"Hardcore"

 

Religious Midwestern guy George C. Scott comes to Los Angeles looking for his missing daughter in Paul Schrader's "Hardcore" (Columbia Pictures, 1979). She disappeared while on a church outing. We're at the Holiday Inn behind Grauman's Chinese. He's in the gray car starting to pull out of the driveway. 

Thanks to Eric Schaefer for spotting the theatres in the film and getting the screenshots. The film also features Peter Boyle, Season Hubley, Dick Sargent, Gary Block and Leslie Ackerman. The cinematography was by Michael Chapman. 

Heading north on Highland to get on the 101.

 

 

 

George heads north on the 101 to check out a motel where his daughter might have stayed. Later he cruises the seedier parts of the city but we soon see that San Diego is standing in for Los Angeles in this part of the film.

  The Aztec in downtown San Diego. 

 

 

 

Looking down 5th Ave. toward the Aztec. 

 

Some San Diego storefront venues including the Follies Theatre.  

 

We get a nice view out of George's room at the Holiday Inn. "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was playing at the Paramount Theatre, 6838 Hollywood Blvd. It was a moveover from the Cinerama Dome.

 

The Paramount went back to its original El Capitan name after the Pacific Theatres/Disney remodel of 1989-1991. For more information about the theatre see the pages about the El Capitan on the Los Angeles Theatres site.

 

The shot pans over toward the Roosevelt Hotel. The Chinese was running "Star Wars," a film that closed June 27, 1978. The theatre, at 6925 Hollywood Blvd., was operated at the time by Ted Mann. See the pages about Grauman's Chinese on the Los Angeles Theatres site.

The film also shot scenes in San Francisco.

On IMDb: "Hardcore"