Filming Locations: The Jerk (1979)
The Jerk is a 1979 American comedy film. Directed by Carl Reiner, the film was written by Steve Martin, Carl Gottlieb and Michael Elias. This was Steve Martin's first starring role in a feature film. The film also features Bernadette Peters, M. Emmet Walsh and Jackie Mason.
A box office smash earning over $73 million (making the movie the 9th highest-grossing of 1979) and produced on a modestly low budget of $4 million, The Jerk has been praised as not only as one of Steve Martin's best comedic efforts, but also one of the funniest of all motion pictures: In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted The Jerk the 48th greatest comedy film of all time. This film is #20 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" and #89 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs. Premiere magazine voted Steve Martin's performance of Navin Johnson #99 on their list, "The 100 Greatest Performances of All Time." It has an 84% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The website IGN ranked the film as the 10th top comedy film of all time (Wikipedia).
You can view more SFV Filming Locations here.
The Jerk was filmed on over 80 different actual locations according to story notes at AMC. IMDB lists some of those locations with two of the known SFV locations at Devonshire Downs in Northridge and the miniature train ride at Griffith park both of which are shown below.
Devonshire Downs Fairgrounds 18000 Devonshire St Northridge. This location has now been converted to a Medtronic plant. Prior to Medtronic, this historic site was a horse racetrack, concert venue, fairgrounds, and, motorcycle racetrack. You can learn more here. Additionally, CSUN plans to convert the site they own into affordable housing for students and staff.
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| In this shot, you can see the CSUN Dorms in the background which were unfortunatley demolished due to damage from the 1994 Northridge quake. |
The miniature train ride in Griffith Park has been in existence since 1948 and can be enjoyed till this day. The location is 4400 Crystal Springs Drive Los Angeles (Griffith Park).
And the movie trailer:
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Marty Mcfly
Anything and everything about the San Fernando Valley. This blog will take you back in time when the valley was covered with dirt and orange groves to a leader in the space race to its current status as America's suburb. Come along and join me on this adventure, I guarantee you have been influenced/impacted by the San Fernando Valley in one form or another even if you have never visited or heard of the SFV.
Where is the expensive house located? Seems like a location you missed in this blog.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the old house in the jerk?
ReplyDeletelake sherwood
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