Russell Crowe in Auckland in January 1997, the year the film came out. Photograph by Jane Ussher. Jane Ussher · CC BY-SA 4.0Russell Crowe Bud White · 1997
Kim Basinger at the Deauville American Film Festival in September 1989. Roland Godefroy · CC BY 3.0Kim Basinger Lynn Bracken · 1989
Guy Pearce at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007; no free photograph of him from the 1990s has been found. gdcgraphics · CC BY 2.0Guy Pearce Ed Exley · 2007
Los Angeles, 1953
L.A.L.A. Confidential
Sunshine on the front, glossies underneath. The letters are cut from two old California postcards: an orange grove (Detroit Photographic Co. (publisher), public domain) and oil wells among the groves (Longshaw Card Co., public domain).
1953Airmail
Christmas night 1947: office windows in the City Hall tower lit in the shape of a cross. Los Angeles Times photograph, UCLA Library. Los Angeles Times · CC BY 4.0
Christmas 1951 · North Spring Street
The building on the badge.
The police in the film work out of City Hall, and their badges carry a picture of it. Until 1955 the headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department really were inside City Hall.
It was completed in 1928: 454 feet, 32 floors. An image of it has been on LAPD badges since 1940.
The observation deck is free and open Monday to Friday during business hours.
Where we read it
Los Angeles City Hall, September 2022. Another Believer · CC BY-SA 4.0
200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles
The last scene
Exley says goodbye to Lynn Bracken and Bud White outside City Hall before they leave for Arizona.
The Lincoln Heights Jail on North Avenue 19, March 2009. Laurie Avocado · CC BY 2.0
421 North Avenue 19, Lincoln Heights
Lincoln Heights Jail
The novel and the film were inspired by the Bloody Christmas beating of 1951, and part of the film was shot at the jail.
In the film, the Bloody Christmas scandal, drunken officers beating inmates, is what gets Exley promoted to detective lieutenant.
The Art Deco jail opened in 1931 and closed in 1965. It has been a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument since 1993.
Closed to the public. See the Art Deco front from Avenue 19.
Where we read it
Whatever you want, made to look like it
Cut to look like it?
Pierce Patchett’s business is women surgically altered to resemble film stars, and at the Formosa Exley takes the real Lana Turner for one of them. The film’s places play the same game. Some are the real thing; some were dressed, rebuilt or built from nothing. Make the call.
Where we read it
Patchett runs a prostitution ring supplying women surgically altered to resemble film stars.
Three addresses no more than 2.2 km apart, printed the way a 1950s bar printed its matchbooks.
The Formosa Cafe on Santa Monica Boulevard, July 2023. Benoît Prieur · CC0
The Formosa Cafe
7156 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood
Inside the Formosa, Ed Exley accuses a woman of being a call girl made to look like Lana Turner. She is the actress herself.
Curtis Hanson asked Kim Basinger to meet him at the Formosa to talk about the part of Lynn Bracken.
The prizefighter Jimmy Bernstein founded it in 1925, starting in a Red Car trolley near the old United Artists lot.
After a 2015 remodel drew complaints, much of the original interior was rebuilt.
A working restaurant and bar. Walk in or book a table; check its own hours before you go.
Where we read it
The Frolic Room sign on Hollywood Boulevard, July 2024. Gb321 · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Frolic Room
6245 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
Jack Vincennes finds his conscience over a drink at the Frolic Room.
It opened as a speakeasy in 1930 and became a licensed bar in 1934.
An Al Hirschfeld mural of 1963 runs along the east wall inside. It was restored in 2012.
A working bar beside the Pantages Theatre, a few steps from Hollywood and Vine.
Where we read it
Crossroads of the World on Sunset Boulevard, with its tower and globe, in 2005. Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress. Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain
Crossroads of the World
6671 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood
The shopping court was dressed as a cinema for the premiere at the start of the film.
Esotouric’s Hollywood Noir walk points instead to a bank in Thai Town as the premiere set.
Robert V. Derrah designed it round a building shaped like an ocean liner. It opened on 29 October 1936.
In January 2019 the City Council approved a redevelopment that adds three high-rises round it.
Mostly private offices now. See the tower and the ship-shaped building from Sunset Boulevard.
Where we read it
The Hollywood Roosevelt
The Hollywood Roosevelt
7000 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
A 1927 Spanish Colonial Revival hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, where the first Academy Awards dinner was held on 16 May 1929. The Lobby Bar takes walk-ins; the Tropicana Pool’s floor was painted by David Hockney.
Veronica Lake in a Paramount publicity portrait of about 1943, the year after This Gun for Hire. Paramount Pictures · Public domainVeronica Lake · 1943Kim Basinger at the Deauville American Film Festival in September 1989. Roland Godefroy · CC BY 3.0Kim Basinger · 1989
Lynn Bracken
The look-alike won the Oscar.
Kim Basinger plays Lynn Bracken, a call girl made to look like Veronica Lake. At home Lynn screens This Gun for Hire, the 1942 film with Lake and Alan Ladd, while Dante Spinotti lights her in a modern way that sets her apart from the star on the screen.
Upstairs, her own bedroom is warm, in low pink and orange light; the bedroom she works in is a cool blue. Curtis Hanson first talked to Basinger about the part over a meeting at the Formosa. On 23 March 1998 she won the Academy Award for supporting actress.
Where we read it
Basinger won the supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal of a prostitute who is a Veronica Lake look-alike.
Lynn screens This Gun for Hire; the camera shows her modern lighting against the old film; the warm upstairs bedroom and the cool blue business bedroom.
Hancock Park: 6th Street towards Hudson Avenue, January 2021. A street in the neighbourhood, not Lynn Bracken’s house. Downtowngal · CC BY-SA 4.0
Hancock Park, Los Angeles
Lynn Bracken’s house
Lynn Bracken’s house is a private home in Hancock Park, overlooking the Wilshire Country Club.
It needed a $75,000 renovation to match the Spanish-style house in the script.
A private home. It is named here and kept off the map; the photograph shows another street in the neighbourhood.
Where we read itThe Lovell Health House, seen from Dundee Drive in May 2008. Los Angeles (Commons user) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Los Feliz, Los Angeles
The Lovell House
Richard Neutra’s Lovell House plays the home of Pierce Patchett, whose business is women surgically altered to resemble film stars.
Neutra designed and built it between 1927 and 1929 for the physician and naturopath Philip Lovell.
It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1971 and a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument since 1974.
A private home. It is named here and kept off the map.
Where we read itThe Shrine Auditorium on West Jefferson Boulevard, September 2012. Stephanie Kemna · CC BY-SA 3.0
665 West Jefferson Boulevard, University Park
The Shrine Auditorium
The 70th Academy Awards were held here on 23 March 1998.
L.A. Confidential had nine nominations and won two: Kim Basinger for supporting actress, and Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson for the adapted screenplay.
A working concert and events hall. See the domes from West Jefferson Boulevard, or go to a show.
Where we read it
Pumpjacks on the Inglewood Oil Field, seen from the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, September 2021. Jengod · CC BY-SA 4.0
Baldwin Hills, Culver City
The motel on the oil field.
The Victory Motel was one of the film’s few purpose-built sets, put up on a flat stretch of the Inglewood Oil Field in Culver City.
For the night ambush, Dante Spinotti’s key light was a 20K lamp on a Condor lift far out in front of the motel.
The overlook’s peak is 511 feet high, with views across Los Angeles.
The motel set is gone and the field is a working oil field. Look over it from the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, open daily from 8am to sunset; parking at the top is $6.
Where we read it
Oil wells and orange groves along a California highway: a Longshaw Card Co. postcard of about 1940. Longshaw Card Co. · Public domainA Victorian house in Angelino Heights, January 2008. Konrad Summers · CC BY-SA 2.0
Carroll Avenue, Angelino Heights
Angelino Heights
Angelino Heights, Lincoln Heights and Koreatown stood in for the streets where the police hunt the Nite Owl suspects.
The 1300 block of Carroll Avenue has the highest concentration of 19th-century Victorian houses in Los Angeles.
The neighbourhood was founded in 1886. A preservation zone has protected its old houses since 1981.
Public streets of Victorian houses. Walk Carroll Avenue; the houses themselves are private.
Where we read itThe former Linda Vista Community Hospital on South St. Louis Street, May 2012. Downtowngal · CC BY-SA 3.0
610 South St. Louis Street, Boyle Heights
The former Linda Vista Community Hospital
L.A. Confidential is one of the films shot at the former hospital.
It was built for Santa Fe Railroad workers as the Santa Fe Coast Lines Hospital; the present Mission Revival building dates from 1938.
It closed in 1991, and in 2015 it became Hollenbeck Terrace, low-income housing for older people.
Homes for older people now. See the front from South St. Louis Street and leave the residents in peace.
Where we read it
The interrogation room
Behind the glass.
For the interrogations the crew set a one-way mirror with its reflecting side to the room, and lit the suspects with a single bare bulb hanging close to their faces. Whichever side has the light is the side you see.
Guy Pearce at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007; no free photograph of him from the 1990s has been found. gdcgraphics · CC BY 2.0Guy PearceEd Exley. By the book. Pictured in 2007.
Russell Crowe in Auckland in January 1997, the year the film came out. Photograph by Jane Ussher. Jane Ussher · CC BY-SA 4.0Russell CroweBud White. The fist. Pictured in 1997.
Kevin Spacey in Washington, DC, on 20 January 1997, the year the film came out. John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com · CC BY-SA 2.0Kevin SpaceyJack Vincennes. The show. Pictured in 1997.
Kim Basinger at the Deauville American Film Festival in September 1989. Roland Godefroy · CC BY 3.0Kim BasingerLynn Bracken. The look-alike. Pictured in 1989.
Rollo Tomasi
Our side is lit: the glass gives back only a name. Exley calls the man who gets away with it Rollo Tomasi.
Where we read it
The one-way mirror, reflecting side to the room, and the single practical bulb.
Curtis Hanson, who directed the film and wrote it with Brian Helgeland, in May 2007. David Shankbone · CC BY-SA 3.0
Who made it.
Curtis Hanson directed it from James Ellroy’s 1990 novel and wrote it with Brian Helgeland. He won the money from Arnon Milchan with fifteen vintage postcards and photographs mounted on boards: orange groves, beaches, tract homes in the San Fernando Valley and the opening of the Hollywood Freeway, set against a scandal-magazine cover and Robert Mitchum after his marijuana arrest.
Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce were little known in North America, and Milchan objected to two Australians in an American period film. Kevin Spacey plays Jack Vincennes, Danny DeVito the scandal writer Sid Hudgens and James Cromwell Captain Dudley Smith. Hanson and Dante Spinotti shot it with Robert Frank’s 1958 book The Americans in mind.
Where we read it
Hanson’s pitch, the casting, the cast list, Ellroy’s 1990 novel and the influence of The Americans.
The Palais des Festivals et des Congrès across the harbour in Cannes, July 2009. Timantha102938 · Public domain
1 Boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes, France
First shown in Cannes
L.A. Confidential was in competition at Cannes in 1997.
It premiered at the festival on 14 May 1997. Hanson and the producers sent a print straight to the selection committee, going round Warner Bros., which had resisted showing it there.
The present Palais opened in December 1982 and is the home of the festival.
At the top of the Croisette by the old port. The halls open for the festival and other events.
Where we read it
Viator · Ad / affiliate
Film noir Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Live marketplace results for noir and crime-history tours of Los Angeles. None is built round this film; check each itinerary for downtown and Hollywood.
10 places you can visit, in Hollywood, downtown and east, Culver City and Cannes. The Lovell House and Lynn Bracken’s house are private homes: named here, not on the map.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working restaurant and bar. Walk in or book a table; check its own hours before you go.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working bar beside the Pantages Theatre, a few steps from Hollywood and Vine.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Mostly private offices now. See the tower and the ship-shaped building from Sunset Boulevard.
1The Formosa Cafe on Santa Monica Boulevard, July 2023. Benoît Prieur · CC0
7156 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood
The Formosa Cafe
Inside the Formosa, Ed Exley accuses a woman of being a call girl made to look like Lana Turner. She is the actress herself.
A working restaurant and bar. Walk in or book a table; check its own hours before you go.
Where we read it
2The Frolic Room sign on Hollywood Boulevard, July 2024. Gb321 · CC BY-SA 4.0
6245 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
The Frolic Room
Jack Vincennes finds his conscience over a drink at the Frolic Room.
A working bar beside the Pantages Theatre, a few steps from Hollywood and Vine.
Where we read it
3Crossroads of the World on Sunset Boulevard, with its tower and globe, in 2005. Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress. Carol M. Highsmith · Public domain
6671 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood
Crossroads of the World
The shopping court was dressed as a cinema for the premiere at the start of the film.
Mostly private offices now. See the tower and the ship-shaped building from Sunset Boulevard.
Where we read it
Stay
On the Boulevard.
A 1927 hotel a short ride from the Frolic Room and the Formosa.
The Hollywood Roosevelt
The Hollywood Roosevelt
7000 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
A 1927 Spanish Colonial Revival hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, where the first Academy Awards dinner was held on 16 May 1929. The Lobby Bar takes walk-ins; the Tropicana Pool’s floor was painted by David Hockney.
Marketplace tours of noir Los Angeles and Hollywood Boulevard.
Viator · Ad / affiliate
Film noir Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Live marketplace results for noir and crime-history tours of Los Angeles. None is built round this film; check each itinerary for downtown and Hollywood.
Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The file
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
12 of 12 places · 13 of 13 Moments
The Formosa Cafe
7156 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood
Lana Turner
Exley takes a woman at the Formosa for a call girl made to look like Lana Turner. She is Lana Turner.
The Frolic Room
6245 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood
A drink at the Frolic Room
Jack Vincennes finds his conscience over a drink at the Frolic Room.
Crossroads of the World
6671 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood
The premiere
The film opens on a Hollywood premiere, shot at a 1936 shopping court dressed as a cinema.
The Lovell House
Los Feliz, Los Angeles
Patchett’s house
Neutra’s Lovell House plays the home of Pierce Patchett.
Lynn Bracken’s house
Hancock Park, Los Angeles
This Gun for Hire
Lynn Bracken screens This Gun for Hire, the 1942 Veronica Lake film, in her living room.
Los Angeles City Hall
200 North Spring Street, Los Angeles
Headquarters
The police work out of City Hall.
Goodbye
Outside City Hall, Exley says goodbye to Lynn and Bud before they leave for Arizona.
Lincoln Heights Jail
421 North Avenue 19, Lincoln Heights
Bloody Christmas
Part of the film was shot at the jail; the 1951 Bloody Christmas beating that inspired it happened inside.
Angelino Heights
Carroll Avenue, Angelino Heights
The Nite Owl suspects
Angelino Heights is one of the neighbourhoods where the police hunt the Nite Owl suspects.
The former Linda Vista Community Hospital
610 South St. Louis Street, Boyle Heights
Institutional rooms
The crew shot at the former hospital in Boyle Heights.
The Shrine Auditorium
665 West Jefferson Boulevard, University Park
Oscar night
Kim Basinger, Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson win Academy Awards here on 23 March 1998.
The Victory Motel site, Inglewood Oil Field
Baldwin Hills, Culver City
The Victory Motel
The Victory Motel was built for the film on the Inglewood Oil Field.
Palais des Festivals, Cannes
1 Boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes, France
Cannes
The film premieres in competition at Cannes on 14 May 1997.
