wow Beaudry! thank you for the full story behind that scene from TTP. i had always asumed that the building he came out of, (the one with the room for rent sign), was the clayton, as it was next door to the central. Great catch on seeing the Belmont!....(cinematic directorial license extreme indeed!).
so not only is this a a mob crime noir yarn that takes place in a small mid-west hay seed town, (that just happens to resemble downtown LA in it's noir-ity finest), it is also the very first time in history, that someone pointed a camera looking south on clay, north of 3rd street, and figured out a way not to include angels flight in the shot!
obviously this was done so that theater goers wouldn't know that this mid-west small town, was in fact Los Angeles. What on earth would a funicular be doing in a plains setting? Once they show angels flight, well then everyone would know that this was actually not a small mid-west town in the hill-less plains.......................................................
(never mind..........nothing to see here......move along............)