[Dear readers: For the foreseeable future CitySleuth is compelled to use Google Street images for most of his ‘Now’ photos. Here’s looking forward to the end of the scourge. And Kudos to Google!].
From their stakeout on the corner of Clay and Mason the G-Men observe the suspect carefully crating his painting then handing it over to an Express Company truck.
Then … They follow the truck through town; in this shot it’s passing a well-known Nob Hill hotel.
… and Now, it’s the Mark Hopkins on the corner of California and Mason (map).
Then … the camera pans down California, tracking the truck as it goes by an oncoming cable car.
… and Now, in today’s view a distant Bay Bridge tower is barely visible between the proliferation of Financial District high-rises. But in the foreground the Fairmont hotel was then, and still is, on the left. On the right is the Stanford Court hotel which opened in 1972 in the former Stanford Court Apartments, built in 1912 on the site of railroad baron Leland Stanford’s estate after it was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. Note the resident’s balconies in the movie view, since removed.
Then … the truck heads to the Embarcadero and turns into its destination. The elevated freeway leading to the Bay Bridge spans the background.
… and Now, here’s the same span today. The view looks north towards the bridge.
Then … The truck’s Embarcadero destination is Pier 36 in South Beach. The ocean liner berthed at the time was Matson Lines’ S.S. Matsonia. Shortly after being built in 1926 as the S.S. Malolo, it collided with another ship, suffering damage comparable to that of the ill-fated R.M.S Titanic . But it survived, despite taking on massive water, thanks to an improved multi-hull influenced by the Titanic’s failed design. Renamed the Matsonia, it was used as a troop ship during WWII but had reverted back to its West Coast-to-Hawaii luxury cruises by the time this was filmed.
… Pier 36 in 2011 … the pier is pictured here shortly before it was pulled down to clear the area for a new public park space, the Brannan Street Wharf (map). This utilitarian pier lacked the grand bulkhead seen on many of the other piers along the Embarcadero. The sunlit fence corresponds to that seen above.
… and Now, today’s matching view looks across the south edge of the long, narrow park (rather a grand name for what is just really a stretch of grassy and seating areas). Pier 36 may be gone but Pier 38 on the right, also visible above, is still there.
O’Hara and Grayson take note of the package’s destination - London, England - but let it go through to so as not to alert the spy ring to the tightening noose.
Joe has a hard time tracking down Charlie Cuneo but fortuitously Malatesta invites him over for dinner. He relates how he and Malatesta played snooker together at the Vallejo Social Club until one a.m. on the night Father Tomasino was murdered. To Joe’s great relief his concern over Malatesta’s possible guilt is dispelled.
Then … But his precinct Sergeant arrives with disturbing new information. A detective had been following Cuneo that night on another case and witnessed him meet Malatesta at another club that backed onto the alley where the priest was killed then left for several hours leaving Malatesta behind. Cuneo had lied; Malatesta’s alibi was blown.
… and Now, they were at the cul-de-sac at the top of the Montgomery Steps, described in more detail in an earlier post.
Then … Joe asks to be dropped off; they pull up in front of a theater - its marquee is partly visible on the left.
… a vintage photo … This was the Palace Theater at Washington Square park at the junction of Columbus and Powell in North Beach (map). Here’s a c. 1970 image of the theater taken at a time when it was showing Chinese movies (the theater would later be renamed the Pagoda Palace). (The theater was briefly seen in Woody Allen’s 1972 movie Play It Again Sam).
… and Now, After being closed for years the theater was demolished in 2013 when it was deemed the ideal spot to extract the two boring machines that had dug the twin Central Subway tunnels extending the T-Third Street line from near the Giant’s ballpark into Chinatown. It is now a retail/condominium structure, retaining the blade sign in a nod to its past. More’s the pity it didn’t become a subway station (the tunnel had already been extended to here, right?).
Then … Across the park we see Saints Peter and Paul Church and Coit Tower.
… and Now, the same view below also shows the statue mostly obscured by the car, above. It’s a memorial to the Volunteer Fire Dept. of 1839-1866 who protected the city during several conflagrations before the first city fire department was created.
… in 1933 … The statue’s dedication ceremony was attended in force by firemen and residents with vivid memories of the city’s 1906 fire. The church is behind it, as too is Coit Tower which had been completed only months earlier.
Then … With Igor Braun temporarily absent, O’Hara and Grayson sneak into his studio.
… and Now, This is 1087 Clay Street, corner of Mason, in Nob Hill, described in more detail in an earlier post.
Then … Inside, they head straight for the easel to inspect the painting that Braun has been working on...
… and Now, this is a rendition of one of the oldest houses in Montmartre, Paris - the historic Le Consulat Restaurant at 18 Rue Norvins in the shadow of the Sacre Coeur Basilica (map). Once a favorite hangout for famous artists Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso and others, the neighborhood today is overrun by tourists; here it is in 2019 as captured by Google Street View. It has also appeared over the years in a number of movies including Woody Allen’s 1996 film ‘Everyone Says I love You’.
O’Hara scans the painting with UV light, exposing both another stolen formula from the Lakeview Nuclear Physics Research Lab and Braun’s culpability.
Then … They are warned that Braun is on his way back so they quickly duck out the back door. In what could be a studio setup using a rear projection to set the location, the view looks across Market Street, filmed from the rooftop of the C. S. Mahoney Dodge Dealership, a real business at 1740 Market (map). (CitySleuth has already pointed out that this is miles away from the house in Nob Hill). The arrows point on the left to the Allen Hotel at 1693 Market and on the right to a Pacific Telephone & Telegraph switching station.
As recently as 2017 that block, seen here from street level, looked very similar to the movie image above …
… and Now, but today the arrowed buildings, viewed from the same rooftop, are still there, but dwarfed by newer ones. There’s now a bulky apartment complex slapped against the older but more architecturally interesting Allen Hotel building, reducing it to an afterthought. The gabled building next to it is the McRoskey Mattress Company at 1687 Market, in business since before the movie was filmed and still in business today.
The Pacific Telephone & Telegraph (now AT&T) switching station is unchanged - still as it was in the movie’s ‘Then’ image above. This 1937 Art Deco industrial gem occupies the corner of McCoppin and Otis Streets.
Then … Malatesta sits with Joe on the wall outside his house (described in the previous post). He has taken to Joe and generously suggests that he move in with his family. He also tells Joe that on the night Father Tomasino was murdered he was playing cards with friends at the Vallejo Social Club.
… and Now, the concrete wall at the end of the Montgomery Street cul-de-sac has been there since the Montgomery Steps were built in 1928.
Then … If Joe can confirm the alibi it would mean Malatesta was innocent and that he could stop agonizing over it. He moves into his house and settles into his job at Malatesta’s waterfront restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf, (previously described here). Below, he hauls a crate of fish along the side of the restaurant (which is just off the picture on the right).
… and Now, Scoma’s replaced that restaurant in 1965; in the matching shot today we see its dining room extension occupying the space of the shed and storage boxes (map).
… and Now, Scoma’s today. The original building was the gabled section at far right.
Then … He also lends a hand with the cooking. The original diner back then was called Andy’s Look Out.
… and Now, that modest space became Scoma’s kitchen.
Joe and Anna’s budding romance blossoms when he takes her to a local dance at the Vallejo Social Club, the same place where Malatesta claimed he played cards on the night of the murder. This building’s exterior style is typical of many in North Beach but CitySleuth cannot find this location, including on the North Beach blocks of Vallejo Street. Either the building has been replaced or it was a studio creation.
Then … At the club Joe talks to the card-playing group and learns that Malatesta had left during the evening of the murder to meet a friend, Charlie Cuneo. Later Joe calls his old precinct sergeant for help in finding Cuneo.
… and Now, the above scene was most likely filmed in a studio using a rear projection to set the location. Below is that location, at Fisherman’s Wharf in front of Pier 45 (map). Comparing Then and Now, the Fisherman’s Grotto building exterior on the left is the same but Alioto’s has since added an upper dining floor.
The same location, with another phone booth, appeared 5 years later in Experiment In Terror by which time the Alioto’s upper dining room had already been added.
