The Whole Ten Yards (2004)

In setting and shooting the film in and around Los Angeles, the filmmakers took advantage of many well-known landmark locations.

Filming began at the historic Lightman House in Rancho Palos Verde, California. Built in 1926, this Tuscan gatehouse was designed by architect Gordon Kaufman. Although the planned villa was never built due to the stock market crash of 1929, the standing buildings, the majestic ocean views and lush landscape made the perfect location for the Tudeskis’ comfortable Mexican hideaway. The chickens had to be trucked in. For Oz and his wife, the production used the Mark Goodman House in Hancock Park, one of the oldest and most impressive areas of Los Angeles, to capture all the elegance and style that the home of a successful Southern California dentist might reflect.

In downtown Los Angeles, two historic sites were used for portions of the film, Union Railroad Station and Olvera Street Plaza. Union Station, built in 1939 as a prime example of Spanish Mission and Art Deco styles, offered the filmmakers a wide variety of angles in which to shoot and doubled as the film’s LA Bus Terminal.

Named after Agustin Olvera, Los Angeles’ first judge, this block-long street is one of the oldest in the city. In 1930 it was revitalized as a Mexican marketplace and the production was able to use its tropical foliage, ancient fig trees and brick-walled plaza to full effect to capture the flavor of a small Mexican town.

Additional locations include the recently renovated Argyle Hotel on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood and the Pink Motel in Sunland where Jimmy and Oz drown their sorrows, specifically chosen, admits production designer Virginia Randolph-Weaver, “because it’s absolutely not a place where you would expect either of them to be.”

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