CREDITS MILLION DOLLAR BABY , 2004 dir: Clint Eastwood Hilary Swank Clint Eastwood Morgan Freeman

“Frankie likes to say that boxing is an unnatural act; that everything in boxing is backwards. Sometimes the best way to deliver a punch is to step back. But step back too far and you ain't fighting at all.”

What begins as a female Rocky, develops into something deeper. Clint Eastwood’s Oscar magnet was filmed almost entirely around LA, where aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) originally waits tables at the On The Waterfront Cafe, 205 Ocean Front Walk, at Ozone Avenue, Venice Beach (tel: 310.392.0322).

Million Dollar Baby location: Frankie winds up the priest: Church of St Mark, Venice

Also in Venice is the Church of St Mark, 940 Coeur d’Alene Avenue, where Frankie enjoys winding up the priest but ultimately goes for guidance. ‘The Hit Pit’, the gym of grizzled veteran Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood) was constructed by 89-year-old veteran production designer Henry Bumstead in a warehouse downtown LA.

Over in Hollywood, Frankie later visits Maggie when she's working at Shelly Cafe, 7013 Hollywood Boulevard at North Orange Drive (tel: 323.467.2233).

Million Dollar Baby location: the diner: Shelly Cafe, Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood

Fight scenes filmed, naturally, in the Grand Olympic Auditorium, 1801 South Grand Avenue at Olympic Boulevard (tel: 213.749.5171), downtown LA, which has hosted countless boxing pictures, including both Raging Bull and Rocky.

Million Dollar Baby location: the Hollywood Athletic Club

Even the ‘English’ bout, at the ‘River Thames Boxing Association’, is LA, It's the Hollywood Athletic Club, 6525 Hollywood Boulevard (tel: 323.462.6262), the same building in which the gang meet the mysterious Mr Kobayashi in The Usual Suspects). And the fateful fight in the ‘Las Vegas Arena’ is the Hollywood Palladium, 6215 Sunset Boulevard (tel: 323.962.7600), previously seen in John Schlesinger's apocalyptic Hollywood satire Day of the Locust and in The Blues Brothers.