Who's Got the Action? (1962) - Film Locations

Dean Martin and Lana Turner headline this story about a man with a gambling addiction (Martin) and his wife (Turner) who does what she can to make sure her husband doesn't lose all of their money. The setup is quite a stretch. Turner has Martin's law partner (Eddie Albert) lead Martin to believe that Albert has found the best bookie in town, that bookie, being Martin's wife. The idea is if Martin loses then the money will stay in the household, but unfortunately, Martin goes on a winning streak, forcing Turner to sell their possessions to cover the winnings. Meanwhile, a real bookie in town (Walter Matthau ) is wondering who it is that is getting all the action? 

Despite the tagline claiming to be "the most riotous bedtime story ever!" Who's Got the Action? (1962), really isn't that riotous at all. Even at an hour and a half the movie feels long. Most of the gags just are not that funny and the plot struggles to unfold. I think a more appropriate tagline would be "a mildly amusing bedtime story,"because the film does have some merits.

My favorite part of Who's Got the Action? is seeing Matthau in one of his early film roles. He's the most fun to watch and steals every scene he is in. I also liked the 1960s set designs, particularly the interior of the apartment where Martin and Turner live.

The apartment building where Martin and Turner live is the Talmadge apartments located at 3278 Wilshire Boulevard. This building was built by Joseph M. Schenck in 1922 for his wife, the silent screen actress, Norma Talmadge. 

The Talmadge apartments as seen in the film.

The Talmadge building as it appears today.

The screenshot below shows Martin and Turner leaving the Talmadge apartments and driving down Wilshire Boulevard. They're in the red car, passing Immanuel Presbyterian Church.

Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 3300 Wilshire Blvd

Immanuel Presbyterian Church as it appears now.

Below is a side view of Immanuel Presbyterian Church looking across South Berendo Street from the Talmadge apartment building.

Martin about to enter the Talmadge building. Immanuel 

Presbyterian Church is in the background.

Side view of the church looking across S. Berendo St.

Each day Turner walks to the newsstand outside of the Thrifty drug store to read the paper and see the results of the horse races. The Thrifty drug store was located at 3333 Wilshire Boulevard, just a couple blocks down from the Talmadge apartment building. The Thrifty drug store is gone and now a modern office building, completed in 1983, stands in its place.

Turner visits the Thrifty Drug Store at

3333 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles

A glass and steel skyscraper now stands at

3333 Wilshire Boulevard.

Turner fainted when she saw the results of the races. Eddie Albert helps Turner back to her apartment. In the screenshot below we can see the Talmadage apartment building a couple blocks up in the background. The building in the foreground is a bank and that building is still being used as a bank today.

Eddie Albert helps Turner back to the Talmadge apartment.

Looking up Wilshire at the corner of S. Catalina Street.

A year later, in 1963, Dean Martin made another "bedtime story" comedy called Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? That film isn't a knee jerker either, but it is closer to the "riotous" tagline that this film claims. You can see some of the film locations from Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? here.

Who's Got the Action? is currently available as a Watch Instantly title on Netflix and will be released on DVD on March  27, 2012.

Bigger Than Life (1956) - Film Location

The first Nicholas Ray film I ever saw and I imagine is the case for many people, was Rebel Without a Cause, with James Dean and Natalie Wood. I was just a teenager who at the time was more interested in seeing James Dean. Even as a teen in the early 90s James Dean was still cool. But when I watched Rebel, it wasn't just Dean that sucked me in, it was the dramatic way the film was captured, such as the faraway camera shots and the striking camera angles, like the opening scene where the camera is looking up at James Dean lying on the ground, playing with a toy. It was the Nicholas Ray touch that made this teen drama so engaging.

Ray might not have been a Billy Wilder or a John Ford, but he had his own style that made him great and it was the auteurists who started the French New Wave that first recognized Ray's greatness. Appropriately, in college, when as a student I was expanding my knowledge of classic cinema, I discovered more of Ray's films and began to appreciate him as a director. The more I saw the more I liked Ray as a director. In A Lonely Place and On Dangerous Ground became fast favorites. 

This past August marked the centennial of Nicholas Ray and to celebrate, Tony Dayoub of the blog Cinema Viewfinder is hosting a Nicholas Ray blogathon, starting today and running through September 8, 2011.  To read all the entries, visit Cinema Viewfinder by clicking here.

This is the first blogathon I have chose to participate in. The subject of Ray was just too good to pass up. As my contribution, I'm sticking with the theme of this blog so I am celebrating Ray's centennial with a look at some of the filming locations for three of his classics: Bigger Than Life (1956),  In A Lonely Place (1950), and Rebel Without A Cause (1955).

In Ray's film, Bigger Than Life, James Mason plays a father and school teacher who becomes seriously ill. When it appears that Mason's illness is hopeless, Mason becomes dependent on a miracle drug to cure him. The only problem is the drug causes Mason to go mad and he begins to scare and hurt those around him.

There are not many external film locations in Bigger Than Life, but there is one scene where Mason and his family go to a church service. That church is the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, located on the NE corner of Sixth Street and Commonwealth Avenue in the Wilshire District. The church is the oldest continuous Protestant Church in the city.

First Congregational Church of Los Angeles

as seen in Bigger Than Life (1956)

First Congregational Church of Los Angeles present day.

(c) Google 2011

Bigger Than Life also stars Barbara Rush as Mason's husband and Walter Matthau as Mason's friend.

For more Nicholas Ray film locations check out my previous posts on:

 In A Lonely Place 

and Rebel Without a Cause.

Your thoughts?