Andy takes a short break from work to marry his fiancé Janet (Lisa Howard) but delays their honeymoon so he can concentrate on making sure his first murder case is a successful one.
Then ... After the ceremony they take a day off. Driving through town, they pay no heed to the stop signal ahead. Check out that fine-looking church on the left.
...and Now, they are driving south down Gough Street, approaching Eddy (map). But today the church, St. Paulus' German Evangelican Lutheran, is gone, having burned to the ground in 1995. Note too that this stretch of Gough is now one-way.
Then ... Unfortunately for the blissfully unaware newlyweds a cop witnesses the careless driving and pulls them over. This view, looking back up Gough to Eddy, captures on the left an imposing Victorian, the Henry J Fortmann mansion at 1007 Gough, destined to be famously featured eight years later in the movie Vertigo.
...and Now, hard to see for the trees from this angle but the Fortmann mansion is no longer there. It was slated to be one of the first buildings demolished in the 1950s/60s Fillmore Redevelopment project but suffered a major fire before then. As you can see, the block across Gough on the right was spared.
... from Vertigo, 1958 ... The mansion became the McKittrick Hotel in Vertigo from whence Kim Novak's entranced character Madeleine mysteriously disappeared.
...and Now, this corner lot became a school sports field.
Then ... The cop starts to write a ticket then recognizes Andy as a fellow member of the police force and lets him off. This dramatic perspective of St. Paulus church must have made a lasting impression on Hollywood director Alfred Hitchcock as we shall shortly see.
...and Now, since the 1995 fire the church site has remained an empty lot, currently being used as a community garden.
The Alfred Hitchcock connection? Well, here's Jimmy Stewart's character Scottie years later in Vertigo in a copy-cat perspective with St. Paulus church behind him.
And sadly, the demise of the church on November 5, 1995.
Following their reprieve Andy and Janet make a right turn and head west along Turk Street to spend a day at Seal Rock before he gets back on the case. St. Paulus church on Gough is across Jefferson Square Park in the distance behind them.
... a vintage photo ... this wonderful photo from Shorpy.com taken on Turk Street at Jefferson Square park of an elegant lady in an equally elegant 1923 Packard Phaeton Sports 126 captures in the left background the Fortmann mansion and at far right behind the trees the ill-fated St Paulus church.
During Joe's hospitalization he is visited by Jim (Jack Klugman) a representative from Alcoholics Anonymous. Jim takes him under his wing, persuading him to attend an A.A. meeting to face the group and admit his addiction, the essential first step to recovery.
They cross the road on their way to the meeting. This looks like a back lot location to CitySleuth, most likely filmed at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank.
Joe's efforts to talk Kirsten into joining him in the A.A. program fall on deaf ears. She is in total denial ... "I am not an alcoholic and I refuse to say I am ... I will just use my willpower and not drink and that's the end of it". Instead she disappears until Joe tracks her down at a motel two days later where she is holed up with a stack of booze. With the best of intentions he implores her to return home but instead ends up as blitzed as she is after yielding to temptation and finishing off the rest of her supply.
Joe looks for a liquor store and spots one near the motel ... (this scene, as recalled by director Blake Edwards on his DVD commentary, was filmed on a back lot, presumably at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank).
But the store is closed. Desperate, he breaks in and snatches a bottle only to be caught by the owner who cruelly demeans the helpless drunk sprawled before him by upending the bottle over his face. It can't get much worse than this ...
Actually, it can. For the second time he ends up in restraints in a detox cell.
( A Bunker Hill movie in a San Francisco blog? CitySleuth explains why).
By far the most popular market in Bunker Hill was the Grand Central Market, originally opened in the Homer Laughlin building in 1917 and still there to this day serving the local community. The market stretches the length of a block between entrances on Broadway and Hill Street (map). In this scene we will meet Yvonne, a young woman who has moved to Los Angeles from her Apache Indian reservation in San Carlos, Arizona.
Then ... These bustling shoppers are outside the entrance at 317 S. Broadway. The partially visible 'Broadway' sign in the background is on the corner of 4th Street.
... and Now, downtown merchants no doubt wish for those 1950s shopping crowds but the market is still going strong, as are those same street lamps.
Then ... The inside is packed with merchants and shoppers who find their way using the bright neon signs displaying wares and stall numbers.
... and Now, the market conducts business at a more leisurely pace and neon signs still add color but the biggest difference half a century later is the shoppers themselves, mostly latino, reflecting the evolution of the neighborhood.
The camera closes in on Yvonne (Yvonne Williams), the first of the movie's three featured characters (all were residents of the neighborhood, none of them actors). As she wanders around the market she shares her thoughts in voiceover with an accent distinctive of the reservation from which she came. She is pregnant and just like any immigrant mother-to-be her main dream is for her child to have a better life than hers.
Then ... She leaves the market via its the other entrance, on the 300 block of Hill Street. The view looks towards the shops on the west side of the street and in the upper left corner note the Union Auto parking lot advertising 25 cent parking.
Then ... the following movie shot looks over that same parking lot to the east side of Hill Street (the 25 cent sign can be seen but the poster next to it has changed). Grand Central Market is at far left, the entrance, above, that Yvonne exited is just out of the picture. Note the other market, how could it compete?
... and Now, the downhill terminus of the relocated Angel's Flight funicular sits on that parking lot today. Grand Central Market is seen across Hill Street at far left. (See where Angel's Flight used to be, here).
... in the 1940s ... this vintage photo was taken over a decade earlier than the movie but it shows us how the market would still have looked when the movie was filmed.
... in the 1960s ... two years after the movie's release the entrance was spiffed up with this gleaming new tile facade. Note too the different street lamps book-ending the market.
... and Now, here's a recent photo of the Hill Street entrance. The two buildings beyond have been replaced by a multi-story parking structure on the corner of 3rd Street and the houses at right are now a small plaza.
When Cullen arrives at his lover Lois's home she tells him her husband is planning to kill her for her money. While he was at the airport on a business trip she had found his hidden gun but as they speak the husband sneaks through the back door intent on carrying out his plan. She confronts him; the gun in her hand goes off and he falls dead.
Then ... Cullen is a homicide lieutenant. Does he arrest her? No way, not in the noir world, instead he decides on a cover-up. They load the body in his car and he drives off to dump it at the airport, then known as San Francisco Municipal Airport, a logical place given that he was supposed to be there. (Coincidentally, this same terminal was also seen a year earlier in the movie Impact).
... in 1938 ... this vintage photo gives us a better view of the terminal. It was built in the 1930s and served passengers until the mid 1950s when a new terminal, named Central Terminal, was built nearby.
... and Now, Central Terminal was later renamed Terminal 2 and expanded over the years to the current structure shown below (map). The original terminal above was torn down c. 1967. San Francisco Municipal Airport was renamed San Francisco International Airport in 1955.
Cullen deposits the corpse at the airport and takes off, unfortunately for him witnessed by a couple in a parked car.
Then ... He decides a perfect place to dispose of the murder weapon would be the deep waters of the San Francisco Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge. But when he pulls up to the toll booth he is recognized by a fellow cop. His plan is off to a rocky start ...
... and Now, these north-bound booths (map) have been removed. The south-bound are still there, retaining art deco design, but the toll-collectors were displaced in 2013 by FasTrak sensors.
Then ... Later in the movie we get another, daytime, view of the toll booths.
... and Now, there's still a clock mounted in the center.
Cullen pulls over on the bridge (today's traffic wouldn't allow that) and throws the gun over the railing, into the bay. Now he feels better; with no weapon any investigation will be severely hobbled.