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.
Then … George is running out of time - his execution date is just days away. His attorney and Henry visit him at San Quentin Prison in Marin County (map), where director Fulcio was allowed remarkable access for all of the prison scenes.
… and Now, decades later the main gate and gatehouse have changed very little.
Then … They are waved through, here approaching an observation tower with the prison buildings in the background. The crowded visitor’s parking lot is on the left.
… and Now, CitySleuth has been here before, successfully talking his way past the gate to get a matching photo for a scene from the 1947 movie Dark Passage. This time he wasn’t allowed to photograph inside the gate - “You’re wearing a blue shirt; the prisoners wear blue” - but through the open gate he took this fairly closely aligned match.
The attorney tries his best to comfort George in the cell.
There are many parallels between this movie and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, including what happens next: the director presents a surprising early whodunnit reveal. Alone in the cell with George, Henry stuns him by confessing, a smug sneer on his face, to framing George for Susan’s murder. He has always been jealous of his younger brother’s success and wealth; now he will inherit the valuable clinic. But that’s not the half of it, he tells him that he and Susan have been lovers for years and what’s more, she is not dead after all; he faked the death by killing her nurse Elizabeth O’Neill, burying her as Susan. Instead of Henry having to deal with George he has devilishly arranged for the State to do it instead.
Then … Of course Henry knows that George will tell his attorney but in the absence of corroborating evidence no one can be sure this isn’t just one more fake claim by a desperate man. Nevertheless, in a TV news interview the district attorney announces the Governor of California granted a 24 hour stay of execution to allow the police to exhume the corpse a second time to check it against Susan’s dental records.
… and Now, this was filmed alongside the lawn in front of the State Capitol Building in Sacramento, California’s capital (map). (Reader Paul Penna has pointed out that the TV reporter is Harry Martin from Sacramento’s KCRA Channel 3).
The coroner debunks George’s claim by declaring the corpse is indeed that of Susan based on a match with her dental records. But the records were from the Dumurrier clinic, provided by Henry - couldn’t he have given them the nurse’s dental records instead? But neither Susan nor Henry can be located and there’s no time to investigate further; the execution will take place tomorrow.
