Match the Movie with the House

November 9, 2006 11:28 PM

Help! What movie was filmed in this house pictured in the latest issue of The Atlantic?

On page 136 of the November 2006 issue of The Atlantic there's a photo of a famous angular house with large floor-to-ceiling picture windows that looks down onto L.A. The caption lists it as a photo of Case Study House No. 22, by Julius Shulman. I'm able to recall a movie was filmed there, something where the star was shot but ducked the bullet and rolled down the hill.

Or I could just be blathering. Could someone please put me out of my misery?

posted by awenner to society & culture (17 comments total)

Here's the picture.
posted by essexjan at 11:32 PM on November 9, 2006

Charlies Angels?
posted by Papa Mango at 11:50 PM on November 9, 2006

Good luck with that -- the house, also known as the Stahl House, has been continually rented out by its owners as a shooting location for more than 40 years.
posted by jjg at 11:52 PM on November 9, 2006

Here's a start:

"They made a movie here in 1962 called 'Smog,' " says Carlotta Stahl. "But when they came up, it was a clear day, so they had to spray gunk on the windows to make it look like you were looking out at smog." The 2,300-square-foot house has more recently appeared in "Nurse Betty," "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," "Galaxy Quest" and "The Marrying Man."
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:54 PM on November 9, 2006

I don't think my answers are correct but the building is similar to ones, in my poor memory, used in North By Northwest and The Limey... though your glass/roll down hill thing makes me think of They Live.
posted by dobbs at 12:00 AM on November 10, 2006

Is it possible you were thinking of another vertiginously cantilevered glassy classic, Richard Neutra's Lovell House (1929)? It has been seen in, among other films, L.A. Confidential.
posted by rob511 at 12:09 AM on November 10, 2006

I think now it might have indeed been Charlie's Angels. Normally I'm good at this sort of thing, but that picture just raised all these associations I couldn't place. Thanks MeFites.
posted by awenner at 12:11 AM on November 10, 2006

Charlie's Angels for sure. Drew Barrymore's character gets shot at, dodges the bullet in slowmo, then crashes through the window.
posted by kosher_jenny at 12:59 AM on November 10, 2006

Three episodes of Columbo!
posted by mushroom_tattoo at 1:46 AM on November 10, 2006

On seeing the picture, my initial thought was Brian de Palmer's Body Double, but it turns out that was actually somewhere else altogether. Your description also sounds a bit like a scene in Get Shorty where the guy crashes off the balcony - can't readily find a location for that one though.
posted by dogsbody at 4:00 AM on November 10, 2006

I think it was also the dinner-party scene in Mulholland Drive?
posted by loiseau at 6:33 AM on November 10, 2006

My first thought was also Mulholland Drive, you beat me to it loiseau!
posted by wuzandfuzz at 8:45 AM on November 10, 2006

When I first saw the picture in the Atlantic I though of Mulholland Drive and The Limey. Can't confirm either.
posted by msbrauer at 9:13 AM on November 10, 2006

a bazillion movies, commercials, photographers have shot there. it even showed up in 'heat', although it's not obvious. imdb.com could probably help you, perhaps laobserved.com as well. there is an architectual or historical society that does tours every now and then around the building, though you cannot go inside.
posted by krautland at 10:03 AM on November 10, 2006

here is the google map to the stahl house

you could search imdb.com's filming locations for 1636 Woods Dr, Los Angeles, CA

http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Case_Study_House_22.html

http://www.usc.edu/dept/architecture/slide/koenig/008/008.html
posted by krautland at 10:11 AM on November 10, 2006

ah, here we go: where the truth lies (2005)

Titles with locations including
Stahl House aka Case Study House #22 - 1636 Woods Drive, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
posted by krautland at 10:14 AM on November 10, 2006

Man, in my dreams I live in that house, though I think I'd get a little freaked out by just...hanging out in space.
posted by GaelFC at 10:51 AM on November 10, 2006