Everyone knows about the most famous movie filmed on Coronado, Some Like it Hot (1959). However, we learned about a few more movies that were filmed here too. In fact, the Hotel del Coronado, has an entire list of movies and TV shows shot at the Del right here.
Frank Marquez (Mr. Vino at Avenue Liquor) shared some classic “Coronado” movies with us and we just had to share them with the rest of the community. We knew about The Stuntman, but had never heard of the other two. Perhaps a few of our members have seen these or remember them being filmed here in town:
“Wicked, Wicked” (1973)
A tongue-in-cheek psycho movie in “Duo-vision.” The entire feature employs the split-screen technique used in parts of Brian De Palma’s “Sisters” that same year. As a handyman at a seacoast hotel, Randolph Roberts wears a monster mask while he kills and dismembers women with blond hair. Tiffany Bolling is a singer, Scott Brady is a detective and Edd “Kookie” Burns is a lifeguard. The music is the original organ score for the silent film “Phantom of the Opera.”
“Coronado” (1935)
Southern California’s Hotel Coronado caters to and is frequented by members of the social upper-crust. Although she lives on the wrong side of the San Diego track, in a tent-city with her father. Otto, and ditzy sister, Violet, June Wray is a singer with the Eddy Duchin Orchestra appearing to the hotel. Johnny Marvin, an aspiring songwriter and the son of a wealthy automobile manufacturer, is staying at the hotel and, from they moment June and Johnny meet, they fall instantly in love. Trouble arises when Johnny’s father objects to the romance, and complications and help arrive in the form of two Marine-hating sailors,Chuck Hornbostel and “Pinky” Falls, when Chuck marries June’s ditzy sister.
CORONADO, from a story by Brian Hooker and Don Hartman; screen play by Mr. Hartman and Frank Butler; music and lyrics by Richard A. Whiting and Sam Coslow; directed by Norman McLeod; produced for Paramount by William LeBaron.
Johnny Marvin . . . . . Johnny Downs
June Wray . . . . . Betty Burgess
Chuck Hornbostel . . . . . Jack Haley
Pinky Falls . . . . . Andy Devine
Otto Wray . . . . . Leon Errol
Violet Wray Hornbostel . . . . . Alice White
Carlton . . . . . Jameson Thomas
Walter Marvin . . . . . Berton Churchill
Mrs. Gloria Marvin . . . . . Nella Walker
Slug Moran . . . . . James Burke
Barbara Forrest . . . . . Jacqueline Wells
and Eddy Duchin and orchestra.
See the remaining clips from “Coronado” here on YouTube.
The Stuntman (1980):
The Stunt Man is a 1980 American film directed by Richard Rush, starring Peter O’Toole, Steve Railsback, and Barbara Hershey. The movie was adapted by Lawrence B. Marcus and Rush from the novel by Paul Brodeur. It tells the story of a young fugitive who hides as a stunt double on the set of an anti-war movie whose charismatic director will do seemingly anything for the sake of his art.
It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Peter O’Toole), Best Director (Richard Rush), and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. However, due to its limited release, it never earned much attention from US audiences at large. As O’Toole remarked in a DVD audio commentary, “The film wasn’t released, it escaped.”
