Movie Houses: Mid Century Modern Houses in Movies
Mid-Century Modern (MCM) is an architectural design and decorating style based upon clean lines, clear expanses of glass, open sight lines, a blurring of interior and exterior spaces and a complete lack of clutter. The style was developed and made popular by architects of the time, including Frank Lloyd Wright (Falling Water, Pennsylvania), Philip Johnson (Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut), and I.M. Pei (John Hancock Tower, Chicago) from the mid-1940’s to the mid-1970s. The style was initially popular in southern US locations (LA, Palm Springs, Miami) but spread to some northern rural locations as architects worked nationally and influenced their clients with their design preferences wherever they worked.
In movies, set designers have the unique opportunity to make their dreams a reality through the sets they design or in the buildings, they select in which to film. Mid-Century Modern design was an interpretation of a standard look often used in 1950s and 1960s films and has been making a huge comeback in recent films set in current time periods. The style has been and continues to be effectively used to exemplify characters: living a carefree bachelor lifestyle (What Women Want (2000)); the strength of empowered working women (Pillow Talk (1959)); lovers retreats (The Lake House (2006)); the lairs of evil supervillains (Diamonds Are Forever (1971)); and even the calm, secluded retreats of superheroes (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)). In fact, there are so many various depictions of iconic MCM design in film, TV, and animation, that I believe this article will require a sequel.
North by North West: (1959), The Vandamm Residence This Alfred Hitchcock directed spy caper has it all: a great plot, perfect script, edge of your seat suspense and top-notch actors (Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, Martin Landau, and James Mason). Most of all North by North West is an action-packed thriller in which architecture and locations act as supporting characters in the complicated plot. What other movies could seamlessly blend a plot line which flows from the New York City’s United Nations Building and Plaza Hotel, through to crop dusting biplane attacks in mid-west prairies, harrowing cliff side car chases, pursuit scenes on Mount Rushmore, and a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired villain’s lair?
Designed to emulate Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house in southwestern Pennsylvania, the perfectly situated Vandamm residence is a spectacular Mid-Century Modern house, perched atop Mount Rushmore. The home of the villainous spy, Phillip Vandamm, was fictitious, having been designed and fabricated from a combination of matte paintings created by artist Matthew Yuricich and physical structures and sets by Production Designer Robert Boyle at MGM studios in Culver City. The house has an idealistic position, open plan living spaces and a spectacular cantilevered balcony, limestone walls and classic MCM interiors.
