Wright Sites in the Movies

[Paul Ringstrom]

Let's see if we can put together a complete list of movies that were filmed in or around Wright buildings.

To get us started here is what I have:

Blade Runner, Ennis House
Someone to Watch Over Me, Guggenheim Museum
THX-1138, Marin County Civic Center
A Summer Place, Walker House
House on Haunted Hill, Ennis House
Twilight, Oboler Estate
The Black Ca, Ennis House
Bottle Rocket, Gillin House
Gattica, Guggenheim Museum
North by Northwest, (inspired by Wright)

There was another filmed at the Guggenheim in the last year or two where they built a full-size replica in Germany for the filming, but I can't remember the name. There was a gun fight in the rotunda that really shot up the place.

Are there others that I have missed?

[Macrodex]

Gattica, Guggenheim Museum

I am fairly certain that was Marin County CC.

[Reidy]

A few more:

Rocketeer, Ennis (actually a full-size interior mockup)
Day of the Locust, Ennis
Black Rain, Ennis
We Five (?), Oboler (mid-50s post-nuclear-apocalypse story by Oboler)
Devil Women of the Avocado Jungle, Hollyhock
Sparkle, Turkel
Beverly Hills Cop 2, block castings from Ennis (leftovers, perhaps, from Blade Runner)
Weird Science, Willits
For the Boys, Imperial Hotel interior mockup

[BhamRuss]

A minor correction. "Cannibal Women in the Avacado Jungle of Death". (With a very young Bill Maher!)

[krietzerjak]

The Oboler movie is "Five" (or "5ive" on the movie poster.)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043539/

I also remember a scene in the Guggenheim in the Roseanne Barr movie "She Devil".

Which version of "Sparkle" shows Turkel? The one with Whitney Houston?

Andy

[Roderick Grant]

... plus avocado cannibals Adrienne Barbeau and Shannon Tweed.

Also at Ennis, "Female" with Ruth Chatterton.

There are two old movies titled "The Black Cat"; I believe the one shot at Ennis is from 1934 with Boris Karloff. The 1941 movie with Broderick Crawford was not at Ennis, although Bela Lugosi was in both films.

"The Terminal Man" is an excellent thriller with George Segal shot at Ennis.

"The Deadly Gamesman" episode (1972) of "Ironsides" (which was set in San Francisco) was filmed in two Hollywood houses, Ennis and an Oriental delight at the west end of Hollywood Blvd near Laurel Canyon.

[jmcnally]

Sparkle: yes, the one with Whitney Houston

[SDR]

Nup -- "Black Cat" (Universal, '34, Karloff/Lugosi, Edgar Ulmer dirigent) is all ersatz International/Moderne, to wit:







The sliding front door (with combination lock !) bounces open after being shut, in one shot. Interior doors have
lever handles and full-width door plates in brushed metal. Upright glazed corpse vitrines in basement . . .

. . . but no Wrightian architecture.

SDR

[Roderick Grant]

Two down, four to go. Not 1934 nor 1941, but there are more black cats in 1936, 1962, 1981 and 1990.

[Wrighter]

Does animation count? One of the main villains in The Venture Brothers lives in a version of the Storrer House.

Also the Hamlet with Ethan Hawke and Bill Murray had a scene in the Guggenheim. There's also a scene at the Guggenheim in either Annie Hall or Manhattan.

[Wrighter]

Paul, I think the last movie you were thinking of is The International. The museum is also on the movie poster:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0963178/?re ... lmg_act_13

[filippof]

About ten years ago I wrote a couple of articles about Wright's buildings in the movies. Unfortunately they are both in Italian but film titles are all in English too.

Filippo

[filippof]

Sorry I forgot the links:

The first one (http://architettura.it/movies/20030211/) is about Ennis House and the second one (http://architettura.it/movies/20031121/index.htm) is more generic.

Filippo

[Jjen]

Men in Black has the Guggenheim

[filippof]

Gattica, Guggenheim Museum

I am fairly certain that was Marin County CC.

George Lucas' THX-1138 (1970) has the Marin County CC too.
Filippo