Matthew Cabot's secretary Miss Lee (Virginia Grey) had earlier supported Mason's lie when he told Blake that no agreement had ever been made to award him the Cabot tugboat contract. Now her conscience is bothering her so she decides to make amends. She arranges to meet Blake and Cathy at a restaurant.
Then ... As she approaches the restaurant she passes the Jade Palace restaurant and a souvenir shop, the Golden City, two big clues as to the location. They were at 842 and 840 Grant Avenue, respectively (map), in the heart of Chinatown.
... and Now, both of those businesses were replaced six years later in 1966 by a new building which now houses the China Trade Center and a restaurant, the Empress Of China. Today's matching view looks north along Grant past Washington Street.
Then ... Before going in she pauses at the rendezvous and we see its street number - 830. At that time 830 Grant Avenue was the address of the Chinese Pagoda restaurant.
... and Now, the Chinese Pagoda is no longer there and its location is now home to the Peking Bazaar, whose shop frontage has been extensively redone. The building has been re-addressed as 826 and 832 Grant (below).
... in 1947 ... check out this clip from a scene in the 1947 movie Lady From Shanghai in which Orson Welles' character runs down the same block. Behind him, at the left edge of this shot, are the Jade Palace and Chinese Pagoda signs.
Inside the Chinese Pagoda (most likely a studio set) Miss Lee admits the lie and gives Blake documents that reveal that the scheming Mason had also previously scuttled his late father's business with Cabot Shipping.
Looking for ways to bolster Walter's defense, Marsha suggests that Irene's maid Su Lin, who has gone missing, might be able to shed more light on Irene and Torrence's relationship. She persuades Lt. Quincy to help find her.
Then ... They go to the immigration office to check the record of Su Lin's entry into the country. San Francisco's immigrants were processed on Angel Island from 1910 until a fire closed down the Station in 1940. In 1944 the immigration administration moved to the 9th floor of the newly built Appraisers Building at 630 Sansome Street, represented in the scene below.
... in 1964 ... but the scene above was filmed in a studio using a photograph for the window view. In the vintage photo below we see the real view from 630 Sansome, looking west towards Nob Hill. The Mark Hopkins Hotel is at far left on the horizon; the high-rise next to it is the Fairmont Hotel Tower, not yet built when the movie was filmed.
... in 1944 ... viewed from the opposite direction, here is the Appraisers Building at 630 Sansome (map), photographed from the Mark Hopkins Hotel on Nob Hill in the year it opened. California Street is at far right.
and Now ... the Appraisers Building, seen from the Sansome/Jackson Street junction, still houses some of today's expanded immigration functions.
Then ... The records show that Su Lin resided at her uncle's address in Chinatown. As they head there the camera vertically scans a building; Quincy can be seen at the bottom of the resulting panorama.
and Now ... this is 838 Washington Street (map), one of the many buildings in Chinatown featuring a pagoda-style roof that replaced the devastation of the 1906 earthquake and fire.
But their search founders when her uncle, with Su Lin (Anna May Wong) hanging back inside and out of sight, denies any knowledge of her whereabouts.
The exciting final scenes of the movie take place at Candlestick Park, opened in 1960 as the permanent home of the Giants baseball team which had moved three years earlier from New York to San Francisco. The team played their first two seasons at Seals Stadium during construction of the new stadium.
... In 1961 ... This vintage photo shows the stadium as it was the year the movie scenes were filmed. It was designed in the traditional manner with semicircular stands. The stadium is located at Candlestick Point in the Bayview district (map).
... and Now, here is Candlestick Park today as viewed on Google Earth. The original section (on the right) is mostly unchanged but the stands were extended into a full oval when the San Francisco 49ers football team moved here from Kezar Stadium in 1971. They shared the stadium with the Giants before they moved in 2000 to their newly built ballpark in the South Beach neighborhood.
Then ... The cab drops Kelly off at the pedestrian bridge (seen at bottom right in the stadium images above) and she crosses over to the stadium.
... and Now, the bridge was still in use in 2012 when CitySleuth visited the stadium.
... update ... all of the 'Now' photos in this post were taken in 2012 when CitySleuth was fortunate enough to gain unlimited access. Fortunate, because in 2015 the venerable ballpark was torn down. In this photo the bridge, at upper left, is left disconnected from the stadium mid-demolition.
Then ... Inside the stadium the game has started - the Giants are playing the Los Angeles Dodgers that night and in the background we hear the play-by-play by Vin Scully, the well-known Dodgers announcer. A policeman, one of many posted around the stadium by agent Ripley, looks out from a box.
... and Now, the same view looking down on a pristine grass surface laid shortly before CitySleuth's visit.
Then ... Kelly takes her seat in the Lower Reserve, just below the overhanging boxes. Behind her on the back wall the letters 'Sec 8' can be seen, so she is seated in the adjacent Section 6.
... and Now, in a comment on the previous post reader Doug Leurey challenged CitySleuth to find the actual seat she sat in. To do this he noted that there was a railing in front of her (above) and that the row in front of it was clear of seats for snack vendor access. Today that row is filled in with seats but there are marks in the concrete floor where the railing used to be, identifying Kelly's row as Row 2. Also, there was no aisle seat next to her so her seat, using the current numbering, would be Section 6 Lower Reserved, Row 2 Seat 2.
Then ... The game ends without Red Lynch, the extortionist, trying to contact her. The crowd files out, seen here outside the Section 6 Lower Reserve exit.
... and Now, the recent photo shows little change, even the men's room is in the same spot.
Lynch, hiding behind sunglasses and hoodie, grabs Kelly in the midst of the surging crowd.
Then ... The police move in and Ripley manages to grab Lynch but he breaks free and rushes down through the now empty stadium and onto the field, pausing on the pitcher's mound.
... and Now, the baseball field is a football surface but these were the original stands and they still look the same viewed from this vantage point.
Then ... In this shot, viewed from the pitcher's mound looking past the visitor's dugout, the police look like ants as they swarm in pursuit down the aisles and through the seats.
... and Now, these same Sections 8, 10, 12 and 16 still match up except that some of the original aisles have been filled in with seats, readily discernible by the darker hue. The third base dugout is still there (their white chairs are barely visible).
Then ... Justice is served when a brief shootout leaves Lynch dramatically dead on the pitcher's mound - Ripley himself finally gets his man. In the background is the scoreboard, between two banks of stadium lights (also seen above in the top photo of this post).
... and Now, the location where the pitcher's mound used to be is marked by the arrow, below. The football stands added after the 49ers took over the park pass in front of where the scoreboard used to be, between the two sets of stadium light poles in the background.
Meanwhile Toby has been found safe by the police and she and Kelly are reunited in a satisfyingly happy conclusion conforming to Hollywood's moral standard of the time: crime does not pay.
Elsa spots O'Hara inside the Mandarin theater and calls Li, her servant, from backstage. The call is routed through the Chinese Telephone Exchange to his room.
Then ... Li may be a humble servant but his place has a spectacular view of Telegraph Hill and the waterfront.
... and Now, this is the same view - it was taken from the tower of the Fairmont Hotel, so we conclude that Li's room was a studio set using, for the window view, a photograph taken from the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill (map). Columbus Avenue bisects the picture at an angle from left to right - the buildings below it have seen many changes, those above it, few.
Then ... When Li exits his house with two cronies the studio setting is confirmed ...
... on the back lot ... because this, as were several other scenes in the movie, was filmed at the Columbia Ranch back lot in Burbank, Southern California, on Brownstone Street near Skid Row. (see here for a map of the ranch). Below is a shot from a 1949 Batman and Robin TV show, filmed at Columbia Ranch, showing the same houses. The back lot is now called Warner Ranch and is still operational but these particular houses and streets were destroyed by fire years ago.
Then ... Director Welles adds more trickery when he cuts to the police heading towards the theater.
... and Now, why trickery? Because this isn't San Francisco's Chinatown - it's Los Angeles' Chinatown! (CitySleuth thanks reader Opium Museum who brought this to his attention). It looks south down Sun Mun Way just inside the East Gate of Old Chinatown at 951 N. Broadway (map).
Below, Elsa joins O'Hara in the theater to find him struggling to stay conscious under the influence of the pills he downed at the courthouse. But he's aware enough to figure out that she was the one who killed Grisby, the murder he was being tried for. We see from her ice-cold reaction that he is right but he collapses and Elsa's Chinese mafia move in and cart him off.