The Big Sleep location?

[Ed Bass]

Hi Gang,
I did some research on this a few years back and never found a definitive answer. Now it's piqued my curiosity again. The home of A.G. Geiger in The Big Sleep listed as being on Laverne Terrace in the Hollywood Hills; I'd assumed it was filmed on one of the Warner back lots but now I'm not so certain. Someone back then had pointed out that the area was too hilly for a Warner back lot and, while we were all convinced there was no real Laverne Terrace in Hollywood, some felt the street and house could have been filmed at an actual location. The IMDB only lists back lot locations, however almost 70 years have passed and these lists are somewhat sketchy at best.
With the broad scope of knowledge here, I'm wondering if anyone has some keen input on this subject?

 

[Seb Lucas]

Last saw this 25 years ago but the photos and picket fence look like a set with an artificial backdrop.

 

[Feraud]

It appears to be a set.

 

[MikeKardec]

I think it's a set too. I'm betting that everything beyond the road side brush is a painted cyclorama. The lighting feels like overhead grid lighting rather than the lights on stands they'd have used on location. Location lighting might have been harsher too because they might not have been able to give up the light/power to use a lot of diffusion. On the back lot, or indoors (I'm thinking this was in a stage) they'd have power to burn.

WB was pretty flat. As a kid I visited there many times and played a lot on the nearby Columbia Ranch. The mountains in the distance were always a dead giveaway.

This is sort of a generic Hollywood Hills location ... it doesn't feel like they are trying to make it look like an exact part of town. Possibly the cyc had been created for something else. It's mostly West Hollywood and some little bits of Hollywood where you get the commercial buildings that close under the hillside streets. I assume that Geiger would live in West Hollywood, it was always the Bohemian, slightly outlaw, neighborhood. Actually, it was LA County and out law because it was a bit of a law enforcement and civic responsibility vacuum.

I wish I could see a high def copy of it, it would be fun to see how good a job they really did.

 

[Ed Bass]

Good info Mike, thanks.

 

[Fading Fast]

Good info Mike, thanks.

+1, I'm impressed (and learned a lot).

 

[Stanley Doble]

What about the Sternwood mansion? Was that an actual place?

 

[Ed Bass]

What about the Sternwood mansion? Was that an actual place?

I believe Sternwood was a set as well but Chandler's image of it was heavily influenced by Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills which has it's own sordid history. Read up on the Doheny murder/suicide for more info. Chandler alluded to the cover up in his book The High Window. However he changed the names and called it the "Cassidy case" in that book. But if you read his excerpt, it is pretty much exactly what happened in the real life Doheny murder/suicide case, which no one wanted to talk about. Even heavy weight Buron Fitts couldn't touch it.
I've visited Greysone and have to say, it is one of the most impressive mansions in the nation. If you ever get the chance, don't miss it.

 

[MikeKardec]

Greystone is really something. I was up there a few times when the American Film Institute was there.

There used to be Raymond Chandler tours around Hollywood, back when the 1930s was going through it's revival in the 1970s and '80s. I grew up a few blocks from Ciro's nightclub (Guns at Ciro's) and my grand dad owned the Peter Pan Woodland Club at Big Bear Lake ... which I'm pretty sure was the "club" in The Lady in the Lake.

For a good example of period lighting on real locations take a look at Touch of Evil or The Lady From Shanghai. You don't see that flat lighting extend all the way into the background like in The Big Sleep. At some point you tend to see bits of it wash out into brightness or see a full black. Didn't the Geiger house also appear in the night and rain also? If my memory is right about that, that may be why they built it indoors to control all the elements.

I was very taken by Chandler in those days. I made a 20 minute student film of I'll Be Waiting for my thesis project. I hadn't learned to write yet and thus the performances were all over the place from acceptable to horrible but it LOOKED great. We scammed all sorts of period furniture and cars and costumes and shot at the old Chateau Lysee, the Scientology Celebrity Center these days ... we didn't even have to get our voltage tested!

 

[Ed Bass]

Agreed Mike. Greystone is a must see.
You are correct about the Geiger house appearing at night and in the rain, which tends to make one believe in the controlled environment.
Is your thesis film available on youtube?

 

[MikeKardec]

Alas, Night Song, my film predates You Tube by quite awhile and I've never thought to upload it. I've become a pretty good writer and director, though I haven't worked in film in quite awhile, and my student film was before I learned one iota of what I was doing. A lot of it is pretty cringe worthy. The look however, for a student film was excellent. If you saw it on late night TV you'd do a little wondering what old movie it was. That old building really taught us how to make pictures ... literally, the architecture at the Chateau Lysee was so terrific it was like a class in Film Noir all in itself. I tried digging out a clip but I can't seem to make it run on this computer. Codec nightmare.

It's funny, just a few years later the same Chandler story, I'll be Waiting, was done as a 30 minute bit for the Showtime "Fallen Angles" Series. I believe it was Tom Hanks directorial debut. The story has some odd aspects and it was very interesting to watch other film makers struggle with them. I think that one was shot at the Ambassador Hotel ... too big a location in my opinion. The 2am, emptiness required by the story dwarfed the actors. I think the same story was also done a long time ago as a Schlitz Hour.

 

[Zombie_61]

Hi Gang,
I did some research on this a few years back and never found a definitive answer. Now it's piqued my curiosity again. The home of A.G. Geiger in The Big Sleep listed as being on Laverne Terrace in the Hollywood Hills; I'd assumed it was filmed on one of the Warner back lots but now I'm not so certain. Someone back then had pointed out that the area was too hilly for a Warner back lot and, while we were all convinced there was no real Laverne Terrace in Hollywood, some felt the street and house could have been filmed at an actual location. The IMDB only lists back lot locations, however almost 70 years have passed and these lists are somewhat sketchy at best.
With the broad scope of knowledge here, I'm wondering if anyone has some keen input on this subject?
View attachment 32676

I realize your question has already been answered but, yes, this was a set and not an actual location. Known as an "interior exterior" set to those in the movie and television business, it was/is common practice to build sets inside of a sound stage that resemble outdoor locations so that the crew would have control over lighting and "weather" conditions, i.e. make it appear on film to be day, night, sunny, raining, windy, and so on.

 

[MikeKardec]

A great deal of the forest material in the Siege of Bastogne episode of Band of Brothers was shot on a stage (and a lot of stuff in other, less realistic movies) film maker's ability to make this look good has come a long way.

 

[emigran]

This is my favorite Bogart/Bacall flick... I can watch daily... yes the plot is discombobulated but Geez is it a great flick I had to Wikipedia the plot to actually follow what was happening...
And Bogey's car is awesome... not to mention his fedora and trench coat... even if he's "not so tall"...

PS: To stay on topic... must say the Geiger location always intrigued me as well... particularly that you only saw cars pull up from around that corner.
There really weren't many locations for the whole film

 

[Ed Bass]

This is my favorite Bogart/Bacall flick... I can watch daily... yes the plot is discombobulated but Geez is it a great flick I had to Wikipedia the plot to actually follow what was happening...
And Bogey's car is awesome... not to mention his fedora and trench coat... even if he's "not so tall"...

PS: To stay on topic... must say the Geiger location always intrigued me as well... particularly that you only saw cars pull up from around that corner.
There really weren't many locations for the whole film

I totally agree about this film's watchability. I've lost count on how many times I've seen it. The book gives a much better accounting of the murders, pornography, etc. All too hot for Hollywood to handle in 1946. If you haven't read it yet, do so and then re-watch the movie. Your head will fill in the blanks quite well that way.

 

[Stanley Doble]

One thing I did not pick up on until I watched the film a few times - old man Sternwood's description of his favorite tipple, "champagne as cold as Valley Forge with about 3 ponies of brandy under it".

Geez, ice cold champagne on top of brandy. No wonder the old ba***rd was paralyzed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPQOTvkFA1o

1 minute 55 seconds into the scene.

By the way there were 2 versions of the film, the original was recut to highlite the Bogart/Bacall relationship and this was the version the public saw.

The original was better, and there were scenes cut that helped the film make better sense.

You also need to know that the police made every effort to protect blackmail victims from exposure. This is why the police recommended a private detective, to keep the affair off the police blotter, and why Marlowe went to such lengths to keep things under wraps.

 

[2jakes]

After watching this film for the umpteenth time, I went on google search.
The “neon” guitar on the front of the shop of the first photo was the location
of the bookstore . Most everything is gone & now exists only in this great movie.
This is where Bogie meets a very young Dorothy Malone & “share” a drink !

 

[Ed Bass]

Interesting stuff!

 

[Fading Fast]

One thing I did not pick up on until I watched the film a few times - old man Sternwood's description of his favorite tipple, "champagne as cold as Valley Forge after a couple of ponies of brandy".

Geez, ice cold champagne on top of brandy. No wonder the old ba***rd was paralyzed...

There is a drink called the French 75 (named for one of the French artillery guns used in WWI) that is vodka, lemon juice, simple syrup - shaken, poured and, then, toped with champagne. A less-common version substitutes brandy for the vodka. Might be a slightly better way to drink brandy and champagne then just chasing one down with the other.