Vincent rented “Road to Perdition” last night to see the direction. I just wanted to see the locations:

• Factory exteriors: Pullman Wheel Works, blast furnaces along Little Calumet River or in East Chicago
• Entering Chicago sequence: along Columbus Drive past Hutchinson Field ballfields (note the maintenance shack). Reflections in car windows of Michigan Avenue streetwall were digitally added in post-production. Car enters over LaSalle Street bridge. Watch the last few seconds of the reflection carefully; the perspective gets screwy as the reflections begin to run perpendicular to the actual scenery. At the last moment, cobra head streetlights from Columbus Drive appear in the reflection, just as the focus shifts to the actual buildings.
• Busy sidewalk: in front of Rookery.
• Lexington Hotel (with the second-floor gallery and large elevator bank): Palmer House Hilton. The Lexington stood at Cermak and Michigan, where the Lakeside Bank is now; it’s most famous now for having been ransacked by Geraldo on live TV in search of Capone’s hidden treasure.
• Newspaper reading room with green marble: Couldn’t figure out immediately, but of course it’s the G.A.R. Hall at the Cultural Center, n�e the central library.
• “L” tracks: Initially didn’t know, but the three pillars across (one of which was added later, with different trusses) and the concrete inserts below point to the South Side Green Line, with its former express track and post-construction raising.
• Catholic church on a square: St. Sylvester’s, on Palmer Square

The narrow streets are, of course, a Hollywood “New York City” set — note the sunken building entrances, ridiculously narrow street proportions, and 3/4-scale buildings.