BANDITS
Two fugitive bank robbers played by Bruce Willis and his hypochondriac partner, Billy Bob Thornton, rob a string of banks from Oregon through California. Hoping to finance their south-of-the-border retirement dream; Things get complicated when they meet a runaway housewife and they both fall in love with her; the ‘Wildwood Bank’ scenes were filmed in and around a former bank building in Oldtown Salinas at Main Street and Gavilan.
Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, & Cate Blanchett
Barry Levinson Films
HERBIE GOES TO MONTE CARLO
Second sequel to the love bug; Comedy about a Volkswagon car with a mind of its own who enters a race and routs a gang of car thieves; Scenes filmed at Laguna Seca Raceway.
Dean Jones & Don Knotts
Vencent McEveety and Disney Films
TOPAZ
A French Intelligence Agent becomes embroiled in the Cold War politics first with uncovering the events leading up to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis; Scenes shot in Salinas.
Alfred Hitchcock Films
EAST OF EDEN
Based on part of John Steinbeck’s novel, a story about a sensitive youth who feels unloved and unwanted by his father; Nominated for Oscars for Screenplay, Director and Actor (James Dean in first starring role); Scenes filmed in the Salinas Valley, including the City of Salinas.
James Dean, Julie Harries, & Jo Van Fleet (Oscar winner)
Elia Kazan and Warner Bros Films
JAPANESE WAR BRIDE
20th Century Fox; Domestic drama about an officer wounded in Korea who marries his Japanese nurse and takes her home to California; Scenes filmed on the Monterey Peninsula, including Point Lobos, and in Salinas, including the first-ever filming of a movie from a helicopter.
Don Taylor, Shirley Yamaguchi, & Cameron Mitchell
King Vidor Films
THE LONG, LONG TRAIL
Western melodrama about a playful cowboy who saves a damsel from quicksand, wins a horse race at the Rodeo, captures the bad guys and ends up with his true love; A remake of the 1923 “The Ramblin’ kid,” from a novel by the same name; Hoot Gibson’s first talking picture, theater ads proclaimed: “Here’s Hoot riding his wildest, fighting his hardest, loving his grandest;” Sally Eilers, who appeared in films from 1927 to 1951, was Gibson’s wife from 1930 to 1933, for Walter Brennan, who was to go win three Academy Awards, this was his third year in films and his sixth movie at the age of 35; Scenes filmed at the 18th Annual California Rodeo in Salinas July 17-21, 1929, with big crown scenes and rodeo action that figure prominently in the plot; Filmmakers were in Salinas for an entire week; Gibson had told rodeo officials that he needed to film on location at some rodeo somewhere and he preferred the California Rodeo in Salinas; (Rodeo officials said he could have all rights he wanted for the movie and were excited to have him there and the prospect of local people being in the film; This was the first all-talking sound feature shown at the Old Crystal Theatre in Salinas on Jan. 2. 1930.
Hoot Gibson, Sally Eilers & Walter Brennan
Arthur Rosson, and Universal Films
