"Foul Play"

In "Foul Play" (Paramount, 1978), Goldie Hawn picks up a guy having car trouble on her way into San Francisco. They make a date to see a film together at the Nuart on Union St. When we see her waiting at the theatre we're at the Nuart all right but it's at 11272 Santa Monica Blvd. The crime comedy, directed by Colin Higgins, also stars Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith, Brian Dennehy, Dudley Moore, Billy Barty and Rachel Roberts.

Goldie looking at the clock. Her date, Bruce Soloman, is late. He'll stumble in later, wounded. 

A peek into the lobby past theatre manager Chuck McCann.

Goldie back in the lobby to tell the snackbar guy her date has just died. He tells her she'll have to see the manager. McCann is in his office indulging in some Me Too behavior with another snack bar staffer.

They go back in to the auditorium to look but the body has vanished. She's escorted out. 

The manager tells her she's made a fool of him and she'd better leave. 

Goldie heading home. Check out the Nuart Theatre page on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more views of the theatre.

The film is set in San Francisco and much of it was shot there. We get to see many terrific locations including a wonderful finale at the 1932 vintage War Memorial Opera House. Well, the auditorium shots were done at the War Memorial. Here Dudley Moore is in the pit. We get many similar shots later of him reacting to the chaos that will erupt onstage.

A look across the War Memorial with the Pope in the center box. It's all about an assassination attempt by a bishop who's really an anarchist. We also get some lobby shots done at San Francisco's City Hall and various corridor views that could have been shot anywhere. See the page about the War Memorial Opera House on the San Francisco Theatres site for information about the 1932 vintage building.

New York City Opera is doing Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado." It's a process shot with the War Memorial's proscenium on the right. The rest of the image is the Shrine Auditorium, 665 W. Jefferson Blvd. Note the counterweight system offstage left. At the War Memorial it would be on the other side. Also off left is a spiral staircase. Nope, the Shrine doesn't have one -- they show up largely in earlier theatres. It was brought in for the filming. We can't have backstage shots in a movie without a spiral staircase, can we?  

Here we're looking down on the stage left wingspace at the Shrine with the theatre's Hub dimmerboard on the right, later removed. On the left it's the theatre's Peter Clark counterweight system. Thanks to Mike Hume for the screenshot. See the page about the Shrine on his Historic Theatre Photography site for a terrific selection of photos as well as a history of the building.

Much of our chase action takes place up in the flies. Some shots done at the Shrine, some on a soundstage. This one? Probably done on a soundstage.

Another shot offstage left at the Shrine with a bit of the spiral staircase in view, in an unlikely location for a real installation. A bit of the counterweight system T-wall is seen in the upper right.

Chevy Chase running along the back wall of the stage at the Shrine. 

Part of the chase on a catwalk above the stage. We get a view of the counterweight system in the distance. It was most likely done on a soundstage but perhaps it was at the Shrine.

End of the line for our albino assassin. Definitely not a Shrine shot. The ceiling structure we see in the upper right looks like a soundstage roof.

Chase over, Goldie comes down the spiral staircase. That's the Shrine's dimmerboard in the background.

A curtain call process shot. The auditorium is definitely the War Memorial but the action onstage was filmed at the Shrine Auditorium.

Also see the main page about the Shrine Auditorium on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a list of many other films where the building appears. The site also features many vintage photos of the 1926 vintage building.

On IMDb: "Foul Play"