Unbelievably, a movie about the lives of hopeless alcoholics actually includes a number of scenes
not shot in a bar. Here we'll take a look at them in "The filming locations of Barfly, Part II - the NON-BAR scenes!"
(All images: American Zoetrope, Google Maps - underlined links show the scene on Google street view.)
In the movie's first non-bar scene, we see "Henry" (Mickey Rourke) walking along the street. First he walks past some red bricks, then some green bricks:
This scene was shot at
the northwest corner of Third and Berendo streets. Note that both the red and green bricks still remain to this day:
As Henry walks past the green bricks, you can clearly see the reflection of the apartment building at
316 South Berendo in the shop window:
The scene continues as Henry walks west on Third Street. In this shot, we can see the former "
Frolic Beer Bar", located at 3617 W Third Street:
Later on, Henry pauses at a fire hydrant and crosses the street:
Once again, we are at the corner of Third and Berendo -
above we are looking north, at the top of the buildings Henry walks past with the color bricks, while
below we are looking west at the Bengal (formerly Ho's) liquor store:
THE CORN SCENE!
... was shot at
334 S Westlake Ave.
Note that the two images do
not line up perfectly. This is because the apartment building on the left (below) is a new building, and at the time
Barfly was filmed it was a vacant lot - the location of the corn. In other words, the
Barfly shot is just to the left of the Google image. I believe that the palm tree
behind the light pole in the
Barfly image above is actually
this palm tree:
Both of these background buildings can be seen in
Barfly. However, the new apartment building now blocks the building on the left from being seen from Westlake Ave:
As Henry and "Wanda" (Faye Dunaway) are picking corn the police shine a spotlight on them. The two run from the police into the
Royal Palms apartment building at
360 S Westlake Ave:
Here, for the sake of clarity, is an aerial shot of where the scene plays out:
If you watch closely, you can see Henry and Wanda run past the still-existing stairs and driveway:
NOTE: While these scenes at the Royal Palms were being filmed, Charles Bukowski visited the set. He was surprised to discover that the crew had chosen to film at the Royal Palms, an apartment building where he and Jane Cooney Baker (on whom the Wanda character is based) actually lived during their relationship. This was a complete coincidence, as nobody who was working on the film knew beforehand that Bukowski and Jane had lived there.
Once they are
inside of Wanda's apartment room, however, some Hollywood trickery is performed - the two aren't actually in the Royal Palms -
they are now about 10 blocks away inside of
the Bryson Apartments at 2701 Wilshire Blvd:
LA Department of City Planning
Note the shadows on Wanda's wall - they match the distinctive style of the Bryson's paperclip-like balcony railing:
Another shot of the balcony railing:
It would take far too long to show all of the evidence that the interior of Wanda's apartment was shot inside of the Bryson, but
all of the shots through the windows reveal their true location. For example, you can see the
Sheraton Town House at 639 S Commonwealth Ave from the west-facing window behind Henry:
It is stated multiple times in the movie that Wanda's apartment is on the third floor. This seems correct to me, judging by the view out of her windows.
Since she has a corner apartment, facing west and north, that would mean that this is the location of her apartment (the bottom floor is a basement, so the floor that looks like the fourth is actually the third - the floor that is street-level is the second floor):
In a fit of jealousy, Henry tosses Wanda's clothing out the window at the Bryson:
Some of the clothes land outside of the Bryson:
... while miraculously, some of the clothes land 10 blocks away, outside of the Royal Palms:
Later, Henry and Wanda leave the Bryson, which again turns into the Royal Palms once they are outside.
Notice that in the shot from the movie, directly below, there are not yet any buildings in the background...
only corn fields...
By the way, I remember that "Royal Palms 360" sign. I liked it, I don't know why they got rid of it.
The two go walking south on Westlake Ave, and a block down they pass
the Regina Apartments at 420 S Westlake. You don't get to see the building very well, but the same kind of stickers are still used for the address:
They walk past one more building that has since been torn down, until they speak to a man in a vacant lot:
The ornate-looking building behind Henry (green) is
the Cameo Hotel, at 504 S Bonnie Brae street:
I believe that the building highlighted in magenta is the
Madison on Fifth apartments at 467 S Bonnie Brae, but if so the exterior has been
heavily modified since 1987.
Henry puts Wanda on the bus at the corner of
6th and Westlake by the
Hotel Barbizon, with the
Hotel Californian behind the Barbizon:
The Hotel Californian was destroyed by a fire in 1995, but its signs were rescued and were stored by the Mulholland Fountain in Griffith Park, where they languished for some time. You can actually see them in
this Google street view from 2009:
I actually visited the sign while it was there, and took about a dozen photos of it. Here are two of my photos:
The sign was refurbished, and since March of 2017 it sits atop
The Paseo at Californian, a new 53 apartment low-income housing complex in the same location as the former Hotel Californian:
Henry and the publisher, "Tully Sorenson" (Alice Krige) are shown driving east on Sunset Blvd, from Crescent Heights in West Hollywood all the way to Kingsley Drive in Hollywood's Thai Town, a distance of 3.7 miles.
They start at
Great Western Savings -
now a branch of Chase Bank -
located at 8150 Sunset Blvd, on the Sunset Strip.
Henry pulls Tully's Mercedes back to speak to a prostitute, with the
Chateau Marmont in the background:
The same view today:
They drive past the
All American Burger, which is now
a Chipotle restaurant:
... and within a blink of an eye, they are half way across town, facing
Bill's Liquor at
the corner of Sunset and Serrano Ave:
The couple in the car in front of them (which features a license plate that says "KSS MY AS") keep making out at the intersection, even after the light turns green, prompting Henry to honk his horn at them. The driver responds by flipping Henry the bird and yelling "**** YOU!", setting up the next scene.
They drive a block further east, reaching
the intersection of Sunset and Hobart Blvd. Henry decides to teach the amorous couple a lesson by pushing their car into the busy intersection:
Here is the intersection today. The large building on the right was a JONS supermarket at the time of filming. It is now a 99¢ store:
NOTE: If you look very closely at the shot of the amorous couple from behind, you can just make out a Shakeys Pizza sign:
Photo credit for Shakeys sign inset
The restaurant, still located at
5170 Sunset Blvd, was often visited by the real-life Charles Bukowski, as Bukowski lived so near to it:
Bukowski's bungalow,
located at 5124 De Longpre Avenue, has been given monument status:
image credit
The lovers flee the scene, showing
the intersection of Sunset and Hobart, looking north:
The intersection today:
The final, non-bar scene is the home of the publisher, Tully Sorenson. It is located at
7515 Mulholland Drive:
The house is almost entirely unchanged, but I had to scroll back to 2011 on Google street view to reveal the wall. The wall is still standing, but is now covered by vegetation.
A large...
gatehouse..?... has been erected over the driveway, but other than that the home is identical to how it appeared in the movie.
By the way, the Sunset Blvd path the two took to get from Wanda's apartment to Tully's home in no way resembles the path you'd actually have to take to get from one to the other:
But hey, that's Hollywood for ya!
By the way, I kind of geek out about
every movie shot in LA like this - but very few of them feature so many great LA locations as
Barfly!
PS: GREAT old 1927 image of the Kenmore building,
Hoss! I could have probably stared at it for twenty minutes without realizing what is was, it's so unrecognizable today.
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This is a very controversial topic that no doubt will lead to arguments. (similar to what happened last week) -with one of your post. 
A sequel worthy of Mario Puzo! Longer than a CVS receipt! Able to crush broadband internet connections in a single post! It will be an EPIC, I tell ya!! 
). I'll respond to your query in my next post, and I'll try not to blather on for too long in the process!
e_r -- the Dendrologist Society of the Northern Hemisphere will be contacting you to teach you the secret handshake all dendrologists need to know!
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