Perfect Strangers (1950) - Film Locations

Dennis Morgan and Ginger Rogers

When I watch classic movies I often watch them differently than contemporary films. With classic films I can get sucked in just by the vintage fashions and sometimes the real world film locations. That's the case with Perfect Strangers (1950), a court room drama starring Dennis Morgan and Ginger Rogers.

The film is a day in the life of Los Angeles jurors forced to live together during a trial. Morgan plays a married man who falls in love with another juror, a woman separated from her husband, played by Rogers. The story is interesting for its look into the juror process circa 1950, but the drama is a bit lackluster. What really won me over was the fantastic Los Angeles film locations and also that the film features some of my favorite actors. In addition to Morgan and Rogers, the film also features, Thelma Ritter, Paul Ford, Alan Reed (the voice of Fred Flintstone), and other recognizable character actors.

Here are some of the Los Angeles filming locations that appear in Perfect Strangers.

Click on images to see larger.

United States Post Office Terminal Annex

Los Angeles Terminal Annex, 900 N. Alameda Street

The film begins with a scene of Los Angeles residents being selected at random for jury service and the notices being processed for delivery at the United States Post Office Terminal Annex located at 900 North Alameda Street, in downtown Los Angeles. In the comparison above is a screenshot of the Terminal Annex as seen in the film and an image of how the historic post office building appears today.

In the comparison below, we see a helicopter take off from the roof of the Terminal Annex. In the background, we get a glimpse of Olvera Street, the oldest part of downtown Los Angeles. One of the structures that can bee seen and is still standing is La Plaza United Methodist Church, which stands at the entrance to Olvera Street. See inside the yellow rectangle.

Terminal Annex rooftop. Olvera Street can be seen inside the yellow rectangle.

Bird's Eye View of Olvera Street as it appears today.

In the next comparison the helicopter takes off from the Terminal Annex rooftop and we see, from left to right, Los Angeles City Hall, the United States Courthouse building, and the historic Hall of Justice building.

From left to right: City Hall, Courthouse, Hall of Justice buildings.

A view of the three buildings as they appear now.

One of the people called for jury service is Ginger Rogers. In the scene below, Ginger Rogers arrives via trolley in front of Los Angeles City Hall, located at 200 north Spring Street. She gets off the trolley and walks across the street from City Hall towards the Hall of Records building.

Ginger Rogers arrives by trolley in front of City Hall.

Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring Street.

Below we see Rogers walking towards the Hall of Records building located directly across from City Hall. After Rogers arrives at the Hall of Records building she then walks next door to the Hall of Justice building. The Hall of Records was a 12-story building constructed between 1909 and 1911 and then demolished in 1973. The Hall of Justice building, which was damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake, has been closed ever since the quake, but is still standing and undergoing a 231 million dollar renovation.

Rogers walks towards the LA Hall of Records building.

A photo from 1954 looking down Spring Street showing the Hall of Records, Hall of Justice, and on the right, the United States Courthouse and City Hall buildings.

Looking down Spring Street in front of City Hall as it appears today.

Rogers first arrives at the Hall of Records building.

After Rogers arrives at the Hall of Records building, she then heads over to the Hall of Justice building next door. Below is a historic photo from 1947, three years before the film, showing how the Hall of Justice building appeared at the time. The building stands at the corner of Temple Street and Spring Street. The yellow circle next to the green arrow marks where Rogers can be seen walking up the sidewalk. In the second and third images, the red rectangle marks where the United States Court House building can be seen in the background.

A 1947 photo of the Hall of Justice.

The yellow circle shows Rogers in front of the Hall of Justice.

Looking down Temple Street in front of the Hall of Justice. The red rectangle marks where the United States Court House building is located (hidden behind the trees).

United States Court House building.

In the next scene, Morgan can be seen leaving a restaurant after dining with fellow juror, Rogers. The restaurant where Morgan and Rogers eat was clearly a fake created on a sound stage, but in the background of the screenshot below, we see a restaurant called the Court House Sandwich Shoppe. This was a real restaurant located on the corner of Broadway and Temple, near the Hall of Records building. Like the Hall of Records building which was demolished in 1973, the Court House Sandwich Shoppe building has also been demolished.

Morgan at the corner of Broadway and Temple. The Court House restaurant can be seen in the background.

A photo from 1954 shows the Court House Sandwich Shoppe.

The red rectangle marks the site of the Court House restaurant.

All the jurors are housed in what is supposed to be a downtown Los Angeles hotel with a view looking over City Hall and the Court House; however, I'm not 100% on this one, but I'm pretty sure that the hotel was really a facade located on the Warner Bros. Studio New York Street backlot in Burbank. Below is a screenshot of the jurors arriving at the hotel and an image of the facade I believe to be used as the location of the hotel. The signage, lamps and other details on these facades are changed all the time, but the skeleton of the building looks like it could be a match - plus, the fact that this is a Warner Bros. film, makes it likely that they could have used this facade.

The jurors arrive via bus at what is supposed to be a downtown hotel.

A Warner Bros. backlot facade I believe to be the real location.

During the trial, the jurors are taken by bus to the scene of the murder. I assumed that the bus was going down Sunset Boulevard along the Hollywood Hills, I just needed to find the right cross street, which I did when I came to Kings Road. In the scene below, the bus passes a restaurant called Leon and Freddie's, located at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Kings Road, where the popular Saddle Ranch bar is now located.

The bus takes the jurors down Sunset Blvd at Kings Rd.

The corner of Sunset Blvd. and Kings Rd.

The "murder" took place near the cliff side of a Hollywood Hills home. This was the most interesting part of the film for me. The hills look so different today. Where at the time of the film there was mostly open land, there are now so many homes dotting the hills. After combing the hills with a few different aerial views I was finally able to pinpoint the location of the home that was used for filming. The home is located at 8412 Franklin Avenue, West Hollywood.

The bus heads up Kings Road to the scene of the crime.

Looking up Kings Road in West Hollywood.

The Hollywood Hills home sits on a cliff on Franklin Ave.

The yellow oval marks the home as seen from Kings Road.

The bus winds up Franklin Avenue in the Hollywood Hills.

The same view from Franklin Ave as it appears today.

Below the jurors get to see a reenactment of what might have been the way things played out the night of the crime. Behind them is the house that is located on Franklin Avenue up in the hills. Just below that is an image showing the home as it appears today. I was actually quite shocked when I found the home to see that it hadn't been demolished and replaced by some modern Hollywood Hills mansion. After I found the home, I did some more digging and learned that the house was built in 1944, six years prior to this film. While the jurors are at the crime scene walking around we get views of some landmark buildings as seen from the Hollywood Hills, including the Sunset Tower Hotel and the Granville Towers apartment building.

The jurors see a reenactment in front of the Franklin Ave home.

Over 65 years and the home is still standing. An eternity by LA standards.

Below, jurors take in the view from the Hollywood Hills. The art deco Sunset Tower Hotel can be seen in the background. The hotel has long been a residence for Hollywood celebrities, including John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, Paulette Goddard, Preston Sturges, Billie Burke, and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

The Sunset Tower Hotel as seen in the film.

A Bird's Eye View of the Sunset Tower Hotel.

In another scene we get a view showing the Granville Towers, a posh West Hollywood apartment building built in 1930 by legendary architect, Leland Bryant. The Granville Towers has been the home to many notable celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe, Rock Hudson, and singer David Bowie.

The Granville Towers as seen in Perfect Strangers.

A Bird's Eye View of the Granville Towers.

During the reenactment at the crime scene, we get this view looking down from Franklin Avenue in the Hollywood Hills towards the next street below, Hollywood Boulevard. Amazing enough, the homes located on Hollywood Boulevard at the time of the film still appear to be intact.

Looking down from Franklin Ave toward Hollywood Blvd.

Bird's Eye View of Franklin Ave. and Hollywood Blvd.

In one scene during the film we get a glimpse of a news ticker on the side of a building announcing an update to the trial. That news ticker was a big deal. According to a The Billboard magazine article from September 7, 1946, on a Tuesday night, August 6, 40,000 people showed up to see the premiere of that sign, the "Trans-Lux Flashcast news ribbon...brought to Los Angeles by Warner Bros. KFWB." The news ribbon was located on the side of of the historic Taft building at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, in Hollywood.

The news ribbon as seen in Perfect Strangers.

A crowd gathers under the news ribbon at Hollywood and Vine. Photo from the Flickr page of AliceJapan.

The Taft building in Hollywood. The news ribbon has been removed.

During the final scenes of the film we see the jurors leaving the Hall of Justice building back in downtown Los Angeles. As I mentioned before, the Hall of Justice has been closed ever since the 1994 Northridge earthquake, this is a great glimpse inside of the historic building. Below is a screenshot from the film showing Dennis Morgan exiting the Hall of Justice and a contemporary image showing how the same location appears today.

Dennis Morgan leaves the Hall of Justice.

A contemporary view of the Hall of Justice.

The interior of the Hall of Justice appears in another film I've blogged about, the 1978 film The Big Fix, starring Richard Dreyfuss. 

Perfect Strangers is currently available to rent through Classicflix and through the Warner Archive collection.

The Cycle Savages (1969) - Film Locations

Now that the end of the year is upon us the studios have been releasing to theaters all of their award worthy films and campaigning for Oscar nominations. One film getting some Oscar buzz is Alexander Payne's Nebraska, which stars Bruce Dern, one of Hollywood's most underappreciated actors. Paramount is pushing for Dern to be nominated for Best Actor, who if nominated and wins, would earn his very first Academy Award. Dern has had some compelling roles in many significant films including They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), and The Great Gatsby (1972). He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor performance in Coming Home (1978) but lost to Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter (1978). Come time for the Academy Awards I'll be rooting for Dern to win his first Oscar. I'd much rather see the guy get an Oscar for a distinguished performance than a lifetime achievement award (if he would even be given that). And forget prestige pictures, my favorite Dern performance is as Mark Rumsfield in Joe Dante's underrated classic, The Burbs (1989). I could watch that film over and over again without tiring, and that is award worthy enough for me (but I'm probably in the minority on this one). 

Like nearly every actor, in addition to some important films, Dern has also starred in some real turkeys. One of Dern's early films, The Cycle Savages (1969) is one of them. The film is so ridiculous it's entertaining. Dern is a leader of an LA biker gang who wants to cut off the hands of an artist who he catches sketching him and his girl being intimate. The film was shot mainly on location around the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Echo Park and Silver Lake. Here are many of the filming locations for this low budget flick.

Click images to see larger.

Food stand on Sunset Blvd near Rosemont Ave.

A strip mall is now located on the site of the food stand.

During the opening scene of the film we see the biker gang roll up to a food stand and begin harassing a couple of the patrons. The food stand was located on Sunset Boulevard near the intersection of Rosemont Avenue. Today the food stand building is gone and on the site is a generic looking strip mall. See the comparison above. I had a hunch that this location was located on Sunset, so using Google Street View, I started scanning businesses in the Echo Park neighborhood located on Sunset. I was able to confirm the location when I identified the buildings in the comparison below located across the street from the food stand.

Shops at 2235 Sunset Blvd across from the food stand.

The same shops and houses at 2235 Sunset Blvd.

The above comparison shows the view looking across the street from the food stand site. The businesses (the address for the first business is 2235 Sunset Boulevard), and the homes just above the businesses are all still standing and recognizable.

The scene below shows the seating area and parking lot for the food stand. In this view we can see a church in the background. That church, located at 1025 Rosemont Avenue can still be found just behind the strip mall parking lot.

The outdoor seating at the food stand on Sunset Blvd.

1025 Rosemont Ave. The church located behind the food stand.

The scene below is a view looking from the food stand towards Rosemont Ave. It appears there was another food stand next door but as can be seen in the Google Street View screenshot for comparison, this business has also been demolished.

Looking toward the SW corner of Sunset and Rosemont.

Looking toward Rosemont Ave from Sunset Blvd.

The biker gang getting ready to leave the food stand on Sunset.

A generic strip mall is now located on the food stand site.

Above is a comparison showing the full view of the food stand and the strip mall that is located there today. Does anyone know what this food stand was and how long it was there?

After harassing the patrons at the food stand Dern leads his gang down the streets of Echo Park and Silver Lake. Below Dern can be seen riding his bike down Silver Lake Boulevard near the intersection of Reservoir Street.

Bruce Dern leads the gang down Silver Lake Blvd near Reservoir St.

Looking down Silver Lake Blvd from Reservoir St.

Below Dern continues riding down Silver Lake Boulevard. In this shot he is passing homes located at 1332 and 1334 Silver Lake Blvd. The homes, although painted new colors, look mostly the same. By the way, according to Zillow, that home at 1334 is a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom place built in 1962 and has an estimated value of $783,666. It last sold in 1983 for only $29,000!

Dern and gang pass 1334 Silver Lake Blvd.

Contemporary view of the homes at 1334 and 1332 Silver Lake Blvd.

One of the primary locations that appears throughout the film is an apartment building located at 1000 Echo Park Avenue, just across the street from Echo Park Lake. The apartment building, known as the Sir Palmer apartments, is still standing and looks little changed. In the scene below we see the biker gang driving down Echo Park Ave and approaching the apartment building.

The gang heads toward 1000 Echo Park Ave.

Looking down Echo Park Ave. The lake would be on the right.

Dern on his bike in front of 1000 Echo Park Ave.

The same apartment building still stands at 1000 Echo Park Ave.

Looking north down Echo Park Ave.

Looking north down Echo Park Ave.

Another view of the Sir Palmer apartment building.

The Sir Palmer apartments at 1000 Echo Park Blvd.

Another location that shows up more than once is a dive bar, in the film called "Rudy's" (not sure if this was the name of a real place or fictional) that was located on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Portia Street. Today this building is the location of Little Joy Cocktail Lounge, a popular Echo Park dive bar. In the scene below we a see girl, who was recently raped by the biker gang, walking down Sunset Blvd toward Portia St. The building in the red orange brick is the side of Rudy's/Little Joy.

Looking down Sunset Blvd from Portia St.

Looking down Sunset from Portia street.

In a separate scene we see the artist (Chris Robinson) entering Rudy's. In the background we can see a couple of old homes. These old homes can still be seen in the background on Portia Street.

Robinson enters "Rudy's" on the corner of Sunset and Portia.

The Little Joy bar is now located at the corner of Sunset and Portia.

On the opposite corner from Rudy's/Little Joy there used to be a Shell Service Station. This was still a gas station until April 2012 when it was bulldozed to make room for another gas station and convenience store.

A Shell Station across from Rudy's.

The Shell Station site is now a vacant lot (April 2012). Photo by Mary-Austin Klein.

Robinson passing 1485 Sunset Boulevard.

Looking towards shops at 1485 Sunset Boulevard. The black building is Little Joy.

A few scenes take place at Echo Park Lake. There is an early scene of the artist watching people and sketching in the park. Another scene shows the biker gang beating the crap out of a guy and then taking his motorcycle. Most of the action takes place near the end of the lake where the bridge is located.

Ladies walk along Echo Park Lake. The bridge can be seen in the background.

Looking at Echo Park Lake. The bridge is in the background.

Bing Bird's Eye view of Echo Park lake and the bridge.

A man gets beaten at the park near Echo Park Lake.

The picnic area near the bridge at Echo Park Lake.

In the scene below one of the bikers in the gang rides by Echo Park Lake at the intersection of Park Avenue and Glendale Boulevard. He turns from Park Ave on to Glendale Blvd where he stops at a bus stop to flirt with some chicks eating ice cream.

Biker on Park Ave at Glendale Blvd.

Corner of Park Ave and Glendale Blvd.

The biker passes the California Federal Savings on Glendale Blvd.

The California Federal Savings building is now a Citibank.

One of the landmarks we see when the biker drives down Glendale Boulevard and pulls up to the bus stop is the California Federal Savings building which is now a Citibank.

Looking north down Glendale Blvd from Park Ave.

Looking north down Glendale Blvd from Park Ave.

The biker approaches the girls at the bus stop located on Glendale Blvd near Park Ave. This is still a real bus stop location. In the background in the screenshot below is part of the building which is now home to the Echoplex music venue.

The biker picks up chicks at the bus stop at Glendale and Park.

There is still a bus stop at Glendale and Park.

In a later scene we see the girl wander back to the bus stop location after she has been raped by the gang. We get another view of the bus stop location, this one looking down Park Avenue in the direction of Echo Park Lake. She then wanders up to an apartment building located at 1944 Park Ave before heading into the park.

The girl wanders back to Glendale and Park after being raped.

Looking down Park Ave towards Glendale Blvd.

The girl wanders to 1944 Park Ave.

Looking towards 1944 Park Ave.

Once the girl enters the park at Echo Park Lake we get a glimpse of some apartment/housing buildings in the background. All of these buildings are still standing as can be seen in the comparisons below.

The girl heads to the park at Echo Park Lake.

Apartments near 1024 Echo Park Ave.

Apartments on Echo Park Ave in background.

Looking down Echo Park Ave from Park Ave.

The girl passes out in the park and we then see her rushed by ambulance to the hospital. In the scene below we see the ambulance racing down Valencia Street toward Sixth Street. In the distance we see a TWA building. This building is still standing but is an office building with mixed businesses. 

Looking down Valencia St. from Sixth St.

Looking down Valencia St. from Sixth St.

The ambulance arrives at 1401 W. Sixth Street, the site of what was then the Central Receiving Hospital. This building has since been torn down and today The Rampart Division police station is located at the site.

1401 W. Sixth St. - Central Receiving Hospital

1401 W. Sixth St. - Now the Rampart Division police station is located on the site.

As the ambulance turns into the hospital driveway we see a couple of apartment buildings in the background. Although the hospital was torn down, these apartments seen in the background are still standing. They are located on Loma Drive, just off of Sixth Street.

Apartments stand on Loma Dr. in the background.

Looking down Loma Drive just off 6th Street.

The Cycle Savages is available on DVD and is currently available for streaming on Netflix. In addition to Bruce Dern and Chris Robinson, the film also stars Melody Patterson, Maray Ayres, and Casey Kasem who was also a producer on the film.