Doesw anyone know LA well? The locations for this movie were all done in the older part of LA where the streets and buildings had not changed an iota since Bob Mitchum was living there in the 40's. Would be great to know if these interiors are still there today, particularly the brothel where Marlowe was held during that entertaining scene
shareThere is no one "older" part of LA, truth be known. Due to the vast amount of open geography available, the way Los Angeles grew and was developed differs from a lot of other cities. Much of the original downtown, for example, remains pretty well intact (with a few very regrettable exceptions, with the buildings still in place today that were there up to 80 years ago (and more). Likewise, parts of central LA will look uncannily similar to 40s LA (the main difference being signage and vehicles passing by).
You may remember the building in this photo: http://cityplanning.lacity.org/complan/HCM/HCMDatabase/images/420%20Milbank-McFie%20Estate.pdf
which is located in the heart of Arlington Heights (not regarded by many as the most desirable neighborhood today, although others would disagree vehemently), along with a good many other similar residences. So much of the "old LA" is still here (thank God), simply because there was no need to tear down what had gone before in order to build anew.
Interestingly, much of the scenes in "Bay City" (Chandler's name for Santa Monica) were filmed in Long Beach which, in 1975, was still seedy enough to pass for 1940s Santa Monica. The place has cleaned up quite a bit since then.
As to the question regarding interiors, I'm really not sure how many interiors were shot away from the studio, even back then.
Regards,
Dud