Seeking location of scenes in IAMMMMW. (Filmed in CA.)
Richard Daventry
Mad World".
I've already identified scenes at: Highway 74 near Palm Springs, California
Incline near Malibu, Junction of Corral Canyon Rd and Solstice Canyon Rd off
Pacific Coast Highway.
I'm particularly interested in fixing the spot where the two Yellow Cabs,
(as they chase Spencer Tracy near the end of the film), turn off PCH down
towards the marina, the place where you see old Bustor Keaton put in a cameo
appearance. Well, in the film the cabs turn of PCH to the marina, but
whether that turn off leads to the marina is another thing. You clearly see
the road sign identifying PCH, but you just cannot see the road sign for the
off road. I think the turn off and Marina is near Malibu.
Anyhow, why not sit through that funny movie, enjoy yourself, and at the
same time help me identify the scene locations.:c)
Cheers.
Richard Daventry
> I've already identified scenes at: ...... California
> Incline near Malibu, ........
Actually that's near Santa Monica.
Rich Piehl
> <snip>
>
> Anyhow, why not sit through that funny movie, enjoy yourself, and at the
> same time help me identify the scene locations.:c)
>
> Cheers.
That's been one of my favorite movies since the first time I saw it about 35
years ago.
Great stuff!! Wonderful cast!
Take care,
Rich
Mark F
part near the end with the condemned building where the firetruck
ladder is going berserk was filmed in Long Beach. I remember it
also had the old pontoon bridge (with the hump in the middle) to
Terminal Island that was replaced by the Gerald Desmond Bridge in
1967. Wasn't there a view of a US 101 sign in the Santa Monica
part?
Richard Daventry
"Rich Piehl" <rpi...@NOSPAMcharter.net> wrote in message
news:3C4626FE...@NOSPAMcharter.net...
I think it very amusing. I particularly enjoy the first 30 minutes or so. I
crack-up when Milton Berle keeps repeating himself saying "The way he went
sailing right out there".
Richard Daventry
"Mark F" <mk...@remove2reply.home.com> wrote in message
news:40nc4uo10582lf910...@4ax.com...
For years the version you would see on TV was a shortened version of the
original. In 1992-ish the movie was sort of restored and available the
full length (abt 3 hours). So you see more scenes in this version,
especially the chase scenes near the end.
The final scene is a composition of special effects, but I think you could
be right, that that part of that final scene was shot in Long Beach. I
think some of the chase scenes might have been shot in LB.
There's a great view of PCH or US101 northbound and southbound from a spot
at the top of California Incline, near Santa Monica, as it was in 1962.
Also
scenes at the bottom of California Incline.
In the restored version you can definitely spot the road marker for HWY 74.
The W was shot at Portugeuse Point. The airport scene was shot I think at
Sonomo County Airport.
What it needs is someone to see the movie who knows the area around Malibu,
Long Beach, Santa Monica. Like I say, there are still some unidentified
scenes which I'm sure could be identified by someone familiar with the area.
Anyone know if there is a marina near Malibu?
Richard Daventry
"Richard Daventry" <newsgp...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:hzx18.32953$WQ1.5...@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com...
> What it needs is someone to see the movie who knows the area around
Malibu,
> Long Beach, Santa Monica. Like I say, there are still some unidentified
> scenes which I'm sure could be identified by someone familiar with the
area.
> Anyone know if there is a marina near Malibu?
There are some general details on IMDB. I'm trying to get exact spots.
Ken Stevenson
"Richard Daventry" <newsgp...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:hzx18.32953$WQ1.5...@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com...
>
>
74.
> The W was shot at Portugeuse Point. The airport scene was shot I think at
> Sonomo County Airport.
>
first came out at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. My recollection of the
locales is the same, that the drive up off of PCH was in Santa Monica, and
the final scenes were in Long Beach. But if I remember right, the airport
scene was in Thousand Oaks, which at that time was a small rural town
instead of the big suburb it is today. Doesn't the man in the airport tower
refer to it as "Rancho Conejo?" This was the name of the airport in
Thousand Oaks. My current map of Thousand Oaks doesn't show the airport
being there anymore, but my undated late-1960's vintage ACSC Ventura County
map shows it, located off of what is still called Rancho Conejo Blvd. (The
Thousand Oaks area is called the Conejo (rabbit) Valley).
Mark F
following: "Our thanks and apologies to the following California
communities: Agoura, Kernville, Long Beach, Malibu, Oxnard, Palm
Desert, Palm Springs, Palo Verde Estates, San Pedro, Santa Ana,
Santa Barbara, Twentynine Palms, Universal City, Yucca Valley".
I'll try to capture some stills and put them up on a temporary
website. I've put three up here:
http://members-http-7.rwc1.sfba.home.net/mkpl4/temp/
I think the first one is 7 Level Hill on CA 74 in Palm Desert.
The second looks like Dillon Road near CA 62 where all the
windmills are now (note the white center stripe). Anyone know
where the tunnel on the third one is at?
Mark F
http://members.home.net/mkpl4/temp/
It looks like it redirected to the other site, which I had copied
and pasted into my post. Anyway, my email and web addresses
(except the http://roadmap.cahighways.org one) are going to
change in the coming month with the transition from the bankrupt
@home ISP to Cox.
-Mark F
Richard Daventry
Great that you got the DVD. I have the restored version along with the one
hour documentary about the making of the film on VHS. (I have no DVD). It
seems the DVD release gives a bit more information. As I say, by and by
I'm tring to identify the exact spots of these outdoor scenes and I think
it's possible with quite a few of them. I noticed someone called, "Babe" on
the IMDB movie datadase has sussed out the location of that hardware store
and some of the streets that appear near the end of the film. I left a
message for this person, but he/she has to log into IMDB to see it. That
may not happen for a while, methinks.
"Mark F" <mk...@remove2reply.home.com> wrote in message
news:2nei4usjrkrvn0gj2...@4ax.com...
> I just got the DVD of this. In the opening credits there is the
> following: "Our thanks and apologies to the following California
> communities:> Agoura, Kernville, Long Beach, Malibu, Oxnard, Palm
> Desert, Palm Springs, Palo Verde Estates, San Pedro, Santa Ana,
> Santa Barbara, Twentynine Palms, Universal City, Yucca Valley".
Yes, chase scenes in Long Beach, early scenes shot on HWY 74 near Palm
Springs, the big W located on Palo Verde Estates and that's allmost I know.
> I'll try to capture some stills and put them up on a temporary
> website. I've put three up here:
> http://members-http-7.rwc1.sfba.home.net/mkpl4/temp/
Excellent. By and by, if people get to see those scenes someone somewhere
will probably chime in and say he/she knows exactly where that scene is. If
I had a digital camera I would post to whoever might be piqued by the
attempt to find the exact locations, or set up a website myself, but alas, I
don't have a digital camera, or a DVD.
>
> I think the first one is 7 Level Hill on CA 74 in Palm Desert.
http://members.home.net/mkpl4/temp/mmmmw1.jpg
Yes, I think Seven Level Hill just outside Palm springs.
Some more pictures of the area:
http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/LandArch/scenic_highways/p_rte74.htm
http://www.pashnit.com/roads/cal/Highway74.htm
Map:
http://www.pashnit.com/maps/Highway74map.htm
> The second looks like Dillon Road near CA 62 where all the
> windmills are now (note the white center stripe).
http://members.home.net/mkpl4/temp/mmmmw2.jpg
Ah, the famous bike scene with Lennie Pike (Jonathan Winters).
>Anyone know
> where the tunnel on the third one is at?
http://members.home.net/mkpl4/temp/mmmmw3.jpg
Oh yea, just before J. Algernon Hawthorne (Terry Thomas) & J. Russell Finch
(Militon Berle) crash.
Mark, thanks for engaging in this identification task. It's very helpful.
I'm going to go through the film bit by bit and record chronologically the
outdoor scene locations.
Rich.
Richard Daventry
> The second looks like Dillon Road near CA 62 where all the
> windmills are now (note the white center stripe).
The road:
http://members.home.net/mkpl4/temp/mmmmw2.jpg
I'm not a road geek :c) just somewhat curios about roads. What can a road
expert say about that road? I mean construction, type, markings, purpose,
history, dates. Anything at all. What can you tease out of that picture
road related or even, even non road related?
Is the shot aiming east? What's the vegitation?
Mark F
My guess is this is looking west on Dillon Road near Desert Hot
Springs, with SanJacinto in the background. As the stripe is
long at that point, it must be filmed at an intersection
(although it looks like it is going through a wash). I need to
watch to whole scene again to see if there are better clues. I
haven't had time yet to go through the whole movie.
Robert Cruickshank
Shot's aiming east, I think, because the shadow of the man and the bike
stretch to the left. This would mean the sun is on the right hand of the
shot. Since CA is above the equator the sun would be in the north,
causing a shadow to point south. Therefore the right hand of the shot is
south, the left is north...and that means we're facing east.
Vegetation looks like typical lower Mojave desert scrub brush. Note the
distinctive piles of white sand; this seems to me to be more common of
the Coachella Valley region than the upper Mojave (nearer Barstow).
--
Robert I. Cruickshank
roadgeek, historian, progressive
Richard Daventry
"Robert Cruickshank" <ri...@u.washington.edu> wrote in message
news:3C49B7DA...@u.washington.edu...
> Richard Daventry wrote:
> >
> > "Mark F" <mk...@remove2reply.home.com> wrote in message
> > news:2nei4usjrkrvn0gj2...@4ax.com...
> >
> > > The second looks like Dillon Road near CA 62 where all the
> > > windmills are now (note the white center stripe).
> >
> > The road:
> >
> > http://members.home.net/mkpl4/temp/mmmmw2.jpg
> >
> > I'm not a road geek :c) just somewhat curios about roads. What can a
road
> > expert say about that road? I mean construction, type, markings,
purpose,
> > history, dates. Anything at all. What can you tease out of that
picture
> > road related or even, even non road related?
> >
> > Is the shot aiming east? What's the vegitation?
>
> Shot's aiming east, I think, because the shadow of the man and the bike
> stretch to the left. This would mean the sun is on the right hand of the
> shot. Since CA is above the equator the sun would be in the north,
> causing a shadow to point south. Therefore the right hand of the shot is
> south, the left is north...and that means we're facing east.
I agree the shot is pointing east. When you say, "Since CA is above the
equator the sun would be in the north, causing a shadow to point south".
Have you got north and south reversed? Sun is in the south, shadow points
north.
Richard Daventry
> My guess is this is looking west on Dillon Road near Desert Hot
> Springs, with SanJacinto in the background. As the stripe is
> long at that point, it must be filmed at an intersection
> (although it looks like it is going through a wash). I need to
> watch to whole scene again to see if there are better clues. I
> haven't had time yet to go through the whole movie.
I think were are looking east, but actually it's hard to tell which way the
shadow is pointing. On first perusal I thought left. Since CA is above the
tropic of cancer the sun is always in a southernly direction, even in
mid-summer. Interesting point about length of stripe, I would never have
seen that. What class of road is this?
That windmill place takes visitors. I cheekily emailed them to see if
anyone there can recognise that spot. I mentioned Dillon Road.
Robert Cruickshank
Yeah, you're right, I thought I fixed that little bit of confusion
before I posted it. Ah well.
Mark F
-some of the California Incline (101 sign on the last scene)
-Ocean Blvd in Long Beach (note the Pike amusement park in the
background, and the view on Ocean near Shoreline before the tall
circular apartments were built)
-the old pontoon bridge in Long Beach
-PCH near Malibu signed at US 101
-PCH at Corral Cyn with an old 76 station
-an unidentified expressway
-some unidentified intersections:
-one near the above expressway (at least the billboard
was the same)
-one with some hard to read direction signs
-one near an overpass that is at the 23300 W. block, looks
like an L.A. city street sign
at http://members.home.net/mkpl4/temp/
-Mark F
Richard Daventry
Pardon me, but you have done a bl**dy GOOD JOB of these pictures. Thanks a
bunch. I notice that the DVD movie was taken from a 35mm film release not
the original 70mm. Anyhow, I've noticed that on my "pan and scan" version
sometimes you can get to see things you do not see in that widecreen
versions. I think the pan and scan must have ben done with the 70mm
superwide original.
For instance
http://members.home.net/mkpl4/temp/gasstation.jpg
Sign says, "99 MILES OF FREEWAY AHEAD"
http://members.home.net/mkpl4/temp/fwy-stsign.jpg
That street sign says, "??? AVE SAN ??? 23300W
I'm sure this sign can be cracked with some analysis/image doctoring:
http://members.home.net/mkpl4/temp/turnoff-sign.bmp
???CELL (RD LN?) Could that be PURCELL or something? The characters in
the break-down truck are clearly not the actors!! :c)
Mark F
"It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World" (1962). The files with
"(unident)" in their file names haven't had their location
identified. I think the chase scenes are in Long Beach. From
the scenes, it looks like even signalized intersections had stop
signs at the time.
http://members.home.net/mkpl4/temp/thumb.htm
Ken Stevenson
the first time in many years. I think I can definitely identify one of your
unidentified locations, and maybe some others.
fwy-stsign.jpg. The street sign you see the bottom of is definitely an
old-style Los Angeles city streetsign. The address (23300 W.) could only be
at the west end of the San Fernando Valley, by Calabasas. The picture looks
north at the Valley Circle Blvd. overcrossing of the Ventura Fwy (101).
Valley Circle becomes Mulholland Drive south of this intersection. The low
buildings you see in the movie just before the scene in the picture are the
Motion Picture Hospital, a home for retired movie people, on Mulholland.
I have a strong hunch about turnaround.jpg and turnaround-sign.bmp. I think
they are taken looking east on Mulholland Drive at Las Virgenes/Malibu
Canyon Rd. (county N1). When I lived in LA, I drove down this road many
times, and it looks familiar. The yellow box is an LA County Fire Dept.
fire phone. Although it's about impossible to read, I think the white
direction sign reads as follows: the top line is "U.S. 101" to the left,
the next line could be either "TAPIA PARK 2" or "MONTE NIDO 2" (both of
them are about that distance from this intersection), and the bottom line is
"U.S. 101 ALT" to the right.
From the scenery, I'd guess that much of this part of the movie was shot in
this area (Santa Monica Mountains, between 101 and (then) Alternate 101).
Just a guess, but I'd bet that gasstation.jpg was shot along a non-freeway
section of 101 (based on the sign, just before the start of the Ventura
Freeway). In the 60's, much of 101 was still a 4-lane divided highway. The
street-name signs look like LA County signs, seen more clearly in other
pictures (like Corral Canyon at PCH). Expwy.jpg and expwy2.jpg could also
be 101.
Turnoff-sign.bmp looks like it ends in "ell" and might be Cornell Rd. in
Agoura.
I'd guess that some of the unindentified city streets are also in Long
Beach. Cormier Chevrolet was in Long Beach, and I think they're still in
business, but in a different location.
Did you notice, in chase2.jpg, how all the traffic is going in one direction
on this obviously 2-way, 6-lane street? I didn't pick up on this while
watching the movie, but it's obvious in your picture.
"Mark F" <mk...@remove2reply.home.com> wrote in message
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