Jo has had his money returned but is still curious as to the whereabouts of Chan. He decides to ask his friend Mr. Fong (Leong Pui Chee). For this scene director Wang chose to have them speak in Chinese so that his American audience could experience the lilt and cadence of the Cantonese accent.
Then … They meet at Brenham Place bordering the west side of Portsmouth Square between Clay and Washington.
… and Now, in 1985 Brenham Place was renamed Walter U Lum Place in recognition of the Chinese American civil rights advocate born in San Francisco in 1882. The plaza was redesigned in the 1990s but the view from here retains a similar look today.
Then … Mr. Fong doesn’t know where Chan is. He tells Jo he has just given a talk at the Chinese Cultural Center on, appropriately, Chinese culture. He explains there’s more to it than eating. There’s north versus south, there’s ancient versus modern. He gives examples in poetry and in opera, breaking out into stanza and song to illustrate the differences. The building behind him is the Chinese Congregational Church at 21 Brenham Place.
… and Now, the church is still there, captured in this recent photo that also captured a rare sight for Chinatown - a destitute street person.
Mr. Fong also shares a Chinese lantern riddle which Jo recounts afterwards to Steve while they are parked at the edge of the bay. They have a good laugh at its sexual connotation. Lantern riddles date back 1200 years to the Song Dynasty; they were written on the sides of lanterns at Chinese Lantern Festivals where participants were rewarded for correctly solving them.
Then … They are parked at Fort Point in the Presidio below the Golden Gate bridge (map).
… and Now, the only change today is a more mundane, but safer replacement in 2023 of the chain barrier alongside the water’s edge causing some consternation amongst regular visitors, CitySleuth amongst them, who preferred the prior maritime look.
… in 1958 … but there was an even more mundane barrier there when Scottie followed Madeleine to Fort Point 66 years ago in the movie Vertigo.
Rippling waves in the bay mirror Jo’s thoughts; the mystery is appropriately Chinese - what’s not there seems to have just as much meaning as what is there. Nothing is what it seems to be. He questions his Chinese-ness; he can’t accept a mystery without a solution.
Then … Back once again at Chester’s Cafe at 1269 Mason (described earlier) Jo nurses a beer, lost in thought. Across the street on the left is the Junior Co Bakery at 1250 Mason.
… and Now, the most recent tenant in the 1250 Mason space was an art gallery, Orangeland .
A magazine has published a photo of the flag-waving protest that led to the murder of a Taiwan supporter by Chan’s friend, the old man, a Mainland Chinese supporter.
Then … That sets Jo musing about the unfolding mystery as he sits in his cab across Kearny Street from the Holiday Inn hotel under the bridge at Portsmouth Square (map
… and Now, the hotel has since been refurbished and renamed the Hilton Financial Center. That’s Merchant Street on the right in both images.
Then … He continues his voiceover while pottering around in the kitchen of his apartment. But where was this filmed?
… and Now, CitySleuth tracked Jo’s apartment down - it’s at 2104 Larkin Street in Russian Hill. Here’s that same kitchen now; it’s had cabinet and countertop upgrades, the appliances too, but is still squeezed into the same tiny space.
Then … Here’s how the apartment was found: earlier in the movie there was a brief night-time exterior shot of Jo in the apartment. The juxtaposed detail of siding, window trim and the bay window overhead molding plus a hint from director Wang led CitySleuth to the location.
… and Now, this is the same bay window today. The windows have been replaced but all else is identical 40 years later.
… and Now, director Wang’s recollection to CitySleuth was that the apartment was “either in Lower Nob Hill or Russian Hill”. A search of those neighborhoods revealed it to be the 3rd floor apartment on the corner building at Larkin and Vallejo in Russian Hill, address 2104 Larkin Street (map). The arrow points to the Then and Now window seen above, on the Vallejo side of the building. The corner store was Uncle Sam’s Grocery when the movie was filmed; it’s now a Pilates Studio.
The mood darkens when we learn that while Jo was cleaning out Chan’s cab he found a gun under the front seat. On hearing this, Steve speculates that it was Chan who killed the flag-waving protester with this gun and that the old man was covering up for him. But when asked, the old man tells Jo that Chan wasn’t involved.
After arresting Scorpio at Kezar Stadium Callahan, still bruised from his earlier beating at Mount Davidson, is summoned to the D.A.’s office and is incredulous to learn that Scorpio has been released because the, shall we say, unconventional confession tactics rendered all of the evidence inadmissible in court. The D.A. admonishes him not to get involved again.
Then … Scorpio is on the prowl again, at Portsmouth Square plaza, a historic location in the heart of Chinatown (map). At this site in 1846 during the Mexican-American war Captain John Montgomery of the U.S.S. Portsmouth planted the American flag in the Mexican community of Yerba Buena. A year later the settlement was renamed San Francisco.
and Now, he had come up from the underground garage by way of the steps seen above on the left. Today those steps are still there but the planters, lamppost and benches were added during a major redesign of the plaza in the 1990s. Scorpio was standing where the lamppost is now; the dotted yellow line shows the position of the temporary plywood wall next to him.
Then … A group of children playing in the square catches his eye. Above the temporary wall a concrete bridge that spans Kearny Street from Portsmouth Square to a hotel opposite is in its final stage of construction. The building looming above that is 728 Washington Street.
and Now, there are baluster posts spaced along the bridge walls and CitySleuth lined one of them up with 728 Washington just as in the movie shot. In the view above, the house lined up not with this one but with the next post to the left but the 1990s plaza redesign prevented CitySleuth from matching that alignment.
Here’s a photo of the bridge today viewed from the plaza. It has no access to the Hilton hotel opposite, only to the Chinese Cultural Center during limited hours; what’s more there’s no way down to Kearny Street. Consequently since its opening in 1971 it has rarely been used, other than by the pigeon community, and has earned itself the sobriquet ‘Bridge to Nowhere’. City planning approval is well under way to remove it as part of yet another major plaza redesign.
Then … The children are playing on a climbing structure; the view past it is the southeast corner of the plaza - at top right there’s a bus heading down Clay Street and the stores facing us at top left are across Kearny Street. But who’s the guy wearing sunglasses entering the crowd to the left? Callahan of course - there’s no way he’s going to leave Scorpio unwatched.
and Now, a set of steps leading to the upper level of the plaza now covers where the climbing structure used to be (a few paces to the right of the photo below); viewed from the same level here’s today’s northeast corner and the same block across Kearny.
This 1987 photo of the 2-level plaza above the Kearny Street parking garage shows it as it was in 1971 when the movie was filmed. Note the children’s climbing structure, but in the movie it was located as shown in yellow (those same park benches flanking it on two sides are the same as those in the Then image above). Click or tap the image to see the plaza today after the 1990s redesign. The old steps became a ramp and new steps were built where the play structure was, reducing the lower level to half its original width.
A group of Chinatown residents are playing Xiangqi, also called Chinese chess or elephant chess, one of the most popular board games in China. Unlike Western chess, the pieces are placed on the intersections of the squares. Behind them, Callahan stares directly at Scorpio, making sure he catches his eye.
Then … Scorpio beats a hasty retreat up to the upper level. The graffiti on the wall echoes the protest movement of the early seventies: a universal nuclear disarmament symbol, “Down With Pigs” (reaction to police brutality in ongoing Vietnam War protests), “Off the Inn” (in reference to the 1969 Stonewall Inn riots in Greenwich Village).
and Now, here’s the matching shot from the same spot but elevated, on the repositioned steps. There’s now a wrap-around ramp in place of the steps seen above. Added 1990s structures are visible on the upper level at left.
In the opening shot the audience finds itself staring down the barrel of a sniper’s (Andy Robinson) rifle.
Then … He uses his telescopic sight to aim directly at an unsuspecting woman enjoying a rooftop swim.
… and Now … The pool was for the use of guests staying at the Holiday Inn Chinatown. Brand new when the movie was filmed, the hotel was built on the site of the old Hall Of Justice at 750 Kearny Street following its 1968 demolition (map). After an extensive renovation the hotel became the Hilton Financial District in 2006 at which time the pool was closed. This 2020 Google 3D aerial view reveals a covered area where the pool had been. In this view Portsmouth Square is on the left and at far right we see the sloping sides of the TransAmerica Pyramid which was under construction and just out of sight in the Then image above.
Then (1958) … this image from the excellent Eli Wallach movie The Lineup captured the old Hall Of Justice taken from Portsmouth Square a decade before its demolition. Note that its frontage ran along Kearney Street. (Coincidentally the new Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant Street appears a number of times throughout this movie).
… and Now … here’s a recent photo of the Hilton Financial District on the same site now. The replacement building is set back from the main road.
The sniper homes in on the swimmer through his scope as she glides through the water, then delivers a single fatal shot.
Then … San Francisco Police Inspector "Dirty Harry” Callahan (Clint Eastwood) responds to the call, approaching the covered victim. In the distance we can see Treasure Island, Yerba Buena Island and the east bay hills.
… and Now … the pool was shut down in 2005 when the Holiday Inn was refurbished as a more upscale Hilton hotel. It never did reopen - here’s how it looks in 2023.
Then … He looks up at the likely place where the bullet came from - the top of the Bank Of America Center, a 779 ft 52-story office skyscraper that towered 415 feet above the rooftop pool. It was the highest building in the city back then but would soon be eclipsed by the TransAmerica Pyramid.
… c. 2005 … We thank Hank Donat, Mistersf of the website mistersf.com, for publishing a couple of photos of the pool taken shortly before it closed - CitySleuth combined them into this single image. The Bank Of America Center, since sold and now known as 555 California Street, is in the background at far left: the victim was lying in the foreground corner on the right.
… and Now, here’s the pool in 2023, still closed down.
