tick...tick...tick... (1970) - Film Locations

Jim Brown, a football star turned actor, is the lead in ...tick...tick...tick (1970), a drama about racial relations in a small town in Mississippi. The film is similar in some ways to, In the Heat of the Night (1967), starring Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger, but lacks the depth and punch of that earlier film. 

The story is set in the American South, but the movie was actually filmed in the small Northern California town of Colusa. Here are some of the Colusa, California filming locations.

Click images to enlarge.

Colusa Police Department, 260 6th Street

260 6th Street, Colusa, California

Above is the Colusa Police Department building located at 260 Sixth St which also is used as a police department in the film. In the screenshot we see actor George Kennedy approaching the stairs of the police department. Although the building is still used as a police department today, it was originally built as a Carnegie library in 1906. It was one of 13 Carnegie libraries built in the Sacramento Valley during 1903-17.

Below are two views looking up the street from the police department building. The first view is looking towards 210 Sixth St. and the second is looking at the lot next door to the police department.

210 6th Street, Colusa, Ca.

210 6th Street, Colusa, Ca.

The parking lot next to Colusa Police Department.

The parking lot next to Colusa Police Department.

George Kennedy, one of the police officers, lives in a home located at what is now 659 Jay Street in Colusa, California. The below views show comparisons of the homes across the street at 644 Jay Street, the home at what is now 659 Jay Street, and the home next door. The property next door to Kennedy's house has since been razed and replaced by a new building.

George Kennedy with 644 Jay Street in background.

644 Jay Street, Colusa, Ca.

George Kennedy's home at what is now 659 Jay Street.

659 Jay Street, now the site of Steidlmayer Leo Law Office.

The property next door to the Kennedy house.

The property next door to the Kennedy house appears to have been replaced by an apartment building.

Below, is a comparison of the First Christian Church located at 725 Jay Street, just up the street from Kennedy's home. 

First Christian Church, 725 Jay Street

First Christian Church, 725 Jay Street

Jay Street at 7th Street

Jay Street at 7th Street

Below is a view of actor Fredric March with the Colusa Hall of Records building located in the background, just across the street from the Colusa Police Department.

Hall of Records in background from Colusa Police Department.

Hall of Records building across from Colusa Police Department.

Looking towards the Federal Land Bank Association, Jay Street at 6th Street

Looking towards the Federal Land Bank Association, Jay Street at 6th Street

Market Street at 5th Street

Market Street at 5th Street

Jim Brown walks along 6th Street at Market Street.

6th Street at Market Street.

The finale of the film takes place on a bridge leading out of town. I believe the location is the River Road bridge near B Street.

River Road bridge near B Street.

River Road near B Street.

...tick...tick...tick also stars George Kennedy and Fredric March. It was directed by James Lee Barrett. The film is available on DVD through the Warner Archive Collection.

The Desperate Hours (1955) - Film Locations

Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March

Two of the greatest actors of Hollywood's golden era, Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March, square off in the film The Desperate Hours (1955). Bogart is an escaped convict on the run. March is a suburban family man. The two butt heads when Bogart, with a couple fellow escapees, hold March and his family hostage in their Indianapolis home. Bogart is hiding out until he can collect his getaway money and he isn't going to let anyone interfere with collecting his dough. March strategizes a way to get out of his predicament and will do whatever it takes to protect his family. The tension that Bogart and March create in this standoff is absolutely thrilling!

Although the home where March and his family live is supposed to be in Indianapolis, it is actually a building that once stood on the Universal Studios Hollywood Colonial Street backlot. The home, known as the "Paramount House," was originally built on the Universal lot by Paramount specifically for The Desperate Hours. After the film, the house stayed and would be used again numerous times in other films and for television. The house has also appeared in the films All That Heaven Allows (1955), The Shaggy Dog (1959) and Send Me No Flowers (1964) and TV shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Adam 12, but it is likely most recognizable as the house from Leave it to Beaver. Beginning in season 3, when the Leave it to Beaver show moved from the old Republic Studios lot (now CBS Studio Center) to Universal, the Cleaver family settled into the former Paramount House.

Click images to see larger.

The Paramount House as it appears in The Desperate Hours.

The Paramount House April 2010. Photo (c) theStudioTour.com

The Cleaver family in front of the Paramount House.

The Paramount House would sit on Universal's Colonial Street backlot until 1989. When production started on the 1989 film, The Burbs, the Paramount House was moved to another area of the Universal lot above Falls Lake to make room for new facades.

Another view of Universal's Colonial Street. The Desperate Hours.

The same view of Colonial Street as seen in Leave it to Beaver.

The "Keller House" on Colonial Street as seen in The Desperate Hours.

The "Keller House" as seen in Leave it to Beaver.

The Desperate Hours is an exciting film directed by William Wyler. In addition to Bogart and March, the film also stars Arthur Kennedy, Martha Scott, Dewey Martin, Gig Young, and Alan Reed (best known as the voice of Fred Flintstone). The Desperate Hours is available on DVD.

For more information visit the retroweb.com site dedicated to Leave It To Beaver. This page is filled with images of Colonial Street and it's history involving the Cleaver family. Also check out theStudioTour.com, another great site loaded with information on Colonial Street (as well as other film studios).

Fredric March - Attack Ads "Dirty Trick"

Fredric March with wife Florence Eldridge

With an election coming up later this year and with a Republican presidential primary in progress, it's hard to avoid the many political attack ads airing on television. I'm just glad that California, where I'm at, is one of the last states in the primary process so we haven't quite been bombarded with ads the way other states have. Still, every news program seems to re-run the ads. I just saw one a couple weeks ago that portrayed Mitt Romney as an action figure - think Arnold Schwarzenegger in any of his action roles - running around with a large mudslinging gun. Eventually while Romney is firing his mudslinging gun it backfires on him. The sad thing is, contrary to the message of this particular ad, attack ads have proven to be an effective weapon for taking down an opponent. For this reason, despite how much any of us seem to dislike attack ads, politicians continue to use them.

Of course, these polished attack ads that sometimes look like a trailer for an upcoming Hollywood blockbuster are nothing new. Attack ads have been used for a long time. For that matter, Hollywood has been involved for a long time in producing attack ads.

The classic movie related blog Sittin On A Backyard Fence is currently hosting a blogathon dedicated to the early Hollywood star, Fredric March. As my contribution to the Fredric March blogathon I couldn't think of anything more currently relevant than a short anecdote that involves March, a political campaign, Hollywood and attack ads.

During the 1934 campaign for governor of California, socialist writer and political activist Upton Sinclair was the choice candidate for many politically left leaning Hollywood celebrities. Fredric March and his wife, actress Florence Eldridge, both progressive Hollywood liberals,  were part of Sinclair's ardent Hollywood supporters. To make a long story short and keep this centered on March, Sinclair lost the election. Many Sinclair supporters believed that Sinclair might have won the election if it wasn't for a series of newsreel films that were really just attack ads. In some of the films, supporters of Sinclair were shown as shady looking characters or spoke like newly arrived immigrants with foreign accents, while supporters of Sinclair's opponent, incumbent Republican Governor Frank M. Merriam, were always shown as respectable, upstanding citizens. 

At a post-election party hosted by March and Eldridge in Beverly Hills, several guests complained about the use of the films. In the book The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics, author Greg Mitchell writes about an exchange that took place at the party between March and the respected MGM producer, Irving Thalberg:

"Suddenly, and to the surprise of nearly everyone, Irving Thalberg quietly announced, 'I made those shorts.'
'But it was a dirty trick!' Fredric March protested. 'It was the damnedest unfair thing I've ever heard of.'
'Nothing is unfair in politics,' Thalberg replied, unperturbed. 'We could sit down here and figure dirty things all night, and every one of them would be all right in a political campaign.'
'It wouldn't be all right with me,' March maintained.
'That's because you don't know politics,' Thalberg answered, recalling his days as a boy orator for the Socialist party in New York. Tammany Hall, he explained, never would have let his party win an election in New York. 'Fairness in an election,' Thalberg advised, 'is a contradiction in terms. It just doesn't exist.'"

Nearly eight decades later and the same argument is still taking place in politics!

To read more about actor Fredric March please visit the blog Sittin On A Backyard Fence where many bloggers are contributing entries on all aspects of March's career.

NINOTCHKA / DESIGN FOR LIVING Double Feature

Gary Cooper, Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins in

Design For Living (1933)

Earlier this month The Criterion Collection released a high definition digital restoration of the pre-code classic film, Design For Living (1933) on DVD and Blu-Ray, but if you want a chance to enjoy this film on the big screen as it was meant to be, prior to enjoying the film at home, the American Cinematheque will be presenting a screening of the film at the Aero theatre in Santa Monica, California. The screening is scheduled for Wednesday, December 28, 2011 and is the second part of a double feature, the first film being another Ernst Lubitsch classic, Ninotchka (1939). Lubitsch's daughter Nicola, will be introducing the double feature. And for those who haven't purchased a copy of Design For Living, all ticket holders will have a chance to win a DVD of the Criterion release.

Design For Living stars the always handsome Gary Cooper, the actor's actor Fredric March, and scene stealer Miriam Hopkins. Cooper and March play roommates living in Paris who both fall in love with the same girl, Gilda Farrell, played by Hopkins. Hopkins can't decide which man she loves, so what does she do? She decides to live with both men!

"Garbo Laughs!" was the tagline for the romantic comedy, Ninotchka, starring Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. In this film, Garbo is a tough Russian woman sent to Paris to sell some stolen jewelery and bring back three fellow Russians who couldn't complete the task because they had become distracted by the luxuries of a capitalist society. Garbo too begins to fall in love with the West and also with a charming Count (Douglas). What is a Russian girl to do?

Details

Where: Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, CA

When: Wedensday, December 28, 2011 at 7:30pm

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - Film Locations

Theatrical Poster

There are so many movies about war, but not nearly as many that show life after war. One of the few classics on the post-war subject is the 1946 film, The Best Years of Our Lives. This Academy Award winning film tells the story of three veterans returning home from World War II and the challenges each one faces. 

Fredric March plays Al Stephenson, an Army Sergeant who returns to his loving wife Milly (Myrna Loy) and their family. He was a successful bank executive before the war and when Al returns, he is promoted to Vice President. All seems good, except that Al is having trouble adapting back to civilian life and is now struggling with alcoholism. 

Dana Andrews plays good looking Fred Derry, a soda jerk before the war and during the war an Air Force bombardier. After the war, Fred expects to get a better job upon returning home, but finds that he faces tough competition from other returning vets and that he lacks the necessary civilian skills. To make matters worse, Fred's wife has moved on to other men while Fred was away at war. 

Harold Russell plays Homer Parrish, the quarterback of his football team before the war, who married his sweetheart Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell) before leaving to fight. Homer, a sailor in the war, lost both of his hands. When he returns home to his fiance and family, he has trouble adjusting to life with his disability. What troubles Homer most of all is that he feels that he will be a burden on his fiance, so he pushes her away, trying to give her a way out of their relationship. 

The home that Fredric March's character returns to is an apartment building located at the corner of Beverly Boulevard and N. Sycamore Avenue in Los Angeles. It's a pretty nice building about a block from La Brea Avenue that looks like the kind of fancy place where a bank executive might live. Below is a screenshot of the building from the film and an image of the building as it appears today.

Fredric March's apartment building.

Fredric March's apartment on Beverly Blvd (c) 2011 Google

Looking east down Beverly Blvd.

Looking east down Beverly Blvd (c) 2011 Google

Fredric March returns home with Dana Andrews in the car.

The Best Years of Our Lives won seven Academy Awards, including Best Motion Picture, Best Director for William Wyler, and a Best Actor award for Fredric March. This film is currently available on DVD and it sounds like a blu-ray release is still TBA.