Dirty Harry - Ransom Run: Forest Hill Station
Then … Callahan schleps the yellow ransom bag down a slope behind the Forest Hill Muni station heading for the side entrance on the right.
… and Now, an extension has since been built abutting that entrance.
Here’s a 1973 photo of the station showing it as it was when the Dirty Harry crew filmed there. It’s located where Laguna Honda Blvd meets Dewey Blvd in the Forest Hill neighborhood (map). Back then the extension was yet to be added (on the left) so the side entrance used by Callahan is clearly seen. The station is the oldest Muni station in the city; it opened in 1918, one of two with platforms far below ground in the Twin Peaks tunnel. It was originally named Laguna Honda Station - the name is still embossed above the entrance today.
Then … Callahan enters from the left; he hears a phone ringing and rushes towards it past the stairs leading to the platforms - note the snack bar next to them …
… and Now, the snack bar is long gone but the stairs are still in use for access to both outbound and inbound platforms for those passengers who eschew the elevators.
In this 1981 image the snack bar enclosure, on the left next to the stairs, was still there.
Then … In his haste Callahan goes to the wrong phone but grabs the other one in time to catch Scorpio’s terse instruction: “Downstairs. Take the K car. Get off at Church and 20th”.
… and Now, the phone, most likely a movie prop, was located in the corner at the ‘x’ below. Coincidentally there’s currently a vintage public phone box with a dangling phone book holder on display (center).
Then … He rushes down the steps to the inbound platform. CitySleuth can attest to the fact that he traversed 113 steps to get there.
… and Now, it’s held up pretty well this last half century! Looks even better, in fact.
Then … The K car, a light rail/streetcar hybrid connecting downtown with the Ingleside district, is seen here arriving at the inbound platform while Callahan is still scrambling down the steps.
… and Now, here’s the matching photo. Today, inbound K cars are redesignated as a T car. Go figure. A 1985 remodel included changes to the walls, tiles, platform surface and the addition of a sub-ceiling.
This contemporaneous photo of an L-Taraval car at the outbound platform confirmed that the scene in the Then image above was filmed on the inbound platform. Note the right-angled conduit pipe (large arrow) which is just barely visible in the Then image above, at the very top of the image, left of center. Note too the black dot on the wall (small arrow) which is glimpsed in the movie when Callahan’s K car exits the station on its way towards downtown.
He barely gets to the streetcar in time, forcing the doors open to get in. Pheww!!
This next scene demonstrates repeated use of film footage by the filmmakers: Callahan stays on the car when it briefly stops, supposedly at another underground station, below. In the real world that would have been the other Twin Peaks tunnel station - Eureka Valley, open then but abandoned since 1972. But this footage is in fact part of that seen in the two Then images above at the Forest Hill station; the three images are just seconds apart.
Let’s end this post on a nostalgia note with this vintage photo of the first K-Ingleside car on its inaugural run emerging from the West Portal end of the new Twin Peaks tunnel on Feb 3, 1918 with Mayor James Rolph playing trains at the controls.