The three crooks drive to meet a contact awaiting arrival of a ship carrying passengers from overseas. On the way they drive down Illinois Street.
Then ... This is Illinois Street looking south from 18th (map). The crane is in the Bethlehem Pacific Shipyard in the Dogpatch neighborhood east of Potrero Hill. Trivia note - Alfred Hitchcock used the same shipyard to represent one of the Vertigo locations.
... and Now, the Dogpatch is rapidly gentrifying but this stretch of Illinois, other than the missing gasholder, is yet to change. One set of rail tracks are gone but amazingly, though rusting and graffitied, that darn crane is still there a half century on!
Then ... The drug ring contact, Staples (Robert Bailey), is waiting for them at the terminal.
... from 1962 ... This vintage photograph shows where he was. The arrow marks where Staples was waiting, at the far end of the Mission Rock Terminal, aka Pier 50, in Mission Bay near to China Basin and today's San Francisco Giants ballpark (map).
... and Now , a berthed vessel blocks part of the view but CitySleuth was able to duplicate most of it from the corner of the pier.
Then ... As our mischief-makers drive onto the pier (below), the camera pan gives us a sweeping view of the terminal at the end of Pier 50.
... from 1955 ... Another aerial photo of Pier 50. This photo and the panorama from the movie, above, both look west down the length of the pier. The arrow marks where the scene was filmed.
... and Now, no longer a passenger terminal, the pier is still actively used for commerce.
Then ... The camera continues panning, a continuation of the panorama above, until the car stops at the end of the pier.
... and Now , the island on the right is Yerba Buena Island. Just beyond it, at far right, is the partially constructed single tower of the new suspension bridge scheduled to replace the old section of the Bay Bridge left vulnerable after the 1989 earthquake.
Staples' job is to describe to Dancer the passengers who are carrying the contraband and where they are staying. Dancer's job is to go get the stuff.
The first is a Mr. Sanders ... "They live at 9020 Jackson". (An interesting dyslexic misquote by Staples, even repeated by Dancer, because as we shall see, they live at 2090 Jackson). The heroin has been hidden in the handles of a set of flatware he bought in Bangkok.
Next, Dorothy Bradshaw and her daughter Cindy. In their case the hiding place is Cindy's doll from Tokyo. They are staying at the Mark Hopkins Hotel.
And finally, Larry Warner, a crewmember who is staying at the Seaman's Club. His package has been secreted inside a Tang Dynasty horse from Hong Kong.
Ross asks the cabbie Weissberg (Robert Duvall, in the briefest of cameos) to pull over to a phone kiosk. He stops in front of the Stratford Hotel, 242 Powell at Union Square.
Then ... The kiosks are a few paces ahead of the Stratford, in front of the store next to it.
... and Now, the Stratford Hotel is still in business, but the phone kiosks, in front of the store now occupied by World Of Charms, have been removed.
Then ... As Ross approaches the phone kiosk, we see Union Square ahead to the right across Geary and the St. Francis Hotel on the left.
... and Now, still very familiar, including the cable car.
The police have posted lookouts on rooftops across the city. One of them spots a man on a roof.
Then ... The background view from this roof is of the Financial District.
... and Now, in the recent view below taken from the same rooftop looking down Montgomery Street, the Financial District has been completely rebuilt but a number of the foreground buildings, such as the white U.S. Appraisers Building at center right, still match up. The gunman was on the flat green roof of the house in the right foreground.
Then ... The cop sees that the man is carrying a rifle.
... and Now, the same rooftop, with an added roof patio ...
... Below, the rooftop is the one at 1065 Montgomery, on the corner of Vallejo (map).
Then ... The cop whistles (1950's communication technology?) to alert a fellow lookout.
... and Now, the Mark Hopkins Hotel on the horizon (above) is hidden behind the newer Fairmont Hotel Tower (below).
The cop gives chase, adeptly jumping down the cascading rooftops.
Then ... Coit Tower is in the left background and the Montgomery steps can be seen to the right - the same steps traversed earlier when the sniper stalked his first victim.
... and Now, the same view taken from the roof of 1177 Montgomery. (Trivia note - the red cone roofed house at top right was the home for many years of famed San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli, the 'King Of Torts').
The police are under intense pressure from the media and the public to solve the case. A meeting is convened in the Mayor's office in City Hall (map) to review where the investigation stands.
Then ... The view from the Mayor's office seems, at first glance, to be the correct one - it looks across Civic Plaza to the corner of McAllister and Larkin Streets.
... and Now, this is the matching office view today, but it's not the mayor's office, which is room 200 in the center of the east side of city hall. Instead this office is room 208 on the same corridor but at the north end of the building. CitySleuth has concluded that the office scene was filmed in a studio using a photo view taken from room 208.
... from 1955 ... in this contemporaneous vintage photo taken from City Hall we see on the left the State Building on McAllister, on the right the building that is now the Asian Art Museum on Larkin and between them the Astor Hotel with the large billboard, all clearly visible in the mayor's view above. The tower in the distance is 100 McAllister, now occupied by the UC Law College.
Police psychiatrist James Kent (Richard Kiley) makes a plea to the administration to better understand and preemptively reach out to the mentally ill with psychiatric help instead of locking them up after the fact. His impassioned words fall on deaf ears.