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'Jake's
Palace': Avalon Hollywood, North Vine
Street, Hollywood
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AGAINST
ALL ODDS filming locations
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CREDITS
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Shifty Jake
Wise (James Woods),
the owner of Hollywood nitespot Jake’s Palace,
hires washed up football player Terry Brogan (Jeff
Bridges) to find Jessie Wyler (Rachel
Ward) in this convoluted remake of the 1947 film
noir Out Of The Past (aka Build My Gallows
High).
The ‘Palace’is the Avalon Hollywood, 1735
North Vine Street opposite the Capitol Records Tower,
by Hollywood Boulevard. Built as the Hollywood Playhouse
in 1927, the theatre became El Capitan in 1942, venue
for many TV shows including This Is Your Life in the
fifties. It became the Hollywood PalaceTheater in 1964
and rock/jazz club Avalon in 2003 (tel: 213.462.8900).
Brogans’ investigations take him down Mexico way –
the exotic island resort on which he finds Wyler is the
tiny, and relatively unspoiled, island of Cozumel,
off the east coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, a
mere 30 minute flight from that wildly over-developed
tourist mecca Cancun.
75 miles south of Cancun, Route 307, at Tulum
on the mainland coast, you can see the Mayan ruins where
Brogan and Wyler finally get together. Although not
the most spectacular ruins, the alabaster temples are
unique, being the only Mayan site built directly on
the coast (tel: 988. 3.1505, admission charge).
The much more spectacular ruins where Coach Sully catches
up with the pair is the Toltec site of Chichen
Itza. Amazingly, Jessie Wyler’s speech about Mayan
football is generally true. A form of soccer was played
in the 272-feet long pitch seen here, and the game did
indeed end in ritual sacrifice with the beheading of
the losing team (though some claim this fate was awarded
to the winners as an honour).
The square mile of ruins tends to be overrun
by tourists – best to get there early in the day. Buses
run from Cancun or Merida.
Visit on the spring or autumn equinox to see the awesome
optical illusion created when carefully engineered shadows
become the body of giant plumed snake god Quetzlcoatl
writhing down from the temple at the top of El
Castillo (the giant pyramid you can see in
the background of the movie) to the carved serpent head
at the bottom.
After killing Coach Sully, Brogan disposes of the body
in the Sacred Cenote,
a 200-foot wide well half a mile into the jungle north
of the site. He seems to be following tradition – precisely
why the dank water is so well stocked with skeletons
isn’t known, but the most popular theories involve screaming
sacrificial victims being hurled down the 70-foot drop.
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FILMING
LOCATIONS FOR AGAINST
ALL ODDS
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CHECK
OUT
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Visiting Chichen Itza
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ASSOCIATED
FILMS |
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Previously
filmed, in 1947 as Out
of the Past (aka Build
My Gallows High).
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