Woman On The Run - Eleanor's Apartment
The sardonic Inspector Ferris (Robert Keith) interviews Frank's wife Eleanor (Ann Sheridan) in her apartment. He wants her to help the police find her husband Frank, who has gone into hiding out of concern that the killer will come after him. She is somewhat reticent and her demeanor suggests their marriage has been a little shaky.
There is no single location for Eleanor's apartment. No less than five different locations, four in San Francisco and one in Los Angeles, are used throughout the movie to represent where it was. Here they are in the order in which they appear...
Apartment Location 1
Then ... Eleanor climbs onto the rooftop of her building to avoid the police tails posted outside her house. She is joined by a journalist, Danny Leggett (Dennis O'Keefe) who has offered to pay her well for Frank's story if she helps find him. This was filmed in a studio with a real San Franciscan view projected behind them. But that view looks awfully familiar... oh yes, this is the view looking east from the Top O' The Mark hotel; the same view was used earlier in the movie's Opening Credits.
... and Now, it's a very different view today from the Top O' The Mark ever since high rise office buildings invaded the Financial District. But the Bay Bridge and Yerba Buena Island remain constants.
Apartment Location 2
Still on the rooftop, looking in another direction, we see aview not from the Top O' The Mark, but from the other side of Mason Street across from the hotel.
Then ... This is the view from the rooftop of 819 Mason looking south down Mason towards the Victorian styled apartment building on the corner of Pine Street. The neon sign of the Clift Hotel glows in the background.
... and Now, 819 Mason (the yellow house) and the corner apartments are shown here from the courtyard of the Mark Hopkins hotel. The building with the house-like structure on the roof, left of center at top, is the Clift Hotel; the sign is still there.
By now you would be forgiven for concluding Eleanor's apartment is meant to be somewhere on Nob Hill. But wait ...
Apartment Location 3
Another view from the same rooftop ...
Then ... This time though the view is from Bunker Hill in Los Angeles! It looks down South Hill Street, across 1st Street, filmed from the top of the Hill Street tunnel; the same view was seen earlier in the movie in the Investigation scene.
... and Now, Bunker Hill has been flattened - this is South Hill Street from 1st Street today.
Apartment Location 4
Later, Eleanor is dropped off outside her home at night, in yet a different part of San Francisco.
Then ... In the distance the Bay Bridge's central concrete caisson can be seen in a view only possible looking east from Clay Street.
and Now, the identical view down Clay, taken from outside 1265 Clay near Jones where the cab (above, parked on the left) dropped her off. Just a small part of the bridge and caisson is seen from here now, hidden by newer buildings.
Apartment Location 5
Finally, after all these 'views from', we get a good direct look at her apartment house, and of course it's somewhere else again.
Then ... Eleanor climbs the steps of her apartment building. This is 1801 Laguna Street on the corner of Bush in the Western Addition or, more specifically, lower Pacific Heights.
... and Now, the biggest difference is the absence of oil on the road now that the auto makers know how to design cars without leaks.