SMALL TOWN GIRL
Romantic comedy about a woman who traps a handsome stranger into offering marriage when he’s drunk and then sets out to win him when he’s sober; Based on a novel by Ben Ames Williams; Known as a good example of MGM’s Production line of the mid-1930s with a group of established stars and good character actors helping up-and-coming performers; Oscar nominee for Song (‘My Flaming Heart’); Scenes filmed along the 17-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach, which stood in for the Coast of Maine in the Autumn; Dozens of peninsulans watched the filming, but none of the local people got jobs in front of the camera, although George Kinloch and Goldie Goldstein were put on the payroll as traffic directors; Company of 35 actors and crew stayed at the Old Hotel Del Monte in Monterey (now the Naval Postgraduate School).
Janet Gaynor, Robert Taylor, James Stewart, Binnie Barnes, & Agnes Ayres
William A. Wellman, and MGM Films
THE MIRACLE MAN
A “Talkie” remake of a 1919 silent film; Story about a group of con artists who encounter a man with the power to work miracles; Background scenes filmed at Point Lobos, 17-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach and elsewhere on the Monterey Peninsula; None of the stars were on the peninsula for the initial filming, and local residents L.B. Woods, C.H. Dixon and Harvey Murphy were used as doubles for the actors, including Bosworth (Wood was his double) and Morris; A few additional Peninsula scenes were filmed later and Bosworth accompanied the film crew, headed by O.W. Roberts; The balance of the movie was filmed at the Paramount Ranch near Hollywood; Paramount was lured to the Peninsula by Jean Juillard, who was president of the San Carlos Hotel Co. and a former assistant manager of the Old Hotel Del Monte. Juillard led the formation of the Monterey Peninsula Motion Picture Association to encourage Hollywood Studios to film on the Peninsula.
Chester Morris, Sylvia Sidney, Hobart Bosworth & Ned Sparks
Norman McLeod, and Paramount Films
PAID TO LOVE
Scenes filmed at 17-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach and Cypress Point at Point Lobos, where a Monte Carlo set was built.
George O’Brien, Virginia Valli, & William Powell
Howard Hawks and Fox Films
SPORTING YOUTH
Scenes filmed at the Old Hotel Del Monte in Monterey (now the Naval Postgraduate School, along all the 17-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach and other scenic locations on the Monterey Peninsula; Usually heavy fog in august 1923 repeatedly delayed filming of exterior shots at the hotel.
Reginald Denny
Universal
FOOLISH WIVES
Considered Von Stroheim’s most vivid lavish productions; Billed as the first million dollar movie; A risque film in those days; Story about a fake count in Monte Carlo who seduces and blackmails a rich women; Scenes filmed along the 12-Mile Drive in Pebble Beach and at Point Lobos, featuring a large Monte Carlo set, four stories high, at Sea Lion Point in the Point Lobos State Reserve; 500 extras, including 350 socialites from San Francisco and Monterey County, among them Charles Crocker, Betty Folger, Howard and Rudolph Sprechels, George Newhall, Elyse Hopkins, Joseph Tobin, M.H. Deyoung and S.F.B. Morse.
Mae Busch
Eric Von Strohrim and Universal Films
THE EYE OF THE NIGHT
Jane is a comely little slavey in a fishermen’s village; The only two friends she has among all the inhabitants are David Holden, the aged keeper of the lighthouse, “The Eye of the Night,” and Rob Benson, a young fisher lad whom she has loved with all her heart; Main exterior scenes were filmed here, on the beach at Pacific Grove, at Point Pinos Lighthouse and along the 17-Mile Drive.
William H. Thompson, Margery Wilson & Thornton Edwards
Walter Edwards Films
SEE AMERICA FIRST
Scenes were filmed at Point Lobos, along the 17-Mile Drive and at various historic sites, including the Custom House in Monterey; Also filmed were sea gills at Monterey’s Wharf No.2 and the Old Point Lobos Canning Co., which was billed as the only Abalone Cannery in the world, getting its catch from drivers who worked right near its front door in Whalers Cove.
Mutual Weekly Gaumont Film Series
