The Lady From Shanghai - Jailhouse Lament
O'Hara is in jail and laments his predicament in voiceover. "The wrong man was arrested, the wrong man was shot. Grisby was dead and so was Broome. And what about Bannister? He was going to defend me in a trial for my life, and me charged with a couple of murders I did not commit. Either me or the rest of the whole world is absolutely insane".
While he laments we are shown two city vistas - a reminder that we are now in San Francisco - and then we see Elsa driving to the jailhouse ....
Then ... First, a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, beloved by all who visit and also by the directors who used similar views in the movies Dark Passage and Vertigo (see them here and here).
... and Now , taken from the south end of the bridge in the Presidio (map). Fort Point is in the lower foreground in both views.
Then ... The second vista looks west over Cow Hollow and the Marina district towards the distant Golden Gate Bridge. The fortunate inclusion of the distinctive foreground chimney enabled CitySleuth to find this location. It's the rooftop of 1360 Jones Street, a classy 1920s apartment building in Nob Hill (map).
... and Now, the view from alongside the same chimney 64 years later is virtually identical except that the gasworks right of center has been dismantled. (It used to occupy the block behind the Marina Safeway store). The golden dome belongs to the Palace of Fine Arts.
... a vintage photo ... here's a 1955 photo taken from the Top 'O The Mark at Nob Hill's Mark Hopkins hotel showing the 1360 Jones building (arrowed) from which the views above were taken.
... and Now, here's 1360 Jones, looking east down the cable car tracks on Washington.
Then ... O'Hara laments on as Elsa drives up a steep hill. She's in the head-turning 1946 Lincoln Continental V-12 convertible seen earlier in the movie when she was in New York.
Then ... She turns and passes the courtyard of the Brocklebank Apartments, at 1000 Mason. In the movie Vertigo, Kim Novak's character Madeleine resided here (see it then).
... and Now, the courtyard today.
Then ... She continues on, north down Mason. The twin-towered church on Broadway down on the left is Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, built in 1912 to serve the local catholic community.
... and Now, there are some changes in this recent view. An obtrusively jarring apartment highrise, the Royal Towers at 1750 Taylor, has appeared on the left (bad) but the gasworks at the bottom of Mason are gone (good). The church is still there, now housing a Chinese language school.