The police arrive to investigate the murder.
Then ... the camera view from atop the Hill Street tunnel shows the Bunker Hill Central Police Station down at street level left of center, and at right, receding into the distance, South Hill Street leading to downtown Los Angeles.
... vintage photos, showing at left, Central Police Station on 1st Street in the 1940s, and at right in 1939, South Hill Street from 1st Street with the tall Title Guarantee Building at Pershing Square way down the street.
... and Now, Hill Street south from 1st Street today. The only recognizable structure from 1950 is the distant Title Guarantee Building, still there.
Johnson witnesses a man being shot and narrowly escapes when the killer takes a pot-shot at him.
Then ... The car takes off, leaving the body behind. Note the two houses behind the dead man - on the right is the Harmonia Apartments at 138 N. Hill Street and the one to the left is 150 N. Hill Street on the corner of Court Street.
from 1924 ... this vintage aerial photo shows us where those two houses were, on the Hill Street block above the Hill Street Tunnel in Los Angeles. The tunnel's double bore, the left one for streetcars, the right one for cars, is seen left of center at the bottom of the photo. The old Hall of Records building, long gone, is at center right and the Hotel Broadway is dead center, stepping up the slope where the Court Flight cable car used to run.
... and Now, a Google satellite image of this city block. Bunker Hill was flattened and hauled away starting in the 1950s and redeveloped as an extension of the Civic Center. The buildings seen above and in the movie capture no longer exist. As a reference point, the Los Angeles City Hall is just visible in the top right corner.
Don't ask why the opening scene of a San Francisco movie was filmed on Bunker Hill in Los Angeles, but it was. The movie opens as Frank Johnson (Ross Elliot) climbs some steep steps while out walking his dog. The location, in fact the whole neighborhood hill, was levelled and carried away in the 1950's, not long after the movie was filmed. The action took place above the Hill Street tunnel at the edge of busy downtown a few blocks from City Hall.
... in the 1930s, this vintage photo shows the Hill Street tunnel, looking north on Hill from 1st, as it still looked when the movie was filmed. The steps climb up on the right side above the tunnel, to the Hill Street block on top where the rest of the opening scene was filmed.
and Now, unbelievably this whole hill and much more around it were literally hauled away to clear space for a Civic Center development project. This photo, no kidding, was taken from the same spot as above; the Los Angeles County Courthouse is on the left.
Then ... The movie's opening credits roll over a background picture that sets the location as San Francisco. The night-time view is from the Top O' The Mark at the Mark Hopkins Hotel looking across the Financial District to the Bay Bridge.
... in 1950, a vintage day-time photo taken from the same spot. The high-rise at far right is the Russ Building at 235 Montgomery, the tallest in the city at that time.
... also in 1950, a vintage photo of the high-class Top O' The Mark lounge with the same view clearly visible
... and Now, extensive Financial District development has surrounded the Russ Building, partly visible at far right