5 MOVIES THAT CAPTURE PALM SPRINGS’ ICONIC SIGHTS
Hollywood is every bit as besotted with Palm Springs’ midcentury modern architecture as we are. Those distinctive designs, iconic palm trees and arid terrain appear on screens large and small. We may not be able to get our midcentury-mod fix in real life, but we can get it virtually. Here’s just a sampling of movies shot in Palm Springs.
1 ’Diamonds are Forever’
The name’s Elrod, Elrod House. John Lautner designed the sleek, round modernist retreat where Sean Connery’s iconic 007 character encounters Bambi and Thumper in this 1971 movie. Built two years before for interior designer Arthur Elrod — hence the name — the 9,000-square-foot home includes a domed, circular living room with a retractable wall and a swimming pool below, which is where James Bond lands during the fight scene.
2 ‘Ocean’s Eleven’
The 2001 heist movie that turned Danny Ocean (George Clooney), Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) and their buddies into brilliant casino thieves included an uncredited star. The Las Vegas home of millionaire hotelier Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould) was played by a mid-mod Palm Springs house on North Patencio Road.
3 ‘Behind the Candelabra’
Scenes from this 2013 HBO biopic, which starred Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover, Scott Thorson, were filmed at City Hall, Our Lady of Solitude Church and in the Las Palmas neighborhood, where Liberace lived during his final days.
4 ‘Mission: Impossible III’
Tom Cruise was in impeccable form in his third adrenaline-fueled outing as secret agent Ethan Hunt. But that helicopter chase through the field of wind turbines near Berlin? That’s Palm Springs. More specifically, it’s San Gorgonio Mountain Pass, where 4,000 windmills capture enough wind energy to power Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley.
5 ‘Palm Springs’
We’re cheating. This 2020 Hulu rom-com, which starred Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti as wedding guests caught in a time-loop, wasn’t actually shot in Palm Springs. A weekend visit to the city inspired director Max Barbakow and screenwriter Andy Siara’s plot, but the movie was filmed in Palmdale and nearby Santa Clarita, just north of Los Angeles. It sure feels like Palm Springs, though.