Casino Movie Film Location

Posted on 4/3/2022 by admin

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Bright lights, blackjack tables, glitz and glamour – it’s no wonder larger-than-life Las Vegas is a favourite location for filmmakers. Over 100 movies have featured Sin City’s over-the-top casinos and iconic Strip views. Some of Las Vegas’ film locations have been and gone, and others only ever existed on a Hollywood sound stage. But there are still plenty of spots around the Strip and downtown where you can see where scenes from movies old and new were filmed, from Viva Las Vegas to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Ocean’s 11 to – er – Ocean’s Eleven.

So join me and follow in the footsteps of Dean Martin, Elvis and George Clooney on this Las Vegas film locations walking tour. The whole walk covers almost five miles (with a bus/taxi shortcut) but a word of warning: Las Vegas can get incredibly hot, so make sure you’ve got a bottle of water and a hat on you, and avoid the middle of the day in the summer.

Read more: Visiting Las Vegas on a budget

A Las Vegas film locations walking tour

The Tropicana

Film title Year released Location(s) used Ref(s) Heldorado: 1946 citation neededOcean's 11: 1960 Riviera Hotel and Casino, Sands Hotel and Casino, Desert Inn, Sahara Hotel and Casino, Flamingo Las Vegas citation neededThe Incredibly Strange Creatures Who.
St Sofia's Greek Cathedral, Moscow Road, Bayswater, London, England, UK (interior Russian church of Our Lady of Smolensk, St. Petersburg) 3 of 3 found this interesting St. Isaac's Cathedral, Admiralteysky, Admiralteysky District, St. Petersburg, Russia.

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Start your Las Vegas film locations walking tour towards the south of the Strip at the Tropicana. It’s one of Las Vegas’ original 1950s casinos, and although it’s had a few facelifts since then it’s still kept a touch of vintage style, including the 1957 red Chevy parked out front.

The Tropicana has had links to the Mob both on-screen and off during its history, and it features as Michael Corleone’s casino in the first Godfather film (though it was renamed the Tropigala to avoid any legal issues – not that its stage name was too hard to guess!). The casino was also home to the French-inspired Folies Bergère show for almost 50 years, whose scantily clad showgirls feature in Elvis’ Viva Las Vegas and the 1971 Bond film Diamonds are Forever.

Vintage Tropicana

The Bellagio

From the Tropicana, follow the Strip north for a mile until you reach the Bellagio. The Bellagio plays a big role in the 2001 remake (and its sequels) of the 1960s Frank Sinatra Brat Pack movie Ocean’s 11. Ocean’s Eleven producer Jerry Weintraub and Bellagio owner Steve Wynn were friends so the production team got a 24-hour, all-areas pass to film there for five weeks.

Among the locations featured in the film are the casino floor, botanical gardens, art gallery, Picasso restaurant and the lobby with its Dale Chihuly glass ceiling. But the most famous scene was shot by the lake at the front of the casino, where the gang gather at the end of the film to watch the fountains choreographed to music. You can see the sound and light show every 30 minutes in the afternoons and every 15 minutes between 8pm and midnight.

Caesars Palace

Next cross over West Flamingo Road to the Bellagio’s neighbour, Caesars Palace (0.2 miles). Caesars Palace opened in the 1960s and took design inspiration from the Roman Empire, with a giant statue of Julius Caesar in the entrance and décor dripping with statues, mosaics, fountains and marble. On screen it most famously featured in The Hangover (and the film’s follow-up Part III) as the hotel where the guys stay during their drama-filled stag weekend.

Caesars Palace’s entrance, lobby, check in desk and the Garden of the Gods pool are all used in the film. But although their swanky room is based on the hotel’s Emperors Suite, in reality it was recreated in a Hollywood studio (I guess Caesars didn’t fancy hosting that tiger).

The real Emperors Suite does feature in Rain Man though, as where the brothers spend the night after a big blackjack win, and it’s still nicknamed the Rain Man Suite. Caesars Palace is a bit of a film favourite, and you can also see it in Iron Man, Intolerable Cruelty and Dreamgirls.

Caesars Palace’s lobby

The Venetian

Leave Ancient Rome behind and travel to Venice as you carry on walking up the Strip to The Venetian (0.6 miles). It includes replicas of famous Venetian landmarks like the Piazza San Marco, St Mark’s Campanile, Doge’s Palace and Rialto Bridge along with its own gondoliers. It sits on the site of the old Sands casino, which was a major filming locations for the original Ocean’s 11.

The Venetian itself features in the 2001 comedy Rat Race, which starred John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson, where the casino’s eccentric owner devises a competition where teams have to race from Vegas to Silver City, New Mexico to win $2 million dollars. One of the hotel’s suites is also used in the Sandra Bullock film Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous.

Circus Circus

Carry on north along the Strip until you reach Circus Circus (1.3 miles). It’s home to the largest big top in the world and you can see all the classic circus acts like clowns, jugglers, trapeze artists and tightrope walkers in their free shows (every hour from 11.30am).

Although Circus Circus gets a mention in Hunter S. Thompson’s book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, when it came to making the movie version the casino owners refused permission to film there. So the producers created their own version of Circus Circus’ merry-go-round bar (the real one’s sadly no longer there). The real Circus Circus is seen on screen in two very different spy films – Diamonds are Forever and Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

Roll up roll up

Graceland Wedding Chapel

The next hop is a bit longer, so you might want to either catch the Deuce bus or take a taxi downtown to Graceland Wedding Chapel (2.2 miles). The chapel opened in 1947 has been used for many celebrity weddings. Elvis visited in the 1960s and gave them permission to use the Graceland name, and it was the first place you could get married by an Elvis impersonator.

On screen, the Graceland Wedding Chapel is where Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek get married in the 1990s rom-com Fools Rush In, and it also features in the film version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. If you fancy trying it out for yourself while you’re in Vegas, then their wedding and vow renewal packages start from $199 (and Elvis is optional!).

The Graceland Wedding Chapel – photo credit time anchor on Flickr

Atomic Liquors

Walk up South 6th Street and then turn right along Fremont Street – home to nightly sound and light shows at the Fremont Street Experience – until you reach Atomic Liquors (0.8 miles). Atomic Liquors is the oldest freestanding bar in Las Vegas. It opened in 1945 and gets its name from the days when drinkers would climb onto the roof with a drink in hand to watch explosions from the nuclear test site 50 miles down the road (that and the atomic-strength cocktails).

The bar is another location from the first Hangover film as well as featuring in Casino. It’s been restored to its former glory and you can almost imagine one of its former regulars like Barbra Streisand or Sammy Davis Jr might be about to pull up a stool next to you.

Neon Museum

Finally take North 9th Street under the expressway and out to the Neon Museum (0.9 miles) – it’s not the smartest neighbourhood, so if you’re on your own or at night you might want to take a taxi instead. The Neon Boneyard and Museum is where signs from classic casinos like the Golden Nugget and Stardust come to spend their retirement. There are over 150 signs – and a few giant fibreglass models – which date back to the 1930s and tell the story of the city.

The original boneyard location (which was known as the Young Electric Sign Co then) is where Danny DeVito’s character comes to a sticky end in the sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks! Since then the signs have been relocated to a new site which was used in the 2013 Michael Douglas film Last Vegas as well as lots of music videos. Even the museum entrance is recycled – it was the lobby of the old La Concha Motel which had its own taste of film stardom in Casino.

The Neon Museum – photo credit Graeme Maclean on Flickr

Las Vegas film locations walking tour map

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This is a list of films and TV series set in Santa Catalina Island, California, United States. It covers topical settings and storyline subjects set in or around Santa Catalina Island. Included are individual episodes of TV series.

Films[edit]

This film-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

1910s[edit]

Man's Genesis - 1912 film by director D.W. Griffith, one of the first films made on Catalina Island^[1]
A Prizma Color Visit to Catalina - 1919 film in Prizma Color.

1920s[edit]

Terror Island - 1920 silent film, starring Harry Houdini and directed by James Cruze, filmed on Catalina Island^[1]
Leap Year - 1921 silent film, starring Roscoe Arbuckle, co-directed by James Cruze, partially filmed on Catalina Island
The Isle of Lost Ships - 1923 silent film, starring Anna Q. Nilsson, directed by Maurice Tourneur
Captain Blood - 1924 silent film, starring J. Warren Kerrigan and Jean Paige, with Catalina substituting for Barbados.
Feet of Clay - 1924 silent film, starring Rod La Rocque and Vera Reynolds, directed by Cecil B DeMille
The Navigator - 1924 silent comedy film, directed by and starring Buster Keaton, filmed over a 10-week period in Avalon Bay on Catalina Island
The Sea Hawk - 1924 silent film, directed by Frank Lloyd
Women Who Give - 1924 silent film, directed by Reginald Barker, with the island coastline impersonating Cape Cod
Never the Twain Shall Meet - 1925 silent film, directed by Maurice Tourneur, with pickup sequences on the island after the production returned from Tahiti
The Trouble with Wives - 1925 silent film, starring Florence Vidor, and Esther Ralston, for beach sequence
Old Ironsides - 1926 silent film, directed by James Cruze, the island posing as the shores of Tripoli
Sadie Thompson - 1928 silent film, directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Gloria Swanson with Catalina filling in for Pago Pago
Condemned - 1929 film, starring Ronald Colman and Ann Harding released with both talkie and silent versions.
Scarlet Seas - 1929 film, starring Richard Barthelmess and Betty Compson

1930s[edit]

My Past - 1931; starring Bebe Daniels
Island of Lost Souls - 1932; Charles Laughton, Bela Lugosi^[1]
Rain - 1932 film^[1]
The Narrow Corner - 1933 film; starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Patricia Ellis
Treasure Island - 1934 film^[1]
Mutiny on the Bounty - 1935; Charles Laughton, Clark Gable^[1]
Murder on a Honeymoon - 1935 film, starring Edna May Oliver as Hildegarde Withers, takes place on Catalina Island
Pirate Party on Catalina Isle - 1935 short film; features a pirate-themed variety show set on the island^[2]
Captain Blood - 1935 film^[1]
Captain Calamity - 1936
Captains Courageous - 1937 film^[1]
You're Only Young Once - 1937; Andy Hardy family vacation movie, starring Mickey Rooney
Blockade - 1938 film starring Henry Fonda and Madeleine Carroll
Isle of Destiny - 1939

1940s[edit]

Typhoon - 1940 film; starring Dorothy Lamour and Robert Preston

1950s[edit]

All Ashore - 1953 film; Mickey Rooney and Dick Haymes
Battle of the Coral Sea - 1959 firm.

1960s[edit]

Platinum High School - 1960 film; Mickey Rooney and Terry Moore.
Much of the 1964 film Raiders from Beneath the Sea was set in and around Avalon.
Several scenes in the 1966 romantic comedy film The Glass Bottom Boat, starring Doris Day and Rod Taylor, were filmed in and around Avalon and Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island.^[1]
The 1967 teen comedy film Catalina Caper, starring Tommy Kirk, was filmed on Santa Catalina Island. This movie was later featured in episode 204 of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Some of Summer Children (1965), a neo-noir film directed by James Bruner, was filmed in Avalon.

1970s[edit]

The Night of the Squid (16 January 1970), a documentary by Jacques Cousteau, was filmed in front of the Casino.
In Bless the Beasts and Children (1971); starring Bill Mumy, parts were filmed east of the Isthmus, including Catalina's 'buffalos' (bison) and some locals.
Several scenes from the 1974 film Chinatown, starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, were filmed on Catalina, including one showing the Casino.^[1]

1990s[edit]

The 1994 film Sherlock: Undercover Dog was both set and filmed on the island.
The closing sequence of the 1997 film Suicide Kings, starring Christopher Walken, Denis Leary, Sean Patrick Flanery, Johnny Galecki, Jay Mohr, Jeremy Sisto, and Henry Thomas is a sequence of aerial shots from various parts of Catalina Island. A long flying pan out the western harbor of the Two Harbors isthmus starts the sequence.^[1]
Portions of the 1998 film Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss, starring Sean Hayes and Brad Rowe, utilize the Catalina ferry terminal in San Pedro, California as well as locations on Catalina Island, including Avalon Harbor and the Casino building. The film closes with the song 'Love Slave of Catalina'.

2000s[edit]

The 2003 movie Aquanoids was filmed almost exclusively on the island. In the movie, Avalon was referred to as 'Babylon Bay' and the island as 'Santa Clara.'
The 2006 TV comedy Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door, featuring Crystal Allen, Ken Marino and Patrick Duffy, takes place on Catalina Island.
The ending to the 2008 film Step Brothers is supposed to be a wine mixer on the island of Catalina but was actually filmed at the Trump National Golf Course.^[3]

Television[edit]