Quote:
Originally Posted by sopas ej
A weekend of firsts for me.
I saw the film noir "Tension" for the very first time ever on Saturday. I thought it was a good film. Audrey Totter plays the shit out of her femme fatale role, and a very young and beautiful Cyd Charisse plays the "good girl" role with aplomb.
An Apple Pan burger (maybe) to anyone who can locate the Ralphs supermarket seen in the film, @14:51 in this clip:
• Video Link
There are clues that the film is set in Culver City (plus the fact that it's an MGM production), but I'm curious to know where that Ralphs is. |
sopas: After poking around a bit this morning--well, more than a bit (it's a rainy day here in NY)--I found that the Ralphs in
Tension was the one at 3465 W. 6th St.... which is the well-known and still-extant Chapman Park Market. It turns out that the Chapman building on the north side of 6th between Alexandria and Kenmore was a Ralphs in 1949. On the southeast corner of 6th and Alex was the Standard station (3470 W. 6th) seen in the clip; at the southwest corner was the Chapman Park Pharmacy, which is the store that Richard Basehart manages as "Warren Quimby." (I could find no pictures of that corner showing more of the building; also, re the "COAST TO COAST" neon--I'm wondering if the pharmacy was a Rexall or part of some other national chain....)
This small corner of a larger newspaper ad depicting Ralphs locations ca. 1949 (which we've seen here a few years ago when we explored the Ralphs chain extensively, but which I couldn't winnow out) shows the Chapman market with Ralphs signs that match the two sizes seen in
Tension.
Above: The southwest corner of 6th and Alexandria, 1949 and 2011. Below left: The view from the Standard station seen in the movie toward the northwest corner of the interesection--note the match of the lamppost to the one in the movie screenshot above. Below right: A '70s shot toward the one-time Ralphs from the empty lot where the pharmacy once stood.
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Pleasant Family Shopping;
MGM. Four pics above, clockwise:
MGM; Google SV;
LAPL;
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