Then … Bannister is about to begin his defense of O’Hara. Elsa meets him at the courthouse, worried that he is intent on losing the case, a verdict that would conveniently send his wife’s lover to the gas chamber. At first glance, this appears to have been filmed in the Fairmont Hotel’s Laurel Court at 950 Mason Street in Nob Hill.
… in 1907 … here’s a vintage image of the Laurel Court taken when the rebuilt Fairmont Hotel reopened after the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire. Note the chandelier hanging from the diamond-patterned domes, the marble pillars topped with ‘ram’s horn’ capitals and the ornate lamps attached to the side of the pillars. All of these features are seen above.
and Now, the ceiling of the Laurel Court has three of those large domes; the center one, below, still has its original chandelier. The wall and ceiling surfaces have been redone and the lamps removed from the pillars but the architecture remains unchanged. Note the design of the railings in the center of the room, also evoking ram’s horns, the same as in the movie view in the ‘Then’ image above.
But the movie scene was filmed not at the Fairmont but on a Columbia Pictures movie set that reproduced in great detail the Laurel Court architecture. Why go to so much trouble and expense? Just ask Alfred Hitchcock who recreated San Francisco’s Ernie’s restaurant, both interior and exterior, at Paramount Studios in Hollywood for a scene in ‘Vertigo”.
While Elsa greets her husband and his associate a couple climbs a staircase behind them. This is the biggest clue revealing that the location was a movie set - the only staircases in the Laurel Court are and always have been the two large curved staircases in the center of the room (above).
and Now, for additional confirmation, CitySleuth walked the Fairmont’s Laurel Court with chief concierge Tom Wolfe searching for the same alignment of doorway, pillars, railings and steps as in the movie scene. The closest match in the room is that pictured below but in comparing it with the Then image above, the alignment is different and there are no railings or stairs here. Neither do the striations in the marble pillars match. Tom and CitySleuth both concluded the movie scene could not have been filmed here.
In the 1948 movie I Remember Mama there was another amazingly realistic studio recreation, this one of the Fairmont’s lobby area, described in more detail here.
Then … Callahan visits Chico recovering in hospital from the injuries suffered in the shootout at the Mount Davidson Cross. The south-facing view shows the Army Street gas holder on the left, BayView Hill in the center and San Bruno Mountain in the far right distance. This was filmed on a rooftop patio at San Francisco General Hospital in the Mission district where San Bruno Avenue (seen through the window) tees into 23rd Street (map).
… in 1937 … that building has since been demolished but here’s a great 1937 photo of it showing the building as it still was in 1971 for Dirty Harry. Situated on 23rd Street facing San Bruno Avenue, it was known as the Chest Building. The arrow points to the rooftop patio where this scene took place.
and Now … the building was replaced by the hospital’s Building 5 in 1976 but that in turn has been recently replaced by this new Research and Development Building, scheduled for completion in 2023.
Callahan tells Chico there’s a place for him in the department when he gets back but he and his wife have decided it’s best he should leave. The gabled roof seen through the window behind them is the one in the center of the building in the 1937 image above.
The visitors leave via a stairwell that’s open on two sides on each level all the way down.
The south-facing openings can be seen at far left in the 1937 image above and below; this camera’s POV of the opening seen in the capture above is the west side of the building around the corner as indicated by the arrow (note in each image the border of vertically oriented bricks at the top of the opening).
Then … In voiceover Jo tells us about Henry, the cook at the Golden Dragon restaurant at 816 Washington Street (map). (Infamously, in 1977 only 3 years before the movie was filmed, a gang-related shooting at this restaurant left 5 innocent diners dead and 11 injured).
… and Now, it was business as usual over the years after the massacre, then after being shut down in 2006 due to health inspection issues the restaurant reopened a few months later as the Imperial Palace; it’s still there today.
… and Now, but in a nod to its past it still advertises Golden Dragon dining.
The character of Henry (Peter Wang) was inspired by the real-life cook at Hon’s Wun-Tun House (still there at 648 Kearny Street) who used to wear a Star Wars tee-shirt. Henry wears a ‘Samurai Night Fever’ tee-shirt, in so doing mocking the way American entertainment mocked Asians. He sings “Fry me to the moon!” as he cooks. Between smoking and swigging milk he rants in Mandarin about American diners’ timid orders … “Ha! Three orders of sweet and sour pork! Damn! These stinky old Americans day to night just eat this!”.
The tee-shirt, a promo for a Samurai film festival at the Kokusai Theater, references John Belushi’s portrayal of Samurai Futaba (based on Toshiro Mifune’s role in Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo) in 16 Saturday Night Live TV episodes spanning 1975 to 1979, He spoke in mock-Japanese; he brandished his sword. Back then it was considered very funny. Today, less so.
Then … The 280-seat Kokusai Theater, at 1700 Post Street on the corner of Buchanan in Japantown (map), opened in 1971 as the Toho Theater and was renamed the Kokusai in 1972. A scene for Chan Is Missing, seen later in the movie, took place in the upstairs cocktail lounge at far right. The photo below from the 1980s shows it as it was when the movie was filmed.
… and Now, the theater was closed in 1987 by its owner who feared competition from the newly opened AMC Kabuki 8 complex down the road and who sensed an opportunity for a more profitable business; he converted it to a Denny’s restaurant. Several small businesses occupy its street-level space today.
Then … Jo and Steve enter the restaurant and tell the waitress they are there to talk to Henry. This is a street-level room judging by windows glimpsed along the back wall. But this interior is very different from the Golden Dragon’s interior; it must have been filmed somewhere else.
… on location … In this on set photo the low budget shoot is captured perfectly as cinematographer Michael Chin films the table shown above and sound man Curtis Choy stands behind the table; the lady who played the waitress doubles as a crew member, holding the boom.
Director Wayne Wang confirmed Citysleuth’s suspicion, revealing that the interior scenes were filmed in the then Ruby Palace restaurant at 631 Kearny Street near Portsmouth Square (map).
… and Now, 5 years after Chan was filmed the Ruby Palace became the R & G restaurant which is still in business there today. It has been extensively remodeled since then; the street-level space has been divided into a bar, the dining area shown below, and small private dining rooms.
When Jo asks about Chan Hung, Henry laments that he and Chan both studied aeronautical engineering at university together, but here in America they can only get jobs in a restaurant. Then when Taiwanese friends of his showed up recently Chan had rushed out the back door and hadn’t been seen since.
Then … when the next order arrives, for five won ton soups, Henry switches to English to tell the waiter … “We don’t have won ton soup - we have won ton spelled backwards - ‘not now!’ Hahaha!”
… on location … Wayne Wang and actors discuss the kitchen scene (photo by Nancy Wong).
… and Now, this too was filmed in the Ruby Palace. Its kitchen (R & G, below) has also seen changes but still retains the same feel.
Here’s a recent photo of the R & G Lounge; specializing in Cantonese cuisine, one of Chinatown’s most popular restaurants.
Then … Scorpio has had enough of being stalked. Bizarrely, he offers to pay a thug $200 to beat him up so that he can frame Callahan to get him off his back. The thug watches him approach their meeting spot, making his way past some large unusual-looking equipment.
… in 1972 … CitySleuth thanks reader CDL who recognized the building on the hill behind Scorpio as City College’s Cloud Hall and was able to identify this location. It was filmed at the old Elkton Shops in the Muni Ocean Division Bus Yard near Balboa Park (map). In the 1972 image below, Ocean Avenue is at bottom right and San Jose Avenue at upper left. The arrow at right points to that same equipment, still there a year after the movie was filmed, in a storage area at the north-west corner of the facility. In a comment below, reader Notcom has identified the equipment as an abandoned 40 foot tall Steel Refuse Burner, aka an incinerator.
… in 1971 … Reader CDL also contributed this closer look at the incinerator in a photo taken the year the movie was filmed.
… in 1979 … by the end of the decade the Elkton Shops had been torn down to make way for this brand new Muni Metro Rail Center. The arrow points to where the storage area and incinerator used to be. A bus yard covers the area where the old Shops used to be.
… and Now, the facility today, now known as the Muni Maintenance Green Division, has hardly changed in the 40 plus years since it was built. I-280 passes by alongside it and that’s Balboa Park on the right across Ocean Avenue.
Here’s Cloud Hall at City College, seen in the distance behind Scorpio at the top of the post, the visual clue to the beating location’s identification.
Then and Now … To see exactly where the old Shops were, toggle between this 1969 aerial view and today’s site by clicking or tapping the image below.
Then … Scorpio is standing on a wooden platform that ran alongside the north wall of the Elkton Shops. He spots the thug waiting for him in the shadows at the bottom of a set of steps. Note the large multi-paned windows and a downspout in the concrete wall next to him…
… aerial view … in this c. 1960s aerial photo we see a good view of the north side of the Shops and in particular the same multi-paned windows and downspout. The elevated wooden platform, partially in shadow, can also be seen, and too the incinerator. (Compare this view of the Shops to the similar 1972 image above).
Down below, urged on between blows by Scorpio, the thug more than earns his $200. He even throws in a brutal kick at the end … “This one’s on the house!”. Ouch.
Next we see the media surrounding Scorpio as he is wheeled down a hospital corridor. They hang onto his every word as he names Harry Callahan as the one responsible for his condition. A later scene was identifiably filmed at San Francisco General Hospital on Potrero Avenue so this most likely was also filmed there.
