Then … Mason returns to the room where Moxley was murdered, looking for more clues. This location, at 1850 Sutter Street in Japantown, was described in detail in an earlier post.
… and Now, new buildings were built on the 1800 block of Sutter Street during the Western Addition redevelopment project; the sidewalk tree below is in front of where 1850 Sutter used to be.
He finds a possible clue, a discarded matchbox with a hotel name on the cover.
… in 1938 … These are all of the hotels listed in the 1938 South San Francisco city directory. In the real world there was no Fremont Hotel here.
Then … Mason dispatches Spudsy to follow up on the lead. He finds out that Doris Pender, one of the hotel’s residents, had made a phone call to Moxley the night of his murder. He heads to the Irving Theatre where she is onstage singing.
San Francisco did indeed have an Irving Theatre, listed in the 1935 City Directory at 1342 Irving Street in the Inner Sunset (map). But from the 1941 photo below it’s clear that the marquee doesn’t match the one in the movie; clearly that was a studio creation. The Irving opened in 1926 and closed in 1962, destined for demolition.
… and Now, the building at far left above (back then it housed a Safeway grocery store) is still there today (below), but the theater and the rest of the block to the right were replaced in 1963 by two apartment buildings. The grey building, now re-addressed as 1330 Irving, is where the theatre used to be.
It turns out that the singer had married Moxley a year earlier (so the scoundrel was also a bigamist). After her performance she tells them only that he had been threatening her.
Spudsy tracks down her roughneck brother, Oscar Pender, suspecting that on her behalf he may have tried to get even with Moxley. Pender wasn’t exactly cooperative; his only response was a punch to Spudsy’s jaw.
Luigi lets Perry Mason borrow his restaurant kitchen to cook a crab dinner for friends. Over coffee Wilbur Strong, the local coroner, gets a call about a man, Gregory Moxley, who had died four years ago but was reportedly recently seen on the street. The Grand Jury wants Wilbur to open the coffin. Mason has just heard a similar story from his old friend Rhoda so he invites himself along.
The coffin reveals not a body, but a wooden effigy of an American Indian! The plot thickens …
At a Western Union office Mason discovers that a blackmailing telegram received by Rhoda was sent by Gregory Moxley, residing at 316 Norwalk. He wastes no time going there …
…only to find the police inside investigating Moxley’s murder. This is how Errol Flynn, who plays the Moxley role in this, his first Hollywood movie, made his screen entrance - under the sheet. (He is seen later though in a flashback).
Then … But where was this filmed? The movie address is fictional but this was 1850 Sutter Street in Japantown, revealed by the name C. P. Ocampo on the dentist’s sign at far left in this shot of Mason leaving the house. The dentist’s address was listed in the 1935 city directory as 1852 Sutter.
… and Now, this sidewalk tree is in front of where 1850 Sutter used to be (map). It was demolished during the Western Addition Redevelopment Agency project, created to rid the city of so-called blighted areas. Beginning in 1956 the city used eminent domain to clear the largely African-American Fillmore of property and residents; later the carnage expanded into the Japantown neighborhood. Approximately 880 businesses and 2500 Victorians, including 1850 Sutter, were victims. New buildings now flank the site and, ironically, the building at 1840 Sutter, below on the right, today houses the Japanese Cultural and Community Center.
Here’s the 1935 city directory listing of dentist Conrado P. Ocampo.
Fortunately not all of the Victorians were lost - there are survivors dotted around, like these at 1811, 1815 and 1825 Sutter on the same block as Moxley’s place.
The police get a call from somebody claiming to be the bus murderer. What's more he has hostages holed up in an old house ...
Then ... The cops converge on the house, in the heart of Japantown in the Western Addition. This is the view west from Laguna down Bush Street towards St. Dominic's Catholic Church at Steiner, top left.
... and Now, more trees certainly, but the main difference here is the tower of St. Dominic's, redesigned and rebuilt following serious damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Then ... A heavily armed response team takes up position at the southwest corner of Laguna and Bush outside the K & F Drayage Trucking Co. building at 1899 Bush.
... and Now, another structure has since taken its place.
Then ... The suspect's house is at 1727 Laguna Street (map). As Jake and Larsen observe it one of the hostages seeks escape by unwisely clambering out of a 3rd floor window ... "Don't do that, lady ..."
... and Now, the house has long since been demolished, one of the many victims of the Western Addition's ethnic cleansing program. The building on the right, next to it and under construction during the filming, is still there today, the Konko-Kyo Church of San Francisco.
Then ... The unfortunate hostage slips and falls. Across the street is another view of the Drayage Trucking building on the corner of Bush and next to it one of the twin towers of the Bush Street Temple, built in 1895. In 2003 the temple became the Kokoro Assisted Living Center.
... and Now, the new building on the corner was built as an extension of the Kokoro Center.
Then ... Apparently hostage negotiation was not part of the Police Department's job description in the 1970s - a fierce firefight ensues with multiple fatalities on both sides ending only when the suspect is shot. Across the street an ambulance pulls up to 1727 Laguna where we see that it had a store, Coast Camera & Radio, on its first floor.
... and Now, there's a church parking lot with a gated entrance where the house used to sit.
It turns out the suspect was a deranged vet with a prosthetic leg; he couldn't have been the bus murderer who was witnessed climbing off the bus and walking briskly away. Another lead bites the dust.
Back at his apartment at 700 Laguna Street (described in an earlier post) Caul turns to his saxophone to calm his churning mind. While playing along to a Gerry Mulligan track his unlisted phone interrupts ...
It's Stett. By now it's clear he was part of the plot to kill the Director. "We know that you know, Mr. Caul ... For your own sake don't get involved any further ... we'll be listening to you."
Then ... The bugger is now the bugged. The very thought drives him nuts and sends him scouring his apartment for the bug. Behind drapes, inside lamps, the phone, everywhere.
... and Now, the window view looks west across Laguna along Birch towards distant apartments on Buchanan Street. Viewed at street level, below, the matching top story of those apartments can be seen above a newer building (map, red marker on the apartments, blue marker at Caul's place). The building across Laguna has since been built on the newly cleared empty lot visible above.
Caul is rapidly losing it. Everything in sight is ripped apart, even the floorboards.
His meltdown leaves the apartment demolished without revealing the bug. Perhaps it exists only in his imagination. He seeks solace the only way he knows how and as the movie's end credits slowly pass on by to the plaintive sound of his sax it is left to us to unravel the unanswered questions.
