Then … A cityscape is presented at this point (why?) - it was filmed from high up in the 100 McAllister building on the corner of McAllister and Leavenworth (map). The arrow points to the Golden Gate Theater with its octagonal tower and in the distance are the Hunter-Dulin Building at far left and the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Building at far right which coincidentally was designed by the same architect, Timothy Pflueger, who designed 100 McAllister.
… and Now, Citysleuth stumbled upon a recent photo taken from the 14th floor of 100 McAllister which captured the same view. The arrow again points to the Golden Gate Theater, still there today on the corner of Golden Gate Ave and Taylor Street. Several foreground buildings are recognizable but those downtown are replaced or dwarfed by newer high-rises.
The 28-story Neo-Gothic-styled 100 McAllister building was built in 1925 as a Methodist Episcopal church with a ‘dry’ hotel (no alcohol) above it. Wouldn’t you know it, the project failed. Today it’s a student residential tower for U.C. Hastings College of Law.
Knowing that the police think Rhoda Montaine has killed Moxley, Mason returns to her home at 2100 Washington Street (shown in an earlier post). Her husband Carl tells him she left earlier that day with a suitcase and a trunk.
Then … Mason surmises she went to the airport to flee the police, not a good idea because it would for sure implicate her. He hastily drives there in a mad dash through town. Here he is approaching Market Street in the ‘00’ block of Fell Street (map), closely followed by the police in an unmarked car. The tower of the former Sacred Heart Catholic Church can be seen at the top of the hill on the corner of Fillmore Street.
… and Now, The distant tower is still visible from here. Since 2014 the 19th century church has been used as a rollerskate venue, aka The Church Of 8 Wheels. The Spanish Colonial building at far right at 50 Fell Street is currently a Montessori school.
Then … They make a right from Fell into Market Street. The Ferry building is barely visible way in the distance. The Fox Theater can be seen behind them at 1350 Market, advertising the movies Woman In Red and Little Men as the ‘A’ and ‘B’ features.
The 4,651 seat Fox was one of many grand theaters on Market Street that saw their heyday in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. It was built in 1929 but closed after years of declining attendance as television became popular. Here it is in 1963 just prior to demolition.
… in the 1960s … A telephoto shot down Market c. early 1960s captured the Fox at far left with its fellow theaters arrayed along the street. Only the Orpheum and the Warfield have survived.
… and Now, a mostly rebuilt Market Street is a very different thoroughfare than its neon-blazed predecessor.
Then … The drive through the city jumps all over town as was typical in movies. Here the cop car tailing Mason has just turned left from Van Ness into McAllister (map). That’s the War Memorial Veterans Building on the left.
… and Now, The Beaux-Arts-style Veteran’s Building dates from 1932; it commemorates those who served in the first World War. The hodgepodge block across McAllister was sacrificed for the California Public Utilities Commission headquarters at 505 Van Ness.
Then … Next, they turn north into Van Ness from Market Street (map). Across Market check out what these days would be a very rare sight - the Fur Doctor, a fur repair store, at 1521 Market.
… and Now, The same Market/ Van Ness junction is unrecognizable today and not only because of the mess created by the Van Ness Improvement Project, now in its 5th year.
… in 1944 … this vintage photo looking east down Market across the Van Ness junction was taken 9 years after the movie was released. The Fur Doctor was still in business, on the right.
(Part 2 of the chase to the airport will continue in the next post).
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 … Local FBI agents fan out across town searching for the buildings depicted in Igor Braun’s intercepted painting. At upper right the vertical corner sign, reading ‘Marines’, belongs to the Marines Memorial Club which tells us where this was filmed.
… and Now, The view looks south down Mason with Sutter crossing in the foreground (map). The Marines Memorial Club at 601 Sutter still occupies the southwest corner of this junction but traffic on Mason has since been changed to one-way. In both Then and Now images, steeply sloped streets on Potrero Hill are clearly visible way off in the distance.
Then … Next, we see an agent in a different part of town; this appears to be somewhere South of Market.
… and Now, sure enough, this is 6th Street, unchanged since the neighborhood’s post-1906 earthquake and fire rebuild (map). That’s Minna Street on the left and straight ahead across Market is the Golden Gate Theatre.
Then … The agents spot buildings that might be those in the drawing. This shot was filmed in a studio using a rear-projected cityscape. To CitySleuth it looks very familiar but something about it isn’t quite right …
… that’s because the moviemakers reversed the image when they projected it! So let’s reverse it back - now it makes sense - it’s a view west across the Marina looking towards the Presidio in the distance. The prominent building in the upper center is the Marina Middle School. The eyesore gas holder at right used to be on the corner of Bay and Laguna.
… and Now, the movie’s view was taken from a Russian Hill apartment building, 1090 Chestnut on the corner of Larkin (map), as was the recent photo below. (That same building also appeared in the 1947 movie Dark Passage, described here by CitySleuth). The school is still there but the gas holder has been replaced by the Marina Cove Apartments.
They check the buildings in the painting …
Then … Bingo! The agent says “That’s it alright, it’s painted from the rear of one of those houses on Clay Street”. But this is nowhere near Clay Street; note the ‘McRoskey Airflex’ sign on the building at left - a giveaway as to where this actually is.
… and Now, both buildings are still there today, in the Mid Market section of Market Street. On the left is the McRoskey Mattress Company, a local family business founded in 1899 that has been at this 1687 Market Street location since 1925 (map). On the right is the Allen Hotel at 1693 Market which survived a fire in 1998 and today is a low-income housing facility with on-site support services.
In summary, the moviemakers used geographical trickery for Igor Braun’s studio location. The agent describes it as being on Clay Street but he’s in Russian Hill when he spots it, and the houses across the street from it are on Market Street. All miles apart. Go figure.
Then … We think Matthew has eluded the pod people and is still in human form, but we can’t be sure. Here we see him watching a pod delivery taking place.
… and Now, this alley is on the south side of Market Street between 8th and 9th (map).
A group of the converted carry the pods into a side door that leads into a hotel; each pod is destined for a targeted victim.
Then … He walks east along Market where we see that the hotel is the PSA San Franciscan at 1231 Market. PSA Airlines leased the San Franciscan in 1968 as part of a diversification into the car rental and hotel business. Never profitable, the venture lasted only until 1979.
Uh, oh … those children’s buses outside … say it ain’t so!
… and Now, the hotel is still there, now called the Whitcomb. The entrance to Beppino’s restaurant has since been closed off and merged seamlessly with the exterior but there’s still an eatery inside - the Market Street Grill.
The alien takeover continues on plan as the children are led into the hotel for a rendezvous with the pods.
