Los Angeles Transit in Film
Historic films that include transit in Los Angeles:
Angora Love (Laurel and Hardy) 1929 - Pacific Electric trains running on Venice Boulevard
Autumn Leaves (Joan Crawford) 1956 - Several Los Angeles GM TDH-4801 old looks appear
Bright Eyes (Shirley Temple) 1934 - Pacific Electric bus accident scene
D O A (Edmond O'Brien) 1949 - Views of then new trolleybuses in Los Angeles, and PCC cars on Los Angeles' Seventh Avenue
Dead Ringer (Bette Davis) 1964 - As the film opens, Davis rides a Los Angeles old look GM to a funeral. You don't see her riding the bus, but it pulls up, stops, and as it pulls away you see Davis walking to the cemetery
For Heaven's Sake (Harold Lloyd) 1926 - Silent classic shot in Los Angeles features a chase scene involving double-decker bus 663 of Metropolitan Motor Bus Company, as well as several trolley cars
Girl Shy (Harold Lloyd) 1924 - Lloyd steals a Los Angeles trolley while the driver and conductor are still leaning on it; wild scenes ensue
Haunted Spooks (Harold Lloyd) 1920 - Lloyd tries to kill himself by standing in front of a Los Angeles trolley
Off His Trolley (Harold Lloyd) 1924 - Late for his wedding, Lloyd commandeers a tram. Views of a Los Angeles streetcar, including a famous sequence in which Lloyd is seen dangling from the trolley pole as the car is moving
Safety Last (Harold Lloyd) 1923 - Lloyd tries to jump on a moving Los Angeles trolley
Syncopation (Bonita Granville) 1942 - Los Angeles Railway footage
The Dancing Masters (Laurel and Hardy) 1943 - Towards the end of the film, Ollie gets trapped aboard a runaway double-decker bus
The Road to Yesterday (Iron Eyes Cody) 1925 - Pasadena Ocean Park Stage
Trapped (Lloyd Bridges) 1949 - Man rides a Trailways ACF-Brill IC-41 one or two minutes in length near beginning of movie. Later, man is cornered in a Los Angeles trolley barn and gets electrocuted on top of a trolley
Truth, Justice and the American Way (Ben Affleck, Adrian Brody, Diane Lane) 2005 - scenes of Los Angeles MTA buses/streetcars from 1959
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (Bette Davis) 1962 - There is a brief scene of a Los Angeles New Look GM as Bette Davis pulls up beside it in an old Lincoln Continental auto
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Bob Hoskins) 1988 - Features the tramcars of Pacific Electric (otherwise known as the "Red Cars.") Two cars seen are 721 and 731. Film is a sinister plot to take over the two streetcars lines in Los Angeles in order to dismantle them
Contemporary Films with Metro bus, rail and facilities:
- Adaptation
- Collateral
- Cradle To The Grave
- Double Bang
- Fat Albert II
- Freaky Links
- Gia
- Hanging Up
- Hollywood Homicide
- LA Confidential
- Last Man Standing II
- Lawnmower Man II
- Lethal Weapon II
- Lost Night
- Minority Report
- Nurse Betty
- Pentagon Wars
- Scorcher
- Speed
- Strange Days
- SWAT
- Swordfish
- The Italian Job
- The One
- Virtuosity
- Volcano
- White Men Can't Jump
Additional information on advertising and filming on Metro.
Keywords:
Library Transit Films
