I was watching this movie the other day and it made me think of the location shots for “The Caine Mutiny.”
Oddly enough, the location used in the opening credits looks nothing like those used in the film. Apparently continuity was not a concern. This sequence appears to be a set (note the lighting).
Unless sunlight comes from two directions….
[Update: This is the 1952 film “About Face.” Please congratulate Michael Ryerson, Bruce Panaccione, Mary Mallory, Gary Martin, James Zeruk, Coto, LC and Duane Laible for identifying the location and the film; and Mike Hawks, Dewey Webb, Herb Nicholas and Bronson Bias for identifying the film. ]
And look who’s in it as a mystery cadet. Note: People who style hair in period films, please pay attention to the men’s haircuts.
This, however, is not a set…..
Wait a minute. Those buildings….
This looks suspiciously like a Los Angeles institution of higher learning…
The building in the background to the right looks particularly familiar. Hmmmm.
Never mind the crowd, look at the building.
Hm. Looks awfully hilly to be USC.
If I didn’t know better I would almost guess that those are the Baldwin Hills in the background.
Finally an overall shot… And then we go to…
Hey, wait a minute! This doesn’t match the last shot!
Continuity was apparently not a concern.
No, wait! Now the outfield looks like this!
I’m going to quit before my head explodes. Any ideas on our mystery location(s)?
Well again clearly we have UCLA with the men’s gymnasium, Royce Hall and the library and of course the athletic fields before Pauley intruded. I’m not sure those are the Baldwin Hills though as they look more to me like Belair north of Sunset Blvd. And that’s Eddie Brackin loading one up near the bottom.
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And I guess that makes this About Face
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UCLA, then USC then PCC.
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No wait scratch USC,
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It’s the UCLA campus, just below Royce Hall on the way to the gym, on the stairs there. It’s where Barnes and Noble, etc. had their booths in the LA Times Festival of books. Those hills are Bel Air.
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In the later shots, Royce Hall and Powell Library can be seen in the background.
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Locations I am bad at. However, the movie is ABOUT FACE 1952 and Eddie Bracken, Phyllis Kirk and Larry Keating can be seen in these photos.
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Let me see …Phyllis Kirk, ( a repeat mystery guest here), Larry Keating, Virginia Gibson, and Eddie Bracken …it must be About Face, 1952. And as that was a WB Picture perhaps the location campus is either Burbank or Glendale High School. And you are right about the set depicting the building exterior …two suns is always a giveaway!! To say nothing of green carpet for grass.
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UCLA!!!!! UCLA!!!!! And the top images of the set may indeed be a set, but they are exactly the same design as the Halls at UCLA. The hills, which I can see from Royce Hall and the Charles Young Research Library–where I do much work for film biographies–look very much as those I see around the outside of the campus, and border Sunset Blvd. It’s gotta be UCLA
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Logical first guess would be Stanford because of uniforms.
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…….or, UCLA
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UCLA.
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movie is About Face, two of faces belonging to Phyllis Kirk and Larry Keating (no clue on locales)
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The movie is About Face and is supposed to take place at VMI, (SMI in the movie) but it is obviously UCLA.
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the movie is about face
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Eddy Bracken
About Face
1952
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The last ones look like UCLA.
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I swear that’s Alexander Scourby standing behind Larry Keating, just over his left shoulder although IMdB doesn’t bear this out. Scourby would have been just starting out (in film) when this was shot and so perhaps no credit or cast listing survives, he may have been hired as a sack-lunch and scale extra and we all know the fate of most extras.
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