Use in Film Productions
The building's exotic design made it an appealing location for Hollywood filmmakers.
Although used as a shooting location as early as 1933 (Female), the house first acquired morbid fame providing the exterior facade for the House on Haunted Hill, a 1959 B movie. The 1975 film The Day of the Locust made extensive use of the house as a private residence, but it was in 1982's Blade Runner that the house gained a popularity of its own among moviegoers, even though only the main character's arrival at the motor court was actually shot at the Ennis House. Its exterior also appears as "The Mansion" occupied by Angelus, Spike, and Drusilla in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Sections of the cathedral reminiscent interior, especially the elevated dining room and fireplace, have appeared in over a dozen films including The Karate Kid, Part III revealing the view of downtown Los Angeles, Black Rain, The Glimmer Man, The Replacement Killers, Rush Hour substituting for a floor of a Hong Kong skyscraper, and The Thirteenth Floor.
The house has also been used as a location for commercials, fashion magazine shoots and music videos, including 3T's "Why" featuring Michael Jackson. S Club 7's video for the single "Have You Ever" shows the band members living an everyday life in the house.
Impressed by the house, filmmakers either recreated original elements of the Ennis House on sound stage sets or vaguely imitated these as in Predator 2. After shooting the exterior scene on location for Blade Runner, the interior of Deckard's apartment was created at Warner Brothers. In the case of The Rocketeer, sections of the Ennis House were recreated in detail, including the patterned art glass, on a studio set. The Rocketeer went as far as adding an upper floor. On a smaller scale, tile casts of the block relief ornamentation were used for the Club Silencio doorframe in Mulholland Drive. David Lynch also used Ennis House for a segment of the show Twin Peaks. There was a show-within-a-show called Invitation to Love, and all of those scenes were shot in Ennis House.
A cartoon representation is featured in South Park as the base of a Chinese gang in the episode "Wing", satirizing the popular association of the Ennis House with criminal and/or Asian characters in films.
Because the house is situated in a densely populated neighborhood, tensions have arisen over the years in regard to film production crews, as well as the streams of tourists and restoration construction workers.
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