Movies in Monterey
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Films Shot in Monterey County

 

I Cover the Waterfront, 1933

Claudette Colbert, Ernest Torrence in his last movie and Ben Lyon; directed by James Cruze; United Artist; tough, even daring, drama about a reporter who uses a girl's friendship to explose her father's smuggling activities; the story is based on Max Miller's popular book of the same name; the film originated the phrase, "Not tonight, Josephine!" Monte"rey stood in for the San Diego waterfront, where the story is set; film crew was in Monterey for two months; in one filming sequence, Sal Colletto, "Beau Brummel of Fisherman's Wharf," was photographed at the wheel of his purse seiner, the Dante Alighieri, about a mile off Fisherman's Wharf.

In Love and War, 1958

Robert Wagner, Bradford Dilman, Jeffrey Hunter, Hope Lange, Sheree North and Dana Winter; 20th Century Fox; $2 million budget; drama about three young Marines' adventures in love and war; the story was based on Monterey author Anton Myrer's second novel, "The Big War;" filmed entirely on the Monterey Peninsula, including Fisherman's Wharf, the Ghost Tree on the 17 Mile Drive in Pebble Beach and the Beach and Tennis Club at Pebble Beach; Ted Balestreri, then a freshman at Monterey Peninsula College and now co-owner of the Sardine Factory on Cannery Row in Monterey and other restaurants, had a bit part, a speaking role in three scenes, as Hunter's younger brother on a fishing boat; local extras in the film included Brenda Buerger (daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Newton Buerger of Pebble Beach who was a stand in for Miss Lang), Tom Coble, Ken Greene, Gregorio Cueto and Jill Livingston (then the 4-month-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Livingstone of Carmel; Jill's twin sister might also have been in the film).

Incubus, 1966

William Shatner; an obscure film; dialogue spoken in Esperanto (an artificial language using word bases common to major European languages); shown at the San Francisco Film Festival and apparently never put into general release; a failed attempt to be an American-made "art film" and to look like an Ingmar Bergman movie ("The Seventh Seal" or "The Virgin Spring"); scenes filmed in Big Sur.

Intermezzo, 1939

Ingrid Bergman in her first American film and Leslie Howard; directed by David O. Selznick; landmark film (Hollywood's version of the Swedish original); emotional love story about a great violinist whose happy marriage becomes imperiled when he falls in love with his daughter's piano teacher; Oscar nominee for musical score; early scene in the movie filmed near the 15th hole at the Cypress Point golf course; a cousin of Mary Shaw of Monterey was a stand-in for Miss Bergman and was paid $5.

The Iron Mask, 1929

Douglas Fairbanks, Marguerite DeLa Motte, Dorothy Revier, Nigel de Brulier and Belle Bennett; directed by Allan Dwan; United Artists; from the Alexander Dumas novel, "The Man in the Iron Mask," a sequel to "The Three Musketeers;" classic swashbuckler about the aging heroes D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers battling to save the true prince of France, who has been kidnapped and imprisoned; Fairbanks' last great role; last big silent costume drama of the 1920s; has talking sequences, sound and musical score; filmed at Point Lobos.

Island of the Blue Dolphins, 1964

Celia Kaye, Larry Domasin and George Kennedy; directed by James B. Clark; Universal; drama about two orphaned children who grow up on a California Island, protected by wild dogs.

The Isle of Life, 1916

Roberta Wilson, Frank Whitson, Eileen Sedgwick and William Siener; directed by Burton George; Universal; scenes filmed at Carmel Mission, J.A. Murphy house in New Monterey, old Hotel Del Monte and its polo grounds and bridal paths, a street flanked by old adobes and Monterey harbor filled with fishing boats; about 100 local fishermen and their wives were extras in the action film, set in Sicily and taken from a novel of the same name by J. Francis Whitman.

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Our thanks to Joe Graziano of the Monterey County Herald for providing this information.

* - Indicates that Peninsula footage ended up on cutting room floor.

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