"City Streets"

We see lots of the Hollywood Theatre in Rouben Mamoulian's "City Streets" (Paramount, 1931). It's on the left in this shot of a truck coming at us right after the credits. The theatre is at 6764 Hollywood Blvd., on the south side of the street just east of Highland Ave.

 

The trucks roll right over the camera. It turns out to be a caravan of vehicles transporting beer. The film stars Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sidney in a tale of a man who joins a gang to somehow get his girlfriend out of prison. It's based on a story by Dashiell Hammett.

Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting the theatre in the film. He comments: "This one is high on everybody's Best Films of 1931 list, including my own. Direction by Rouben Mamoulian is superb, with none of the early sound problems we know so well, and Lee Garmes' cinematography is terrific. In the night club sequence we get 'Sing You Sinners' and 'Happy Days Are Here Again' back to back. WOW! It was made by Paramount, purchased by MCA/Universal in the 1950s for television distribution, and the restoration is top of the line."

 

We're back on the block again later in the film for another drive-by. Much of the street action in the film is back lot stuff but Mamoulian made the most of his shoot on this block just east of Highland Ave. We come back to it two more times in the film, each time just for a short glimpse as we race by. This time we're looking east.

 

A bit of a later chase again showing the theatre.  

 

 

The fourth time we see the theatre in the film it's a shot with different lighting and looking west across Highland Ave.

See the page about the Hollywood Theatre on the Los Angeles Theatres site for more information. The house opened in 1913, Hollywood's second theatre. The building survives but it's now a Guinness Book of Records Museum.

On IMDb: "City Streets"