Architect Breaks Down Why Movie Villains Live In Ultra-Modern Houses

[Paul Ringstrom]

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9Ceu9BO1jo

[Reidy]

Some cases in point that precede NXNW are The Kiss (Garbo, 1929) and They Drive by Night (Bogart, 1940). They feature high-deco interior sets, which might or might not qualify as architecture. We've talked previously about The Black Cat.

[Roderick Grant]

Then there's Ennis with "Female" (1933, Ruth Chatterton) and "House on Haunted Hill" (1959, Vincent Price) in which only the exteriors were shown.
We get inside in "The Terminal Man" (1974, George Segal) and "The Rocketeer" (1991, Billy Campbell)

[SDR]

An open question (for me, anyway) is which houses were replicated in a studio for interior scenes and which were used entirely as locations. Two examples come to mind: the film which used Walker exteriors but which had an inauthentic interior set built in Hollywood, and "Back to the Future" where the Gamble property appeared, the Doctor occupying what looks for all the world like the real garage. If it wasn't the real thing (and why would it be ?) someone took a lot of trouble to make it looks so.

"Blade Runner" uses the Ennis block in a set which I assume was not the real thing. In listing all the movies in which significant buildings appear (which film made use of Lautner's Schaffer house ?) this distinction needs to be accounted for, it seems to me.

S

[Reidy]

The Rocketeer used a mockup, not quite full size, of Ennis. Once it played on a flight and I wasn't paying attention, when I noticed what looked like a Wright glass design. The giveaway was that the caming was new and highly-polished. It was the home of the villain, based on Errol Flynn.

Beverly Hills Cop 2, somewhat like Blade Runner, used Ennis block castings to create a shooting gallery set.

Schaffer appeared in A Single Man as the title character's home. He wasn't a villain.

[Roderick Grant]

"Blade Runner" was shot almost entirely on a studio set with interior design completely made up. The exception was a quick shot of Ford at the pedestrian gate in the 'rain' after getting off the elevator. All the other shots were done with plastic blocks, some of which were salvaged by Gus Brown for a doghouse.

It has been a few years since I've watched "Rocketeer," and my VCR is on the fritz, but if the interiors were shot in a mockup, it was an award-worthy set. (I believe Paul Sorvino played the villain in that one. Campbell was the title hero.)

[Tim]

Modernism implies control - a controlled environment

Super villains are typically trying takeover and control something

The Joker was such an exception because he was looking for chaos and nihilism