Then … Still searching for Stevenson, Herbert hasn’t given up on the idea that surely he must have been to a bank to get cash; he heads back to the Financial District, beginning here at the main entrance of the United California Bank Building at 405 Montgomery Street.
… and Now, that location has seen a succession of exterior street level changes since it was built as the Financial Center Building in 1926. In 1956 the facade was modernized, including replacing the original cast stone with polished granite cladding - this is how it was when the movie was filmed (above). Later, in 1997, the Omni Hotel acquired the building and by 2001 redid the exterior to closely revert it to the original 1926 style (see the recent photo below). Click or tap the image to see where Herbert’s entrance used to be.
The three images below show the Financial Center Building’s evolution over the past century. The 1926 photo on the left reveals a tall , arched main entrance located dead center on the Montgomery Street side. The 1990s photo in the center shows the 1956 facade modernization - the entrance as seen above in the Then image was in the same spot, between the flagpoles. The architect rendering on the right shows the 1997 Omni Hotel remodeled as it still looks today; the styling mimics the original except the entrance was moved to the California Street side, its address concomitantly becoming 500 California Street. (Images courtesy of Dean Randle, head architect for the Omni Hotel conversion).
Then … Next up, Mitsubishi Bank of California, conveniently in the building right next door at 425 Montgomery Street.
… and Now, the facade on this building too has been redone since then but the unchanged windows on the 2nd and 3rd floors just visible in the Then image above confirm where the 425 Montgomery bank entrance was, indicated by the arrow.
Then … He also tries the Western Women’s Bank a few blocks away at 237 Front Street.
… in 1989 … Ten years after the movie was filmed this remarkable photo captured the 237 Front Street building, on the corner of Halleck Alley, shortly after it was damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake. At that time it was occupied by the Golden State Bank who had discarded the awning used by the Western Women’s Bank.
… in 2022 … The building has since been rebuilt, minus the top floor. A McDonald’s diner moved in, a fixture here for 29 years; it’s pictured below a year before it closed in 2023. Its neighbor, the historic Harrington’s Bar & Grill Irish pub, has fared better; it opened in 1935 and is now back in business after surviving an extended covid epidemic-induced shutdown.
… and Now, the building is currently vacant in search of a tenant.
Then … Banco Do Brasil at 540 California Street is next on his list. Again, all we are shown is a brief camera pan of the bank’s name above the entrance.
… and Now, 540 California is located in the 550 California office high-rise next door to the aforementioned Omni Hotel. The arrow points to where the Banco Do Brasil name used to be.
Then … and finally Wells Fargo Bank. As he exits he’s clearly demoralized having drawn a blank with all five banks.
and Now, Wells Fargo is still there, with an updated sign, at 464 California Street. Note the same fire department standpipe connections Then and Now protruding from the wall.
Teddy almost misses TWA’s L-1011 flight to Los Angeles but persuades the ramp truck to head back as the exit door re-opens for him. As if. (In return for its cooperation with the filmmakers TWA gets lots of exposure in the airport scenes that follow).
Then … Unfortunately for Teddy once in the air the flight is diverted to San Diego due to fog in L.A. On arrival he sits in the lounge, musing about Didi and Charlotte, two women waiting for him in the middle of the night. But was this scene filmed at San Diego airport? (No, it was not - read on).
… in 1977 … it turns out the same airport lounge had been filmed 7 years earlier in a scene, below, in the Mel Brook’s comedy High Anxiety as evidenced by the same red pin-striped carpet, seats, circular columns, quad elevated flight status screens, cone-shaped cigarette ashtrays and silver lamp arrays.
When Mel Brooks exits the terminal in High Anxiety the address on the window - 300 World Way - is that of TWA’s Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport. This then was the location used for Teddy’s ‘San Diego’ airport lounge scene.
… a vintage photo … This c. 1970 photograph shows TWA Terminal 3 as it still was when The Woman In Red was filmed.
… and Now, the terminal, still addressed 300 World Way, Los Angeles, has significantly changed since then including the addition of an elevated road now servicing an expanded upper level. TWA as such disappeared when it was acquired in 2001 by American Airlines; today Terminal 3 is used primarily for Delta and Aeromexico arrivals and departures. Further changes are currently underway at LAX in preparation for the flood of 2028 Summer Olympics visitors.
Then … All is not lost though - the two wanna-be lovers, undeterred, meet again in San Francisco at Baker Street near Beach in the Marina District with the Palace of Fine Arts across the lagoon behind them (map).
… and Now, the impressive edifice was built for the 1915 Pan-Pacific Exposition; it was rebuilt in concrete and steel in the 1960s and seismically retrofitted in 2009 but has retained its original appearance to this day.
Alfred Hitchcock beat Gene Wilder to it - the identical view was captured in his 1958 classic Vertigo when James Stewart and Kim Novak stroll by along the Baker Street sidewalk.
Even earlier, in 1947, Ann Sheridan and Kent smith were filmed there in Nora Prentiss.
And later, in 1979 around the corner on Bay Street, Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen were there in Time After Time. It’s easy to see why this location is a magnet for filmmakers.
Then … Herbert is desperate with nowhere to go. He drags his way up one of the city’s steepest streets.
… and Now, this is Nob Hill looking south down Taylor street from California towards Pine. At far left with a temporary ramp is a side entrance of the Huntington Hotel which was closed for extensive interior upgrades when CitySleuth took this photo.
Then … Exhausted, he sees a large church across California Street.
… and Now, this is Grace Cathedral on the northwest corner of California and Taylor (map). The sidewalk utility box is now twice as wide as it was then.
Then … A shot looking down from the Huntington Hotel reveals a little more. At far right in front of the cathedral’s front entrance there’s a brick building, Cathedral House, built as the George William Gibbs Memorial Hall in 1911 for the Church Divinity School.
… and Now, that building was demolished in 1993, enabling a grand staircase to the front entrance; the cathedral now stands resplendently unobscured as a result.
Then … Seeking solace he enters, standing reverentially next to a marble baptismal font.
… and Now, CitySleuth’s matching photo includes Beniamino Bufano’s statue of St. Francis on the left.
Then … Perhaps a silent prayer will help ease his plight.
… and Now, the pews have aged well. There are other, older murals along the walls but those visible here were painted after the movie was filmed.
Then … He gets a gentle reminder that the church is about to close.
… and Now, this fine view towards the apse and the main altar captures just part of the cathedral’s splendour. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a sermon during the consecration of the cathedral in March, 1964 from the pulpit right of center.
Then … With nowhere else to go he spends the night on a bench next to a children’s playground in Huntington Park across Taylor Street from the cathedral. Cathedral House behind him is partially visible across Taylor.
… and Now, the playground has been moved to another part of the park and a parking garage has replaced Cathedral House.
Then … A birds-eye view of the cathedral from a high-rise apartment building on Sacramento Street clearly shows Cathedral House. Across California on the corner of Taylor is the Masonic Auditorium and Memorial Temple.
… and Now, Cathedral House is gone but the Masonic Auditorium is still there; this view also shows the Huntington Hotel across Taylor at far left.
Then … A misty early morning shot from the Huntington Hotel captures the park as Herbert awakens. But note the production goof here: the bench where he slept next to the children’s playground (check it out two Then images above) is missing. The arrow shows where it should have been.
… and Now, because the Huntington Hotel was closed when CitySleuth stopped by he resorted to a Google satellite image to show us the park from above today.
Then … Teddy, conspicuously inconspicuous, heads to Guiglio’s for his dinner with Charlotte.
… and Now, supposedly in North Beach, this was actually filmed in the courtyard of the flamboyantly famous (some would say infamous) lawyer Melvin Belli’s offices at 722 Montgomery Street in San Francisco’s Jackson Square district (thanks to ReelSF reader Notcom for the I.D).
… A vintage photo … this contemporaneous photo shows the same awning as that seen in the Then image above. That’s the Transamerica pyramid soaring in the background (photo - Examiner/Bob McLeod).
… and Now, here’s 722 Montgomery today. The historic building, built in 1849, was bought by Belli in 1959; it functioned as his law offices for the next 30 years. The old brick structure was rendered uninhabitable by the 1989 earthquake and stood empty for 25 years before being strengthened and retrofitted into residential apartments and a retail store.
The vintage photo on the left below shows Gene Wilder’s view of the courtyard when he walked in (photo - Examiner/Bob McLeod). Note the telephone box, a stunt prop installed by Belli. It was a British K6 telephone box, like the one on the right photographed in London (compare it with the Then image above). But there never was a restaurant in the courtyard.
Then … Inside Giuglio’s he arrives just in time to catch the hostess taking a call from Charlotte - the paneled door, the mural on the wall with the colorful backlit circle above it and the mirrored wall opposite the bar offer clues to its identity.
… Oh, no, she can’t make it! Her work has taken her to Los Angeles, but she invites him to fly down and join her overnight, an offer he can’t refuse. Another location clue - there’s a colonade of arches atop short marbled columns behind the bar
… and Now, there wasn’t a Giuglio’s restaurant anywhere in North Beach - so where was this filmed? Citysleuth has yet to find the location: it could have been in San Francisco or Los Angeles. Any blog reader who recognizes it from the two images above is encouraged to leave a comment or notify citysleuth@reelsf.com.
Then … He rushes to a Western Union Telegraph office to send a telegram to himself supposedly from his office saying he has to attend a meeting in L.A. right away.
… and Now, he was in the Jackson Square district running east across Columbus towards a Western Union office at 560 Jackson Street, but the sign was a movie prop - the actual tenant at this address back then was the Robert Domergue Antiques Gallery. Note the unchanged doorknob, locks, doorbell and overhead light on the 560 Jackson door. Oh, and the matching lamppost.
Then … He must feel guilty because he decides to take home an impromptu meal for Didi before the telegram arrives. There’s a great view behind him as he drives to a store.
… and Now, it’s the view from the top of Telegraph Hill looking down then up Union Street towards the Russian Hill skyline. This part of town has looked just the same for many decades.
Barbara Bel Geddes’ character Midge in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 classic Vertigo lived in a Telegraph Hill apartment with a sweeping vista that included that view, left of center.
Then … his destination is Speedy’s at 301 Union on the corner of Montgomery.
… and Now, this beloved neighborhood store served the top-of-the-hill residents for 93 years before closing down in 2008 since which time it has seen a succession of short-lived tenants. Note the same yellow and black tiles both Then and Now.
Speedy’s has appeared in several movies over the decades including in the 1951 noir House On Telegraph Hill, below. Its official name was also New Union Grocery back then, but the locals still called it Speedy’s (easier to say than Spediacci’s, the name of the family who owned it).
Then … Teddy drives home, here crossing Montgomery Street heading east on Union. But locals viewing this will have a good laugh …
… and Now, … because they know in the real world he’s heading into a cul-de-sac! In the distance the Bay Bridge crosses to Yerba Buena Island on its way to Oakland.
That cul-de-sac continuity goof also happened in Vertigo when Jimmy Stewart’s character Scottie Ferguson drove from town to Midge’s apartment, seen here driving up the same block out of Calhoun Terrace, a two-level cul-de-sac.
