Dark Passage - Bus Depot
Parry walks from the cable car turnaround to a bus depot where he buys his ticket to freedom.
Then ... On the depot window we can make out the name 'White Arrow Bus Lines'.
But where was this filmed? The absence of an entry in the 1947 street directory confirms that 'White Arrow Bus Lines' was a fictitious name. But there is a clue to its location ... there's a sign behind the bus as it was waiting to leave, pointing to the Lankershim Hotel.
The Lankershim was a real hotel at 55 5th Street just a block's walk from the cable car. And right next to the hotel, across the narrow Jessie Street at 75 5th Street, was a Greyhound bus depot at the Pickwick Hotel. Check out the 1942 map below of the Market/4th/Mission/5th Streets block showing the location of the Lankershim and the Pickwick on 5th Street at bottom left (click image to enlarge). It also shows the Greyhound Bus Depot Garage behind the Pickwick. Parry's bus would have been facing the Mission Street exit, so the Lankershim Hotel sign behind the bus, above, would have been on the side of the Lankershim in Jessie Street pointing to the hotel entrance on 5th.
... in the 1940s ... Below is a 1940's postcard rendering of the Lankershim, viewed from across 5th Street. Jessie runs down the right side.
... and Now, the Lankershim has become the Hotel Milano - the same structure with a remodeled street level facade (map). (Update - the hotel has recently been remodeled again and opened as the Hotel Zetta in 2013).
... in the 1940s ... Below is a postcard rendering of the Pickwick Hotel as it looked back then with its bus depot office on the corner of Jessie (click image to enlarge).. These vintage postcards were accurate images, using colorized photographs.
... and Now, this is the Pickwick today, on the corner of 5th and Mission. It's hardly changed, except there's no bus depot there any more. The side of the Hotel Milano can just be seen across Jessie to its left.
But the window view from the movie depot does not match the view from the Pickwick, which looks towards the old San Francisco Mint. CitySleuth thinks there's a good reason for this, namely the movie depot scene was filmed in a studio - but the old Pickwick bus depot was the inspiration for it, therefore it can be considered to be the implied location.
... and Now, below is where the bus depot was, at the corner of Jessie and 5th, now occupied by restaurants Cafe Venus and Sushi Club.
... and Now, the old bus depot garage can still be seen next to the Pickwick around the corner on Mission Street.