opens with a San Francisco establishing shot of a view looking east towards the Ferry Building and the Bay, it was taken from the top of the newly built (in 1925) Park Lane Condominiums at 1100 Sacramento Street atop Nob Hill (map). At far right is the shadowy outline of the Fairmont Hotel and there’s a tall scaffold in the foreground - the beginning of construction of the Brocklebank Apartments which were completed one year later in 1926.
… in 1963 … That matching view today from the Park Lane would be blocked by the Brocklebank but here’s a vintage photo taken from the Brocklebank 38 years later in 1963 of the same view revealing not a lot of change except for the Bay Bridge (completed by 1936) and, at the far right edge in the foreground, the Fairmont Tower (completed behind the extant Fairmont Hotel in 1962).
… and Now, taken from higher up in the Brocklebank, this recent photo captures how the Financial District has dramatically changed since then. The Fairmont Tower is just out of this view on the right.
… and Now, a Google aerial view gives another perspective (the Ferry Building is glimpsed between two of the Embarcadero Center high-rises).
In addition to the gun, Jo also found a letter in Chan’s cab. It was from his brother, delivered to an earlier address before it was forwarded to his current address in the St Paul Hotel.
On a trivia aside, of interest perhaps only to philatelists, the stamp on the above envelope was one of a set of five released in 1978 featuring early windmills from different states. The one on the envelope is the Massachusetts 1793.
Then … Jo goes to the original address on the forwarded letter at 1385 Vallejo (map) - the entrance on the left - but nobody was there. A man who lived in the building told him Chan used to live there with his family but he moved six months ago with “the other woman”, presumably she who had removed the photographs from Chan’s apartment.
… and Now, the shot above was filmed from a top level window of the building across the street from it. This matching photo shows that the posts on either side of 1385’s entrance have since been replaced.
Here’s that building, on the corner of Larkin and Vallejo; the arrow points to where the camera looked down for the street shot. Incidentally, this 3rd floor apartment was also used for filming Jo’s place, seen earlier in the movie. (Makes sense, it was efficient and economical to maximise the utilization of the apartment given the movie’s meager budget).
The next scene , during which Jo tells us he sees the other woman, was filmed on Stockton Street in Chinatown. This photo shows Wayne Wang directing his crew there. The Kum Yuen restaurant behind them was at 1247 Stockton. Wang is talking with crew member Sara Chin while cinematographer Michael Chin takes a lightmeter reading.
Then … Here we see Jo looking towards the other woman. Note the scale on the sidewalk ahead; it’s the same one as in the location photo above at far left.
… and Now, the view ahead looks south down Stockton Street. The tall building in the distance both Then and Now is the 72 unit Mandarin Tower condominiums built in 1970. On the right the New Moon restaurant has replaced Kum Yuen.
Then … When Jo spots the other woman the store across the street, number 1248, places his cab location precisely.
… and Now, This is 1248 Stockton, so Jo is parked alongside the store opposite it, at 1251 Stockton.
Then … The camera cuts to the other woman casually brushing her hair, apparently in front of 1251 Stockton; back then that store was Kenson’s Trading Co. Gourmet Food. The movie’s storyline doesn’t make clear whether the attractive young lady is a political bedfellow of Chan or just a bedfellow. Or both. The uncredited part was played by Nancy Wong, the still photographer for the movie (some of her stills appear in this blog). CitySleuth has recently been in touch with her; she told him she still has the stylish Jeanne Marc jacket that she wore in this scene.
… and Now? 1251 Stockton currently houses the Fu Yuan Food Market. The film’s clues intimate that this is the Other Woman location and indeed, the number and location of the overhead lights match the movie shot. On the other hand the sign inside the store, above, that appears to be aisle numbers (11 A and B) suggests this was filmed at a place larger than this small store.
Nancy Wong recalls that the scene was actually filmed a block further south at the much lager Tian Tian Market at 1117 Stockton. Below is a contemporaneous (1976) photo of that store, at that time called the Lun Wah Market, as it would have looked when the movie was made. Nancy’s recollection is that she was standing in front of the entrance on the left below the awning.
… and Now, this is how that doorway looks today at Tian Tian Market (it has been remodeled and widened since the above photo was taken).
A magazine has published a photo of the flag-waving protest that led to the murder of a Taiwan supporter by Chan’s friend, the old man, a Mainland Chinese supporter.
Then … That sets Jo musing about the unfolding mystery as he sits in his cab across Kearny Street from the Holiday Inn hotel under the bridge at Portsmouth Square (map
… and Now, the hotel has since been refurbished and renamed the Hilton Financial Center. That’s Merchant Street on the right in both images.
Then … He continues his voiceover while pottering around in the kitchen of his apartment. But where was this filmed?
… and Now, CitySleuth tracked Jo’s apartment down - it’s at 2104 Larkin Street in Russian Hill. Here’s that same kitchen now; it’s had cabinet and countertop upgrades, the appliances too, but is still squeezed into the same tiny space.
Then … Here’s how the apartment was found: earlier in the movie there was a brief night-time exterior shot of Jo in the apartment. The juxtaposed detail of siding, window trim and the bay window overhead molding plus a hint from director Wang led CitySleuth to the location.
… and Now, this is the same bay window today. The windows have been replaced but all else is identical 40 years later.
… and Now, director Wang’s recollection to CitySleuth was that the apartment was “either in Lower Nob Hill or Russian Hill”. A search of those neighborhoods revealed it to be the 3rd floor apartment on the corner building at Larkin and Vallejo in Russian Hill, address 2104 Larkin Street (map). The arrow points to the Then and Now window seen above, on the Vallejo side of the building. The corner store was Uncle Sam’s Grocery when the movie was filmed; it’s now a Pilates Studio.
The mood darkens when we learn that while Jo was cleaning out Chan’s cab he found a gun under the front seat. On hearing this, Steve speculates that it was Chan who killed the flag-waving protester with this gun and that the old man was covering up for him. But when asked, the old man tells Jo that Chan wasn’t involved.
