Orson Welles was a master at intermixing location and studio footage to create seamless action, as demonstrated by the following sequence.
Then ... Elsa chases after O'Hara along Grant Avenue, seen here crossing Washington Street (map). (Once again we see another Chop Suey restaurant!) This is a pure location shot.
... and Now, today's view, looking west along Washington, is very similar. The corner store, above at far right, is now a dive bar, the Buddha Lounge at 901 Grant. The hazy outline of the apartment building at 1360 Jones is at the top of the hill - its rooftop was used by the camera which filmed a panoramic city view shown earlier in the movie, see it here.
Then ... Next we have a shot filmed in the studio with a rear projection of location footage. Elsa stops on the 900 block of Grant and draws from her Shanghai experience to ask a local in Chinese if she saw a man dash by. Behind her is the venerable Li Po bar at 916 Grant.
... in 2012 … Li Po, there since 1935, is still going strong. The old dive bar with its cave-like entrance looked the same in 2012, especially its ancient sign, but inside it had morphed into a gaudy watering hole with a funky music club downstairs.
… in 2018 … The neon sign has just been restored and repainted, seen here in this recent photo by Caleb Pershan. CitySleuth, a diehard nostalgist, prefers the faded original; not unlike after a drastic face job, it has lost its matured personality and no longer shows its age.
... and Now - inside, CitySleuth can't find an old interior photo but he can at least share this one he took on a recent afternoon while enjoying a Tsingtao beer. One can only close one's eyes and imagine how it looked in the past - dark, opium-filled, who knows what else.
Then ... The local alerts Elsa that O'Hara is in the Mandarin Theatre a block north at 1021 Grant (seen earlier here). She wastes no time heading for the ticket kiosk.
... a similar image, but wait a minute, the street view above looks nothing like Chinatown's Grant Avenue. And CitySleuth remembers seeing this view before, here it is below, from the 1952 movie The Sniper. The sidewalk railing and the houses across the street all match up. But where was it filmed? ... read on ...
... the studio backlot, both of the scenes above were filmed at Columbia Ranch, Columbia Pictures' backlot in Burbank, Southern California. Below is a contemporaneous image taken at the ranch of its Brownstone Street, showing the houses and the railing, also seen above. The ranch is still operational, now known as the Warner Ranch, but these houses were destroyed by fire years ago. (Go here for a map of Columbia ranch).
Welles continues his trickery when next we get the ticket seller's point-of-view of Elsa in front of the kiosk, but he gets careless. Again it's a studio shot but the projected view behind her is of Li Po's bar which we just learned above is at 916 Grant. The Mandarin Theatre is a block away at 1021 Grant, a rare example of lack of attention to detail. Or then again, it might just reflect Welles’ well-known penchant for bars.
Then ... Sheila's step-daughter Cathy Cabot (Sandra Dee) speeds across the bay to her boyfriend's tugboat. This was filmed on the bay east of Telegraph Hill (map). In the distance are the Ferry Building on the waterfront at far left and the tall Shell Building at 100 Bush Street at far right. Between them along Market Street are the Southern Pacific Building with its twin 'SP' billboards on top and the PGE/Matson Building with its narrow tower.
... and Now, From near the same spot we can still see the Ferry Building and the Southern Pacific Building, sans billboards, next to it but the others, although still there, are hidden by the phalanx of Financial District highrises.
... in 1956 ... CitySleuth thought you'd enjoy this cool shot down Market Street taken from the Ferry Building - it includes the billboards and the buildings mentioned above.
Then ... Cathy vaults aboard, greeted by boyfriend Blake Richards (John Saxon) and excitedly tells him that her father plans to award him a contract for Cabot Shipping Lines' entire towing needs. This part of the scene, involving conversation requiring good sound quality, was clearly filmed in a studio with a Telegraph Hill video projected behind them.
... and Now, the same view today looks very similar but it does have newer buildings along the waterfront behind the piers. Fifty more years of tree growth atop Telegraph Hill has unfortunately completely obscured the once magnificent panoramic view that rewarded visitors to Pioneer Park (to the right of Coit Tower).
Later, Cathy's father suddenly dies - Dr. Rivera's dastardly needle deed has been done. The burial ceremony below appears to CitySleuth to have been filmed on a back lot using a backdrop photo of a golf course.
Then ... Blake goes to Cabot Shipping's headquarters in the Crocker Building at Post and Market (described earlier) where Cabot's assistant Howard Mason is now calling the shots. Mason lies when he denies knowledge of Cabot's plans and in a heated exchange tells Blake that the tugboat contract has gone to somebody else. Through the office window is a clear view of an elevated freeway, the Pier 20 bulkhead and the Bay Bridge.
... and Now, even CitySleuth can be forgiven for not duplicating this view. Why? For one, the ill-fated 480 (Embarcadero) freeway has been demolished and not replaced. For another, so too has Pier 20. What's more, the Crocker Building is gone too, replaced by the Aetna Building, from whence new high rises would today block this view. Instead, we turn to Google Earth to duplicate the viewpoint from the building site today. Looking at this, CitySleuth thinks, because of the alignments, that the window view wasn't from the Crocker Building, but was taken from a location a little further south, across Market street.
... in 1958 ... before it was torn down after being damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, here's what the 480 freeway seen from Mason's office window looked like in the final scene from the movie The Lineup.
Then ... Blake angrily storms from the Crocker Building's Post Street exit where Cathy is waiting for him. Across the street Montgomery tees in from the left - there's a bank on each corner - and Market Street is straight ahead. (Coincidentally, this exact shot was seen in the 1951 movie The House On Telegraph Hill. See it here).
... and Now, there's a little garden at right, in front of the Aetna Building, where the flatiron Crocker Building's pointed end used to be. What was the Crocker-Anglo bank at far left on the corner of Montgomery (incidentally featured here in the 1962 movie Experiment In Terror) is today a Wells Fargo bank and the Well Fargo bank opposite it, left of center above, is now a glass-walled building housing Fidelity Investments.
The media is abuzz with the sensational arrest of Walter's wife Irene, charged with conspiring to kill her husband. The Hollywood gossip columnist Sheilah Graham plays herself as she gushes the news for the venerable (since 1924) San Francisco radio station KFRC, at that time affiliated with MBS, the Mutual Broadcasting System. Did she have to wear that hat? On the radio?
Then ... Newspapers fly off the newstands as the latest twists and turns of the case are reported. Below, at Fisherman's Wharf the cry was "Extra, Extra! Irene Williams held for murder! Read all about it!".
... and Now, from the corner of Jefferson and Taylor today (map) we can still see Shed A of Fisherman's Wharf's Pier 45 at the end of the road. On the left some of the buildings have been modernised but Sabella's, The Lighthouse, Alioto's and Fishermen's Grotto continue to sell fresh seafood there on a daily basis. (In 1962 the same block was featured in Experiment In Terror).
Then ... The embittered Walter would have happily stayed under cover and let Irene be punished for his 'murder' if it weren't for Marsha. She persuades him to do the right thing and they fly back to San Francisco to meet with the police. Below, they touch down at the airport (map), at that time named San Francisco Municipal Airport (it became San Francisco International Airport in 1955).
... and Now, the terminal building seen above was built in the 1940s and served passengers until the mid 1950s when a new terminal, named Central Terminal, was built nearby. Central Terminal was later renamed Terminal 2 and expanded over the years to the current structure shown below. The original terminal above was demolished in 1968.
Then ... They arrive at the Hall of Justice by cab, here seen turning from Kearny into Washington at the north end of Portsmouth Square (map).
... and Now, the same corner today, absent the gawkers and with the faded Carnation (?) wall ad painted over.
Then ... As the cab drops them off on the corner of Washington at Kearny Marsha looks up at the Hall of Justice, just off the picture on the right - the block behind them runs east down Washington.
... and Now, the spanking new building on the left has replaced some of those seen above.
... from another movie ... The same corner appeared a year later in the 1950 movie The Man Who Cheated Himself, but viewed west along Washington to Kearny. On the left is the Hall of Justice and on the right is the same Bond-Bail sign partially seen in the Then image above.
Then ... The imposing Hall of Justice as viewed across Kearny from Portsmouth Square.
... and Now, there's a Hilton Hotel on the site now - the Hall of Justice was demolished in 1967. See here for the same location as it appeared in 1958 in The Lineup.
Red Lynch decides he's been tormenting Kelly and Toby long enough - he's now ready to execute his robbery plan.
Toby and boyfriend Dave head for The Hangout restaurant to do just that - hang out with some of their friends. It's just blocks from their school, George Washington High (we saw the school earlier here).
In the restaurant, Toby gets a terrifying phone call from Red Lynch with the news that Kelly has been shot and needs to be taken to a hospital. If she doesn't meet him at a nearby corner right away, "I'll let her die ...".
Then ... The horrified girl rushes out, pursued shortly after by Dave, below. The restaurant is alongside him and there's a gas station on each corner across the street.
... and Now, this is the corner of 25th Avenue at Geary Boulevard in the Richmond district (map), viewed looking south. There's now a Jiffylube on the left across Geary. The same house on 25th with a castellated roofline can be seen in the center of both Then and Now images.
From the 1961 street directory entries for this junction we find out what the corner eatery was called when the filming took place - The Wizard restaurant, at 6100 Geary. The gas station where the Jiffylube is today was a Wilshire Oil Co station at 6099 Geary (oddly missing in the entry below but verified elsewhere in the directory) and the one across 25th from it was Joe's Flying A service station.
... and Now, the northwest corner building where The Wizard used to be now houses a Citibank branch.
Then ... Toby runs along 25th towards Clement Street and in her haste almost ends up under a passing car. At the end of the block on the Clement corner a new apartment building is under construction (map).
... and Now, in the same view some of the houses on the block have been replaced but the completed two story apartments are still there on the corner.
Then ... Lynch picks her up next to the apartments on the corner and roars off, his victim secured, in his cool 1958 or 1959 Austin-Healey 100-6.
... and Now, a recent view of this same corner at Clement.
CitySleuth felt a pang of nostalgic excitement when he saw Lynch's car because he once owned one himself. An absolute classic, here's a stunning recent photo of the same model. Drool, guys!
