MovieChat Forums > Where the Boys Are (1960) Discussion > The Marlin Beach Hotel or the Yankee Cli...

The Marlin Beach Hotel or the Yankee Clipper Wreck Bar????

posted 15 years ago by jocko2001
1 reply | jump to latest

Can someone please settle this argument?

The slapstick sea nymph scene with Barbara Nichols: was the location inspired (or actually filmed in) by the Wreck Bar at the Yankee Clipper (still existing) or the the downstairs bar at the Marlin Beach Hotel (torn down in the 90s)?

I was just in Lauderdale, and while the YC WB does have a window to the pool, so did the MB. (I know this from my 10th grade Homecoming Dance held there, as well as a few Tea Dances spent there in the early 80s) And to me, the one at the Marlin Beach most resembles the one in the movie; the one at the YC has a bar in front of it, and it not nearly large enough to be the one in the movie.

Surely someone out there can settle this, once and for all. And to me, just claiming it was the YC by the hotel itself is not enough.

I want proof! I tried writing Paula Prentiss on myspace.com, but I don't think it is really her, just a wannabe Paula!

Come on guys in Lauderdale, help me out!

Mike

[–] Ripshin 8 years ago

It is a film set at MGM. All interiors are film sets.

Vintage pics of both bars make it clear that the art director borrowed aspects of BOTH bars to create "The Tropical Isle."

It is not a direct replica of either one.

A great deal of this film was shot at MGM. The actual location shots are obvious - street scenes, some walking beach shots. Most of the beach scene conversations were at MGM (except the final one between Merritt & Ryder), and all of the hotel scenes, except the exteriors of the one where "Melanie" was raped. I'd guess that is in Los Angeles.

Being that so many actors were in the water at "The Tropical Isle," I can guarantee you that the set was built for safety, and the ability to "pull walls" for camera angles.