I received a request for some info on movies made in Atlantic City. Atlantic City, when it was known as the World’s Playground in the 1920s through 1960s, was referenced in numerous movies, including Citizen Kane.
However, when it comes to movies that were actually filmed here, the two biggest were Louis Malle’s magnificent Atlantic City (1981) and Bob Rafelson’s The King of Marvin Gardens (1972). Both looked at the city when it was on the ropes. In particular, The King of Marvin Gardens uses the town’s seedy and dying look to establish the uncomfortable relationship between two brothers (played by Bruce Dern and Jack Nicholson). The movie was filmed in town in 1971. During a break from my first semester at college, when Stockton made its debut at the Mayflower Hotel on the AC boardwalk, I watched Dern, Nicholson and Ellen Burstyn film take after take of Dern and Burstyn in a rolling chair meeting up with Nicholson.
Malle’s Atlantic City uses Atlantic City as the backdrop to show the transformation of the characters, through the transformation of the city. Set when casinos first arrived, Susan Sarandon is the ambitious young woman who wants to become a dealer. Burt Lancaster is an old low-level gangster who remembers when Atlantic City was noted for its illegal gambling joints. Kate Reid and Robert Joy co-starred. Joy, by the way, can currently be seen as the coroner on CSI: New York.
In more recent times, Atlantic City has been briefly used as the backdrop in the movies The Color of Money, Ocean’s Eleven and Rounders.
However, there is a little movie you might want to check out on DVD. Duane Hopwood (2005), stars David Schwimmer as a drunk trying to get his life back together. It was filmed in Atlantic City and Longport in 2004, and if you look closely, you will see a scene that features a copy of Atlantic City Weekly on a coffee table. I interviewed Schwimmer, an interview you can read by accessing the archives link for Nov. 17, 2005 on the www.acweekly.com web site.
Later