1997’s “LA Confidential,” an old-Hollywood murder mystery starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, and Kim Basinger, exposes the seedy underbelly of scandal, police corruption, and tabloid journalism, and won two Academy Awards. Living up to its name, the film was shot almost entirely in Los Angeles and Hollywood, and at some legendary Hollywood landmarks.
For starters, the film opens with a voiceover by Danny DeVito’s character, who writes a Hollywood tattler called “Hush Hush”. The exterior of DeVito’s office is actually Hollywood’s famed Crossroads of the World, at 6671 Sunset Boulevard near Las Palmas. (This location was also used for Demi Moore’s office in “Indecent Proposal.”)
The shopping mall, built in the 1930s, evokes the look of an ocean liner and is a fun, kitschy place to visit in L.A. (not to mention a great site for photos). Nearby is the Hollywood Center Motel, where a dead body is found in room 203.
Kevin Spacey’s quasi-crooked cop Vincennes busts a young couple for marijuana possession at a bungalow at 1714 Gramercy Place, just off Hollywood Boulevard. DeVito instructed him to pose with the potheads in front of a Hollywood Boulevard movie premiere.
Down the street is the Frolic Room, at 6245 Hollywood Boulevard, is where Spacey’s Vincennes stops in for a drink in the film. The Pantages Theater at 6233 Hollywood Boulevard is also seen in the film. Boardner’s, nearby at 1652 North Cherokee Boulevard, a glamorous Hollywood staple since the 40s, was used as the bar where Captain Smith gave Russell Crowe’s Officer White his badge and gun back. (This legendary establishment has also been used in “Hollywood Homicide,” “Ed Wood,” and “Leaving Las Vegas.”)
The Formosa Café at 7156 Santa Monica Boulevard is another eatery full of Hollywood history. Located right across the way from the old Warner Hollywood/Goldwyn Studios, the café has been used in several films (including “The Majestic” and cult classic “Swingers”), but has also been frequented by a bevy of Hollywood stars (such as James Dean, Frank Sinatra, and Marilyn Monroe) who found its studioside location a convenient lunch getaway. In “L.A. Confidential,” the Formosa is where the detective notices the Lana Turner lookalike hooker.
The Formosa.
Up in Los Feliz you can find The Lovell House, the streamlined abode of the film’s pimp that Crowe’s Officer White visits following the mass murder. The private residence is located at 4616 Dundee Drive.
If you head downtown, you’ll come across the Los Angeles City Hall at 200 North Spring Street, out of which the police force operates in the film. City Hall has been used in countless other productions, including the 1950s “Adventures of Superman” series, TV’s “Alias” and “Beverly Hills, 90210”; and films such as “All The President’s Men,” “The Black Dahlia,” “Dragnet,” “Hollywoodland,” and “Nancy Drew.”
Fans of the film will remember Crowe’s Officer White dangling the DA out of a window in the Pacific Electric Building at 610 South Main Street. Across the way is J&J Sandwich Shoppe at 119 East 6th Street, which stood in for the Nite Owl Café, the site of the film’s mass murder.
Now that you know the “Confidential” locations of “L.A.” you can do your own sleuthing around the city, noir-style. But you might want to make sure to avoid those back alleys when the sun goes down, lest you end up being investigated by Vincennes, White, and Exley.
- Christina LeBlanc, Executive Editor
