Film locations around the World

Monument Valley

Stagecoach (1939) is a classic Western from film auteur John Ford. This film - his first sound Western - was a return to his most-acclaimed film genre after a thirteen year absence following Fox's Three Bad Men (1926) (and The Iron Horse (1924)). In the meantime, he had produced the superb, Oscar-winning drama about Irish republicanism, RKO's The Informer (1935).

This film debuted John Ford's favorite setting - the majestic Monument Valley of the Southwest - the first of seven films he made in the famed western valley, followed by My Darling Clementine (1946), Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Searchers (1956), Sergeant Rutledge (1960), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).

All of the outdoor photography was shot in New Zealand and as far as I know, all the interior sets were shot in New Zealand in LOTR. The only full set was the Riders of Rohan wooden fortress. Most everything else was partial sets and CGI. Jackson even called the actors back to New Zealand to film the additional scenes that are in the DVD extended versions.

The best shots of Monument Valley are in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" which Ted Turner restored more than a decade ago.

Of recent years and as Kubrick shot most of his films in England was London streets doubling as the streets of NYC in "Eyes Wide Shut." He also shot "Full Metal Jacket" on a set built on the rural outskirts of London with imported potted palms that were burned to look suitable singed up with torches. It was a bit obvious.

In "Dr. Zhivago," to cut costs David Lean filmed in Yugoslavia.

An interesting factoid is that Southern California's Vasquez Rocks were the setting for many of the old Westerns. The monolithic jagged rock formations were cinematically exciting.

I can think of others and there are sites that go into details of locations on many movies.

The exterior locations for the film "Only the Lonely" were filmed practically across the street from where I used to live (Roscoe and Clark in Chicago). Also, the exterior of the bar at the end of the street was used not only in that movie but also in "The Untouchables" and "The Natural" (was a Japanese bar when I lived there, now it's Tex-Mex).

Mount Rushmore in North by Northwest (although much of the imagery came from studio shots). Also the United Nations building in New York which was shot surreptitiously from a truck.

In "Touch of Evil," Venice, CA doubled for a Mexican border town. Some of the buildings in the famous opening tracking shot are no longer there. Welles had old recordings of latin music played inside each building which faded in and out as the camera moved by. Later the studio interjected the famous Henry Mancini score (his first motion picture score before "Peter Gunn") into those scenes. They were removed in the Director's Cut, which was accomplished from notes written by Mr. Welles as he had already passed away.

"The Goonies" and "Kindergarten Cop" were both filmed in Astoria, Oregon.

Goonies geeks make pilgrimages to the sites and I think now they might actually do a tour of some sort.

Paris for Charade and of course many more films. That just happened to be the one that popped into my so called mind.

The Crane estate in Ipswich, Mass was used for The Witches of Eastwick. If you remeber the film the was a long lawn rolling down a hill to a tent where they were dining. Many a time I strolled that hill at Crane's Beach.

Cuba Gooding is here is Spokane now shooting a movie

Rodney Dangerfield's "Back to School" was filmed at UW-Madison. Some mid-90's action movie with Julia Roberts (which ended up flopping) was filmed at the capitol and various WI locations.

A Michael Jordan car commercial was filmed at the gas station a few blocks away from our house in Pasadena but it must've been foreign 'cause we never saw it. (But we saw Michael!)

The Timberline lodge on Mt. Hood was used for the exterior shots in "The Shining".

Its a really small hotel, with terribly tiny lobbies and lounges.

Really made me apreciate good editing when I saw that movie.

In the early 90's, I lived close enough and high enough to Chicago's Hilton Towers to almost watch them right out of my window film several scenes of "The Fugitive" with Harrison Ford, including the big fight scene on the roof in the end.

During the filming in Chicago of "Midnight Run" with Robert De Niro, I worked across the street from a parking lot used in the movie and several friends encouraged me to hike up my skirt and sashay around the area on the lookout for Mr. De Niro.

The Tatooine parts of Star Wars (Lucas, 1977) were filmed in Tunesia, if I remember correctly there is a place there called Tataouine. The set has now become a tourist attraction. The same goes for the set of the film Pirates (Polansky. 1986) on Malta.

For the Swedish children's film Ronja Rövardotter (Ronia the Robber's Daughter, Danielsson, 1984) the producers searched all over (West) Sweden for the most beautiful and fairy tale like locations. Most of the shooting was done in the scenic province of Dalsland.

Much of the outdoor filming for Populärmusik från Vittula (Bagher, 2004) was shot at Pajala (about 300 km north from where I live).

The final Indiana Jones movie is shot in its exteriors at the Rose City in Jordan. This is an ancient Roman site carved out of the facade of the surrounding rose-colored cliffs. Tourist business increased considerably after the film's release.

Paivaa Paaskynen:

I noticed recently that Finland was named as the best environmental country in the world. My ex-wife was Finnish. We used to visit her mother in Risteys as often as finances would allow. I live in Hull, Massachusetts USA not far from Boston. Thanks for the post.

Perhaps the best use of location was in "The Third Man," which was filmed extensively (although not exclusively) in Vienna. A nice, shot-by-shot guide to the locations in the film can be found here.

The Ritz Hotel at Central Park, New York, has been used in many movies- both for its striking and sumptious interior and in external shots.

I read recently that it is to be closed for reconstruction work, and will be a hotel for not much longer.

It's appeared in several Woody Allen films.

The Del Coronado Hotel in San Diego was the site for "Some Like It Hot." I remember the first time we saw the film, we just had to take a trip down there for lunch. Fascinating.

I remember the facade of the same hotel being used in other films, one I believe was a Woody Allen where it was suppose to be where a film festival was being held outside of NYC.

Cornwall was the setting for `Poldark'