Then … A hood-mounted camera opens the movie with footage of a cab driver slowly driving north along Grant Avenue in Chinatown. In the background Sam Hui, the so-called “Elvis Presley of Hong Kong” sings a lively rock song in Cantonese to the tune of Bill Haley’s 1956 hit ‘Rock Around The Clock”. Sidewalk storefronts slide by horizontally while concurrently the top floor of the buildings, reflected, reversed and flipped 90 degrees by the steeply raked windshield, overlaps and slides by vertically. Very cool.
… and Now, this is the building seen in the Then image above. The curvilinear doorway belongs to the Buddha Lounge dive bar at 901 Grant at Washington. The brick moldings along the top of the building and the central drain pipe are also part of the Then image. Comparing Then and Now the eagle-eyed would notice that the 3rd floor balcony was not there when the movie was filmed.
Then … The music plays on while the cab pauses at a junction; in contrast to the upbeat American music the Chinese lyrics lament the inflationary food costs that make it hard for low salaried workers to survive. (Wait a minute, could that be director Wayne Wang doing a Hitchcock cameo on the right?)
… and Now, we’ve stepped back a block here, still heading north on Grant but this is the junction at Clay Street. It’s interesting to see store signs still there forty years on; example - the vertical Gifts-Arts blade above the awning. Check out too the ornate lampposts with their red lantern and intertwined dragons that line Grant Avenue; they have been there since 1938, installed in anticipation of the 1939 Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
… on location … The cab company name, Wing On, was fictional; here’s a photo of director Wang customizing an early 1970s Dodge Dart sedan by applying decals to the doors (low budget indie directors wear many hats).
… and here he’s added the taxi sign on the top to complete the transformation. For the location curious, like CitySleuth, the car is parked in front of 1851 20th Avenue in the Sunset district.
Returning to the movie, the opening song ends and the cab pulls over; the driver, Jo (Wood Moy), acknowledges a customer and beckons him in.
Then … As he drives off he muses in voiceover how all of his tourist customers ask the same question within seconds: “Hey, what’s a good place to eat in Chinatown?”. There you have it, this is what Chinatown means to the rest of the city.
… and Now, Pacific Avenue crosses ahead. There’s another surviving sign at far left: Kaye’s Footwear at 1043 Grant, but the Florsheim sign next to it is gone.
Up until 2019 the Kaye’s sign, most unusual for Chinatown, was Miami Art Nouveau in style and colors, as seen in this 2017 photo. Now painted over in mono-colored green, it is still there, minus its original charm.
Then … As he continues on, here approaching Pacific Avenue, he relates in voiceover how he and his young nephew Steve had entrusted Jo’s friend Chan Hung with $4000 in cash to arrange a sublease on a cab license so they could be their own boss. But Jo is getting worried - he hasn’t seen Chan for two days. Where is he?
… and Now, little has changed other than the store’s tenants.
Jo drops in on his nephew Steve (Marc Hayashi) and his niece Amy (Laureen Chew). Steve is a funny guy, wisecracking continuously but at the same time touching on cultural confusion and issues within the Chinese-American community seeking identity in their host country. Here he mimics, in an exaggerated accent, being asked where he’s from and what his political allegiance is:
“… Eh, what kind of ‘Chinese’ Chinese are you? PRC? Huh? Taiwan, pro Taiwan? Richmond district? Oakland hill, wa? Ho Chi Minh, yeah, yeah”.
Interestingly, this was filmed in the kitchen of Laureen Chew’s home at that time, at 416 20th Avenue in the Richmond district. The same kitchen (check out the tile patterns) was also featured, below, in Wayne Wang’s follow-on 1985 movie Dim Sum: A Little Bit Of Heart. More scenes in the same house appear later in Chan Is Missing.
Then … Callahan rushes over to the location where Scorpio revealed Ann Mary Deacon was buried. He watches as a medical team, just visible in white coats at the bottom of the image, opens an undergound vault.
… and Now, this matching view was filmed at Battery Spencer off Conzelman Road in the Marin Headlands (map), a popular tourist spot today because of its spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge reaching over to San Francisco. Above, Callahan was looking down from the battery to a small promontory where the victim was found, marked by the arrow below.
Here’s a wider aerial view showing where the arrowed promontory is relative to the battery complex.
Battery Spencer, armed with three M1888 12 inch guns was part of the Harbor Defense of San Francisco from 1897 until 1942 when it was deactivated. Here’s one of the guns in a c. 1913 image. Never fired in anger, only in practice. The guns were mounted on the three circular bases, still there and visible in the image above.
The young teenager is lifted out; she had been raped and murdered by Scorpio even before he came up with the lie that she had been buried alive with a limited oxygen supply. Callahan’s prediction from the start was chillingly right on (“You know she’s dead don’t you”, he had said).
It’s the morning of George’s execution; word of the murders of Susan and Henry in Paris that same day have not reached California as he is being prepared for the gas chamber. In these remarkable images filmed inside San Quentin the guards attending him were the real guards, not actors.
He is led into the gas chamber where a guard stands ready to strap him into one of the two side-by-side chairs.
The chamber door is closed tight and the guard, poised to turn on the gas, watches the clock as the final minutes tick down to the 10 am execution time.
We learn of George’s fate from a TV reporter and the telex message that brought the news of the shocking events in Paris to the Californian authorities just minutes before execution time. (Typo trivia note - the name ‘Worsmer’ should be ‘Wormser’).
Then … Speaking from within the gas chamber, viewed from outside through an open door, the reporter explains that the telephone next to the chamber with a direct connection to the Governor’s office rang just before the deadline with a reprieve order. George’s life had been spared and he was released.
… and Now, here’s that same door in a March 2019 photo, now closed and referencing Executive Order N-09-19 which reprieved all prisoners on death row at that time from execution and banned further capital punishment during the term of the current Governor. This after the State had spent $5 billion on a death penalty system that had executed only 13 people since 1978.
Then … The movie ends with an overhead shot of San Quentin Prison. The panorama below captures the entrance area of the prison at lower right and on the left looks east across the Richmond-San Rafael bridge towards Contra Costa County in the distance.
… and Now, here’s a recent aerial view of the prison and of the bridge, the northernmost east-west road crossing of San Francisco Bay (map). Both are still there and operational.
This 1971 aerial shows Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park (map) as it was when the scenes of Dirty Harry catching up with Scorpio were filmed there. The 60,000 seat stadium opened in 1925 as a venue for a variety of sports but is perhaps best remembered as the home of the San Francisco 49ers from 1946 to 1970 (their last game there was the NFC championship game against the Dallas Cowboys on Jan 3, 1971. They lost, 17-10).
… and Now, in 1989 the stadium was demolished to make way for a downsized 10,000 seat replacement. The adjacent San Francisco Polytechnic High School on Frederick Street (above) has since been replaced (below) by the Park View Commons condominiums but the Art Deco-styled Boys and Girls Gymnasium buildings on either of it are still there.
Callahan arrives at the groundskeeper’s rooms under the grandstand where Scorpio has been staying; he’s not there but the sound of fleeing footsteps heralds the start of a frantic chase through the stadium.
Then … Callahan’s partner switches the stadium lights on to reveal Scorpio on the playing field. He raises his arms surrender style but Callahan being, well, Dirty Harry, aims and fires.
… and Now, this view looks to the south across Frederick Street. In both images the second home from the far left above the stands is the same.
Then … Callahan approaches Scorpio whose leg has sustained major damage from the gunshot. He had aimed to maim, not kill, because Ann Mary Deacon lies buried alive and only Scorpio knows where.
… and Now, here’s the north-facing view from the same spot today. The difference in seating capacity is very evident.
Using an interrogation technique not exactly in accordance with legal guidelines Callahan grinds his foot on the shattered leg and forces Scorpio, between screams, to divulge the victim’s location.
Then … A helicopter mounted camera (this was filmed before drones) pulls away for a wide shot. Callahan and Scorpio are close to the far 40 yard line; Frederick Street runs beyond and parallel to the stands off the picture to the left. (Compare it to the vintage image at the top of the post).
… and Now, the entrance tunnel in the Now image at the end of the track is gone and the arch at dead center is a replica of part of the original stadium.
