A third member of the drug cartel drives to meet the two from Miami - they are staying at a motel with an expansive view - the Bayside Motel, 2011 Bayshore Boulevard at Hester Ave on Bayshore Heights (map). (Click on the images for a closer look).
Then ... The view looks south towards San Bruno Mountain across Visitacion Valley's Little Hollywood neighborhood. The camera looks straight down Peninsula Avenue and the Cow Palace in Daly City can't be missed in the distance over to the right.
... and Now, the motel was demolished a few years ago to make way for the Bayside Vista condominium development. The recent photo below of the same view was taken from near to where the movie camera was set up. Peninsula Ave is in the center and the distant Cow Palace is still there towards the right.
... where the motel used to be ... (arrowed), taken from the neighboring Bayshore Park across Highway 101 - the new development is atop the Bayshore Heights bluff.
Here's an entry from an advertising brochure showing a pictorial layout of the Bayside Motel. The two-story block of units at far right, perched on the edge of the bluff and facing San Bruno Mountain, was used for the movie scene. Their room, on the back side of the building, is marked by the arrow.
Then ... The new guy, Sandy (Richard Jaekel), has been tapped to be the wheelman - he knocks on the motel door, room 33, to hook up with the other two. The view looks west across Bayshore Boulevard to a Visitacion Valley hillside. MacLaren Park is beyond the top of the hill.
... and Now, after a half century of suburban sprawl.
Then ... Sandy has to explain to a skeptical Dancer, (Eli Wallach, below on the right) and his mentor honcho Julian (Robert Keith, on the left) why he's the right guy for the driving job. They take some convincing.
... and Now, the same view today.
After the bungled attempt to retrieve the smuggled heroin the drug ring calls in two out-of-town crooks to take over. They fly in from Miami.
Then ... They fly in on a United DC-7 over the Golden Gate Bridge. Marin County to the north is at the top of the frame and the Presidio at the bottom.
... and Now, there's a large tourist parking lot on each side of the bridge and on the northern side there's a marina at Horseshoe Bay, home of the Presidio Yacht Club. Behind that is the former U.S. Army Post, Fort Baker, now housing the Discovery Museum and an upscale hotel - The Lodge At Cavallo Point.
Then ... They land at Terminal 2 at San Francisco Airport, opened 4 years earlier in 1954 and known then as Central Terminal (map).
...and Now, Today there are 4 terminals including the $1B international terminal opened in 2000. Terminal 2 still looks the same from the runway although there's a new control tower being built behind it.
Miller enters a TV arcade and watches the program. He listens to a Mrs Fitzpatrick (Lilian Bond), below on the left, exhorting the viewers to buy charity tickets - she gives out her name and address. Trusting times. There was something about her, maybe because she was a brunette like his first two victims, maybe she reminded him of his abusing mother, whatever it was she was now a marked woman.
The sniper has struck again - Mrs Fitzpatrick has been found shot outside her home.
Then ... Mrs Fitzpatrick's residence was the imposing 55 room mansion at 2080 Washington Street in Pacific Heights (map).
... in 1956 ... the same mansion, known as the Spreckels Mansion, built in 1913 in the French Baroque style by the sugar king Adolph Spreckels.
... and Now, almost hidden and currently the home of author Danielle Steel.
When Eleanor leaves the doctor's office she pretends not to notice the cop assigned to follow her; he's hoping she will lead him to her husband Frank.
Then ... the cop is leaning on the cable car signal booth on the corner of California and Powell. The Fairmont Hotel spans the block up the hill on the right and Grace Cathedral is two blocks up on Taylor, its second tower yet to be constructed.
... and Now, the signal booth is dilapidated but still in use, controlling the two cable car lines that cross at the junction. The Fairmont Hotel looks the same from here, as does the wall and fire hydrant on the corner at left, but a tree mostly blocks the since completed Grace Cathedral.
Then ... The cop tails Eleanor down Powell Street on the block between California and Pine. The tall building on the left down the road is the Sir Francis Drake Hotel. Way in the distance are the steep streets on the north face of Potrero Hill.
...and Now, the hotel is still there but hidden behind the modern building... Potrero Hill is still visible from here.
Then ... The cop follows her down the road but this was filmed in a different neighborhood. She's walking south on Montgomery Street between Vallejo and Green on Telegraph Hill; who knows why, perhaps the moviemakers preferred the style of these particular houses.
... and Now, the houses remain unchanged except for those on the corner of Green Street up on the left.
Then ... When she gets to town she suddenly plants a kiss on a complete stranger then hurries off, leaving the cop to apprehend the wrong, albeit appreciative, guy, thinking it's her husband, the man they are looking for. This is Market Street in front of the old Emporium, now the Westfield Center.
... and Now, looking across Market from the same spot; the Stockton Street junction is across the road..