Movies On Location
Also avaliable as a PDF that can be printed. MontereyMovieLocations.pdf
Monterey Movie Magic
The crashing waves, gnarled cypress and white-sand beaches that have lured visitors to the Monterey Peninsula for more than a century have also beckoned other kinds of sight-seekers. Directors and cinematographers have been drawn to the spot since 1897, when a cameraman working for Thomas Edison shot the pounding Monterey surf and filmed carriages arriving at the posh Hotel Del Monte. Filmmakers from Cecil B. DeMille to Alfred Hitchcock have flocked here ever since, seeking the perfect backdrops for their shots.
Scenes in more than 190 films are believed to have been shot in Monterey County, from the Edison Manufacturing Company’s early 20-second travelogues to favorites such as Rebecca, National Velvet, Play Misty for Me, and Star Trek IV. At almost any scenic spot, whether it’s The Lone Cypress™, Fisherman’s Wharf, Garrapata Beach, or the farm fields of the Salinas Valley, you’ll walk in the footsteps of the stars.
Stroll down Cannery Row and you’ll trail Marilyn Monroe and Barbara Stanwyck in Clash by Night. Tour Carmel’s Tor House and you’ll visit Clint Eastwood’s home in The Eiger Sanction. Motor along the 17-Mile Drive and you’ll follow the same scenic road as Doris Day in Julie, Troy Donahue in My Blood Runs Cold, and Rosalind Russell in Five Finger Exercise. Every corner of Monterey County, from Salinas and Carmel Valley to the former Fort Ord and the wilds of Big Sur, has had its turn on the silver screen and its brush with the stars. Parts of nearly 40 movies have been filmed at Point Lobos alone.
From 1916 to the 1950s, Point Lobos and other local spots bluffed their way through films, doubling for far-off or historical locales. Monterey County’s scenery stood in for Sherwood Forest in The Adventures of Robin Hood, the coast of Cornwall in Rebecca, the Island of Elba in Desirée, coastal Maine in A Summer Place, Russia in Anna Karenina, the beaches of Normandy in Breakthrough, and a Norwegian fishing village in Edge of Darkness. In what was billed the “first million-dollar silent film,” Foolish Wives, Point Lobos was a Monte Carlo look-alike. Monterey County locations also have played the part of Sicily, Scotland, New England, New Zealand, and Palestine at the movie theater.
Unlike those distant locales, Monterey County was easy to reach by rail, plane, or private railroad car from Los Angeles. And, the stars relished a few nights’ stay at the old Hotel San Carlos, the Casa Munras, the Del Monte Lodge (now The Lodge at Pebble Beach), or the Hotel Del Monte (now the Naval Postgraduate School). What the actors occasionally didn’t relish was the temperature and turbulence of the local waters; stars from Greer Garson to Jack Nicholson have all been tumbled by the coast’s picturesque but bone-numbing seas.
As moviegoers became more sophisticated and welltraveled, directors allowed the county’s scenic spots to play themselves, without disguise. But the temptation to use sleight of hand still draws filmmakers to the area. In recent years, local destinations have doubled for Marin County’s Stinson Beach in Basic Instinct, Sausalito in Star Trek IV, Louisiana swampland in The Muppet Movie, and the 19th century Baltic coast in budget-movie-king Roger Corman’s The Terror.
Such motion pictures are part of a century-old tradition that promises to thrive in the new millennium. Waves will continue to pound the rocks at Point Pinos and Point Lobos. Fog will continue to drift through the branches of the brooding cypress. Golden hills will continue to shelter rural valleys. And a new generation of filmmakers will make movie magic, lured by the beauty and scenic diversity that are Monterey County’s hallmarks.
Star Destinations
The Hog’s Breath Inn in Carmel has long been a must-see stop for avid Clint Eastwood fans. But there are countless other spots in Monterey County where you can trace the tracks of the stars or relive the movie-making past, and enjoy some stellar dining, shopping, or sightseeing in the bargain.
Big Sur and the Coast The rocky Pacific shoreline and rugged hills of the Big Sur coast beckoned filmmakers even before Highway One provided an easy inroad to this wild territory. Explore Garrapata, Andrew Molera, and Pfeiffer Big Sur State Parks, isolated Pfeiffer Beach, and other Big Sur sites for glimpses of the terrain that enriched Suspicion, Deep Valley, One-Eyed Jacks, Doctor Dolittle, The Terror, and Zandy’s Bride. Or, take in the hawk’s-eye view and tackle an Ambrosia Burger at Big Sur’s Nepenthe, on the spot where Henry Miller once wrote, Orson Wells and Rita Hayworth once dreamed, and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor once played out a scene for The Sandpiper.
Cannery Row Thrust into the literary spotlight by John Steinbeck, Cannery Row today will bring you face to face with souvenir shops and succulent seafood rather than cannery workers and immense catches of sardines. Films such as Clash by Night in the 1940s revealed the Row’s gritty working side; more recent pictures such as Play Misty for Me and Star Trek IV have celebrated its latter-day attractions, including the Sardine Factory restaurant and the famed Monterey Bay Aquarium. While at the Aquarium, don’t miss the delicate sea nettle jellies that ballooned into horrors of the deep in Sphere.
Carmel-by-the-Sea/Carmel Valley Though the white-sand beach at the end of Ocean Avenue is world famous, Carmel’s quaint architecture has won most of the casting calls. Movies such as Julie, Five Finger Exercise, The Lady Says No, Seems Like Old Times, Thumb Tripping, and Play Misty For Me have all relied on Carmel’s shop-lined Ocean Avenue and other byways for much of their street appeal, with the old Mediterranean Market a frequent star. In the summertime, load up on picnic supplies and blankets, then head to the historic Outdoor Forest Theatre for screenings of some of Hollywood’s classic work.
Fisherman’s Wharf The atmospheric potential of Monterey’s wharves and fishing fleet hooked moviemakers as early as 1916, when the harbor stood in for Sicily in The Isle of Life. In subsequent films—as on the wharves today—eating the bay’s bounty was as popular a pastime as catching it. Barbara Stanwyck, Ginger Rogers, Troy Donahue, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Clint Eastwood all have filmed scenes at the waterfront’s restaurants and cafes, from the long-gone Cerrito’s and the Windjammer (now the Sandbar & Grill) to the former Angelo’s (now the Wharfside).
Fort Ord Home to California State University Monterey Bay, this former Army Base once enrolled film crews that put its barracks and chaparral covered dunes to work. The authentic Army backdrop, still much in evidence, was a key element in films such as The Girl He Left Behind with Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood, and Soldier in the Rain, which starred Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen in an odd tragi-comic pairing. The Fort’s miles of public hiking trails will put you in territory where local National Guard tanks once masqueraded as German Tiger tanks in Breakthrough.
Monterey The historic heart of the county, Monterey dates to the late 1700s and has long attracted moviemakers and visitors with its old adobes, maritime backdrops and hospitality. In addition to Fisherman’s Wharf and other historic sites, tour Colton Hall for a close-up look at the police station where Doris Day sought help in Julie and the school where Sandra Dee pined for Troy Donahue in A Summer Place. The building’s real-life role as home to the state’s first constitutional convention was memorialized in the western California, starring Barbara Stanwyck; the film premiered at downtown Monterey’s grand State Theatre.
Pebble Beach Once linked to Monterey’s elegant Del Monte Hotel by a winding track known as the 17-Mile Drive, Pebble Beach’s native pine forest, gracious Lodge, golf courses, mansions, rocky coast, and windswept cypresses were—and are—a filmmaker’s heaven. From the silent era to today, more than 40 films have taken advantage of the sights, including Our Dancing Daughters (Joan Crawford’s 1928 breakthrough role) and the original version of The Parent Trap.
Point Lobos State Reserve The sublime meeting of land and sea known as Point Lobos has lent its scenic glories to nearly 40 films, including Evangeline, for which an entire village was built on site—then intentionally burned—in 1929. Follow trails to locations where nature rather than movie-making is now the grandest show, including sheltered China Cove, noisy Sea Lion Point, and Cypress Grove, one of only two naturally growing Monterey cypress stands in the world.
Salinas and the Salinas Valley It is fitting that Salinas hosted movie crews during the filming of the award-winning East of Eden in 1954; the town and surrounding farmland played a major role in Steinbeck’s 1952 novel. This burgeoning town was John Steinbeck’s birthplace. Its National Steinbeck Center honors its best-known literary son and spotlights the writings and the movies that came from them. Plan for lunch at the Center’s cafe or at the nearby Steinbeck House, Steinbeck’s boyhood home. See the classic facade of historic Fox Theatre or drive through the long valley that shaped so much of Steinbeck’s work.
Pacific Grove Walk and shop the hometown streets of Pacific Grove, where Tom Hanks found canine companionship in Turner and Hooch, and the movie Junior filmed a driving scene.
And More... Dine on succulent fried artichokes in Castroville, the Artichoke Capital of the World in North County. The 22-year-old starlet Marilyn Monroe was crowned Artichoke Queen in 1948. Explore South Monterey County, and other local destinations. All will bring Monterey County’s star connections and motion picture heritage into close-up focus.
Also avaliable as a PDF that can be printed. MontereyMovieLocations.pdf