The opening scenes of the 1965 movie Hawaii were shot at Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA, not far from where I worked for four years. If you’ve been there, you instantly recognize the locations in the film. Sturbridge Village is a reconstructed mid-19th century village, which is open with people acting the roles of the original inhabitants. The village is basically the Antiques Collection of the Wells family, who owned American Optical in nearby Southbridge. Only they didn’t just collect old clocks and farm equipment, but entire house, shops, and churches, and needed someplace to put them.
They took down the modern signs, covered over some roads, and tied fake flowers onto bushes (because it was the wrong time of year for them), and let Julie Andrews, Torin Thatcher, and Max von Sydow shiver through what was filmed as summer, but really wasn’t. Here’s a page devoted to it:
That re-shot scene is clumsily done, and you can see the background “bleeding through” the characters in the foreground. The actors weren’t even on that lake, but were clearly added to shot footage
The Matt Damon failure Promised Land had scenes shot within walking distance to our home. Our friends’ farm market was “remodeled” and used in several scenes. They made the market look more run down, using a machine to spray dirt on the exterior walls.
In the 1988 film Rain Man, while the two are on their way to Las Vegas, they stop by a gas station in Oklahoma to make a phone call at a phone booth. (Link to video clip.)
I visited the gas station in the spring of 2015 and took some photos. Here is a DB folder containing the photos.
I’ve been to plenty- the movie “Robocop” was filmed in Dallas, so…
[ul]
[li]I live about a mile/mile and a half from Murphy’s house (a nameless condo in Lake Highlands)[/li][li]I work at OCP Headquarters (City Hall)[/li][li]I’ve seen concerts at the Detroit PD headquarters (Sons of Hermann Hall)[/li][li]and a few others…[/li][/ul]
In Houston, I’ve been to St. John’s high school a couple of times (where ‘Rushmore’ was filmed), and the Johnson Space Center, where any movie involving NASA seems to have something filmed. Been to the Astrodome (in many movies) as well. I’ve also been in the Houston Hyatt Regency, whose atrium was a major filming location in “Logan’s Run”.
And the frat carnival/games scenes in “Revenge of the Nerds” were filmed at Texas A&M where I went to college.
Years ago I visited the ghost town of Grafton, Utah (just outside Zion National Park) and realized the bicycle scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed there. I could almost hear B.J. Thomas singing faintly in the wind.
The movie also filmed other scenes in the vicinity, such as the Hole-In-The-Wall hideout location, where Butch won a knife fight with Harvey Logan by cheating outrageously.
Not including standard locations like big tourist destinations, I’ve been to a number of filming locations, mostly in and around Philadelphia:
[ul]
[li]30th Street Station from Witness (where Samuel stares at the statue and later witnesses a murder in the men’s room)[/li][li]Reading Terminal Market from National Treasure (part of the big chase scene on foot, when Diane Kruger hides behind the counter of a food stand)[/li][li]Pat’s King of Steaks from Fallen (and many others)[/li][li]Eastern State Penitentiary from 12 Monkeys (stand-in for the mental asylum)[/li][li]Pennsylvania Convention Center Grand Hall from 12 Monkeys (the old train shed now part of the convention center and set-dressed as the airport for the climactic scene)[/li][li]The G-Lodge Diner in Phoenixville, PA from The Happening (renamed in the movie)[/li][li]The Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, PA from The Blob (and home to the annual Blobfest)[/li][li]Algiers Ferry in New Orleans from Deja Vu[/li][li]The Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London from Thor: The Dark World (where Malekith’s ship lands, making a mess of the lawn)[/li][li]The Embarcadero Hyatt Regency in San Francisco from High Anxiety (and if you have even a hint of acrophobia the elevators might make you plotz)[/li][li]Jersey Freeze in Freehold, NJ from Blinded by the Light[/li][li]My hometown of Welch, WV from the opening scene of Z for Zachariah (a little post-apocalyptic film made in New Zealand but with an opening scene shot in WV)[/li][li]Welch again from The Glass Castle (went to school for a couple of years with Jeannette Walls)[/li][li]The Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh from Flashdance[/li][li]The Liberty Tubes in Pittsburgh from The Perks of Being a Wallflower[/li][li]Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh from JVCD’s Sudden Death[/li][/ul]
I could probably come up with more but that’s enough for now.
A friend in Philadelphia once showed me the train station and men’s room from Witness.
I’ve been inside (on a high school student tour) and often passed by the old, castle-like Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh that’s featured in Mrs. Soffel with Diane Keaton and Mel Gibson.
The modern, gleaming Baltimore hospital for the criminally-insane in the crime movie *Manhunter *is actually the High Museum in Atlanta, which has a great collection of modern art: High Museum of Art - Wikipedia
While we were in town, we also visited the Swan House, a beautiful 1920s mansion which stood in for the palace of President Coriolanus Snow in the Hunger Game movies: Swan House (Atlanta) - Wikipedia
I remember this! I also remember the “other” movie filmed in Madison, with a couple of then-famous TV stars. It had an exterior shot in the neighborhood I walked through to get to (elementary) school: “The Boy who Drank too much.” It was a TV thing, so probably nobody knows about it. I did see them filming a scene where someone was jogging backwards to keep talking to another character, then saw that scene in the finished movie.
I moved to the Seattle area a few years after Twin Peaks was a thing. This show, supposedly shot in the mysterious town of Twin Peaks, was of course (as is commonly known) shot in many locations around the area. I’ve been to almost all of them:
The town of Roslyn (exterior house scenes; also used for the show Northern Exposure)
North Bend - the cafe (“Damn good coffee!”), scenery shots of the big mountain nearby, known as Mt. Si (pronounced “mount sigh”), and streets frequently filled with logging trucks
Snoqualmie falls and its famous lodge. For a while they weren’t letting people in there, only registered guests, because they were tired of Twin Peaks tourists.
The town of Everett had a few locations, including Laura Palmer’s house.
The funny thing is, in the show, during a typical day, Laura walks down a street to her friends’ house, and to school, then to meals on wheels. Each location is at least an hours’ drive along interstates from each other, as one place is in Everett, another in Roslyn, and the other in North Bend.
I recently visited Monument Valley, and there’s a spot where all the tourist buses pull up to, where a famous scene from a John Wayne western was shot. That, and a whole bunch of other westerns had monument valley appearing in it. They have a small museum nearby dedicated to all the Hollywood movies that were filmed there. As you may imagine, most were black and white, and were made several decades ago.
I had forgotten about Sleeper! I used to live a block away from the “dome” at Colorado Christian University. It was portrayed as a futuristic McDonald’s Restaurant in the movie.
And then there’s the “Sleeper House” west of Denver off I-70 near the Genesee exit.
I recently watched Star Trek IV for the first time since moving to San Francisco. The ”Cetacean Institute” (which is supposed to be in Sausalito) is played by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which I’ve visited several times. The scene where Gillian picks up Kirk and Spock (which is also supposed to be in Sausalito) is very obviously in the Marina district of San Francisco, right along where I’d just gone for a walk a few days earlier; the area looks very similar today. The scenes shot along Market Street felt very familiar, even though that area has changed quite a bit in the last 33 years.
The scenes set in Golden Gate Park were not actually filmed there. Apparently they wanted to, but there were weather issues. It’s a shame, because I know GGP quite well now, and that would have been fun to see.
Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine is full of San Francisco as well. Andrew Dice Clay’s character’s apartment is about 3 blocks from my house.
Lots of movies filmed in Chicago, such as The Blues Brothers and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off* are loaded with locations I am familiar with.
Bull Durham was filmed at several different Minor League ballparks I’ve visited. I’ve also been to the Field of Dreams field many times. Plus, any scene that takes place in any Major League Baseball park, I can say “I’ve been there!”
It’s kind of odd how thrilling it can be to see a familiar location on-screen. One of life’s sublime simple pleasures.
I’ve driven by those dinosaurs like a billion times. Never stopped. I did stop at Hadley’s once 'cause I had to have a date shake. Not as gross as it sounds.
Very little. The show was popular when I lived there in the late 1970s/early 1980s, and I know the house. From this site, some scenes in the season 3 episode “Dueling Skates,” were filmed on the Pearl Street Mall. I used to live on Pearl Street, and Tom’s Tavern, shown in one of the photos, was my favorite hangout. I also visited the New York Deli many times, and know the Flagstaff Road well.
They mention one other Colorado location, an AFB in Aurora. Other locations are in California.
I was watching The Nature of Things last night. There was a segment filmed in London, and I was suddenly back at Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square.
Blues Brothers, Ferris Bueller, and The Untouchables have been mentioned, and yes, most Chicagoans have been to most of those locations. Not mentioned yet: the Thompson Center (aka, State of Illinois Building) where Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines had their climactic scenes in Running Scared. I change trains there frequently.
We lived in the 4 Corners for 7 years, so just about any old western has a place I recognize. I always look at the credits, and if that doesn’t verify it, IMDB will.
I grew up near Baltimore. Watching Major League II is almost painful. Looking down on the National Aquarium and pretending it’s in Cleveland is the only laughable moment in the whole movie.
