"Bad Influence"

We get a fine look at the front of the long-closed Adams Theatre at 1898 W. Adams Blvd. when it's used as the facade of a nightclub in Curtis Hanson's "Bad Influence" (Triumph Releasing Corporation, 1990). The theatre had started life as the La Salle around 1914.

The film stars Rob Lowe, James Spader, Rosalyn Landor, Tony Maggio, Kathleen Wilhoite and Palmer Lee Todd. Karina Longworth has noted that this film, like another with Spader released the same year, involves sex, lies and videotapes. And the presence of Lowe is ironic given his problems with the sex tape issue. 

 

 

The club is called the Kabal Cabaret. And they advertise in the Los Angeles Reader. Quite a rarity in movie data: they actually give us an accurate location for where the theatre is located. But you need one more bit of data: the password to get in. It's in the ad right above: "Fun Loving Couple."

 

 

An entrance view. Note "La Salle" in the entrance tile. Presumably that had been carpeted over for decades. The theatre got renamed the Adams in the 30s. 

 

The club interiors were shot elsewhere. This is one of many views we get showing the look of the place, a room with a higher ceiling than the auditorium of the Adams.

 

 

Rob Lowe under the marquee. He had been inside with a date and suddenly comes out for a look around after realizing that he had been under surveillance by an unknown party. 

See the Los Angeles Theatres page on the La Salle / Adams Theatre for more information about the theatre. It's been remodeled a number of times for various retail and warehouse uses. Sad to say that the marquee is no longer on the building. The shots from the film offer the only views of it that have surfaced so far. 

On IMDb: "Bad Influence" 

The site Movie-Locations has a page on the film with several locations pictured.