Once Slant finally realizes that Brenda won't string along with him he carries out his threat and tells Larwitt that it was she who tipped off the IRS and caused his arrest. Driven by a fit of vengeful rage Larwitt escapes from the penitentiary and tracks her down. Just in time, Tim Nolan intercedes and explains the real truth - Brenda has stuck by her husband all along and it was Slant's deliberately botched defense that sent him to prison.
Now Larwitt directs his fury towards Slant, catching up with him at his hotel. Slant's expression speaks volumes - he knows his number is up. Sure enough, a couple of bullets seal his fate.
Larwitt has no intention of serving out the rest of his life in prison. He arranges to meet Brenda at Union Square then returns to the bay where the police are still out in boats searching for him following the breakout. Purposefully, he swims towards them - two more bullets are fired, this time sealing his fate. Still waiting for him, Brenda hears the news from the cries of a passing street vendor.
Then ... She decides to leave San Francisco and we see her taking off in an American Airlines Flagship Skysleeper DC-3. But this isn't San Francisco, it's Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, one of Southern California's two busiest commercial airports at that time (Burbank being the other).
... a vintage photo ... CitySleuth was able to identify the airport from this contemporaneous photo taken at Grand Central Air Terminal of another Skysleeper, the Flagship New York, showing the same mountain range in the background.
... and Now, the airport, long since shut down, has become a business park. (The 1929 terminal building has survived however; it is owned by the Disney Corporation). The runway became Grand Central Avenue, in Glendale (map) - this recent photo was taken from there, looking southwest down Grandview Avenue to the same skyline.
Then ... Brenda glimpses Alcatraz from the air and we can only begin to imagine what conflicting thoughts must be running through her mind.
... and Now, it's no longer a prison but the extant buildings are an imposing reminder of its grim past.
In true Hollywood "All's Well That Ends Well' fashion who should be sitting right behind her but the determined Tim Nolan. When she rests her hand on his the movie fades out to our collective nods of approval. Awwwhh!
Then ... Having just seen the Director's wife very much alive after 'witnessing' her apparent death Caul is doubly shaken when he picks up a newspaper at a street corner kiosk and reads that the Director has died in a car crash. By now the poor guy's head must really be spinning.
... and Now, in the movie capture above there's a phone booth next to the newspaper kiosk ... earlier in the movie we saw Caul using this phone - it was on the Sutter Street corner at Polk (map). There's no phone booth there now but wouldn't you know it, the newspaper kiosk is still there!
Then ... He rushes back to the Embarcadero Center in the Financial District in time to see the wife, who has now inherited ownership of her husband's property business, about to be swarmed by the local media.
... and Now, this is the same staircase at the west end of the lobby level of One Embarcadero Center where Caul had been turned away a little earlier.
Caul watches from the fringe as she pushes her way through, deflecting reporters and questions - "Do you suspect any foul play in the accident?" ... "Will your stock now give you controlling interest?" ... "What's going to happen to the company?" ...
But what really happened at the Jack Tar hotel? We are as confused as he is. Did her lover kill her husband then stage the car accident? Nothing seems to add up but Caul's fecund imagination conjures up the Director laid out in Room 773.
Then ... Jake returns home unsure whether or not he should confront his son about seeing him in the porno theater.
... and Now, the front door today, at 156 Robinhood Drive in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood, has new glass side-panes but the peephole, now polished, has survived.
Then ... He checks the son's bedroom but he's not back yet.
... and Now, another teenager occupies the same room!
Then ... He opens the door to his wife's bedroom and tells her that their son is out late but she's more concerned about a button of his about to fall off. This is a couple who have forgotten how to communicate.
... and Now, mirrors cover the closet doors.
The sound of a motorbike alerts Jake to the son's return but when he goes to confront him he finds his bedroom door 'keep out' closed and decides to let sleeping dogs lie.
Larwitt's lawyer Slant arrives in San Francisco and asks Brenda to stop by his hotel. He delivers bad news - the money Larwitt set aside for her has run out. No more fashionista outfits, at least until after her husband serves out his sentence.
Then ... He has also discovered that she is seeing Tim Nolan and, after again professing his love for her, implies he'll tell Larwitt if she doesn't spend time with him. When she refuses he gestures out the window towards Alcatraz and threatens to tell Larwitt that it was she who put the IRS onto him. But she brushes him off anyway. Belvedere Island is to the left of Alcatraz and that's the original Pier 39 in the foreground at center.
... and Now, Slant's hotel in the movie, the Ritz Curson, was fictional - this scene was filmed on a studio soundstage using for the window view a backdrop from a photo taken at the parking circle at the base of Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill (map). There's now a sprawling tourist replacement at Pier 39 but, as seen below, it's not visible from the same place because of encircling trees. This view is at the one spot where en pointe visitors can just glimpse Alcatraz and Belvedere.
Then ... Brenda worries that Tim will be dragged in so she leaves San Francisco hoping he'll give up on her. But he tracks down her friend Mary, she works at a hairdresser's, and finds out that she has taken a job singing in a nightclub in Alameda. As they talk a cable car climbs by outside the window and we see a store across the street, H. L. Ladd, and unique street-lamp globes; these three clues led CitySleuth to the location ...
Here's an ad for H.L. Ladd from the 1927 San Francisco Blue Book and Club Directory - it was a pharmacy at 343 Powell Street and was still at that location when the movie was filmed in 1940.
... and Now, here's today's matching photo. 343, now the boutique Cop Copine, is next to the corner boutique, Goyard. That same row of lamp globes still stylishly traverse the whole block in front of the hotel. Cable cars still stop here; the line of tourists on the street island are waiting for the next one.
... a vintage photo ... the arrow in this 1928 image points out the H.L. Ladd pharmacy. But wait ... that's Union Square opposite, there never was any store there, so the scene at the hairdresser's must have been on a studio soundstage with the location implied using video filmed at the corner of the square (map). Now we know.
... and Now, the same view, taken from the top floor of Saks Fifth Avenue. Those folks on the island will be lucky if they manage to get on the already packed cable car. (CitySleuth has heard that the cable car operators refer to this stop, the first one from the busy Powell Street turnaround, as 'Fantasy Island' because the cable cars are usually jam-packed).