Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Maxwell
...a made-for-TV movie called CONDOR, which was shot all over LA in 1984. In a post-BLADE RUNNER media landscape, they tried to push the noir-ish contract detective loner (living in a Victorian in the middle of retrofuture LA). It only sorta-worked.
Here's Ray Wise driving up on what was probably an artificially-wetted street.
Screencaps came from Netflix, and CONDOR was an Orion production, which I think finally got aired on NBC in 1986, but wouldn't bet anything important on that. It's a weird and not great movie that made some predictions which came strangely true (namely drones). There's a good chase scene through the riverbed as well. But it may test folks' patience these days.
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The film really did try to point up the contrast between slick, corporate, dangerous, futuristic LA and 'bad', derelict, also dangerous, historic LA. The basic plot is master criminal Black Widow (played by Carolyn Seymour who I've adored since she was 'Alison' in Steven Frears' 1971 nod-to-noir film "Gumshoe") takes over the LAPD computer system in order to unleash the department's drones on various civic targets until her ransom demands are met. Besides drones, computers are a big part of the futuristic element in the film (the hero's A.I. partner has to explain to him what a 'PC' is).
Anyway, it's about what you'd expect from a mid-80s made-for-TV effort. (The special effects are pretty terrible, Ed Wood would've been
embarrassed.) The fun is in the locations, not least because the modern locations were filmed in the era they were built. They make a bit more sense with 80s people running around in them.
The film starts out with an establishing shot of LA and its famous monorail:
A double-slaying shoot-out occurs at this hotel:
The A.I./human partners walk away from the hotel, turn a corner and are crossing the plaza at the 444 S Flower building with the BIOLA 'Jesus Saves' sign glowing in the background (that was fun to see):
The hero lives at 1320 Carrol Avenue (1885) proving his quirky individualism (I guess):
Carrol Ave looks better since the utilities were buried:
gsv
A chase on the W 4th St ramps:
A well-padded stuntman gets thrown from a van on Lower Grand:
The climax in the river (do people in other cities, when they see footage of our river, wonder what they're looking at?). In a the end, the vehicle containing the bad guy exits the riverbed, bumps over a desolate clifftop and plunges into the ocean (an ending that came as a bit of a surprise):
All screenshots: JayGee Productions/Orion Television/netflix
Thx
MM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wig-Wag
There's nothing better or more entertaining than bad Sci-Fi!
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