One of John Frankenheimer's more obscure films is "99 and 44/100% Dead" starring Richard Harris. Some of it was shot in in Seattle just down the street from where I lived. So on one Saturday afternoon as I was driving through the University District, I wondered why there was such a crowd gathered around the old elementary school building that had been closed for a couple years. They were shooting this explosive scene from the movie (very short sequence): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=byyQSmf9wqU#t=89s
I stood in the crowd watching them shoot the windows being blown out of the building as Harris, playing a gangster, walks away from it. It took three takes before the explosive charges actually worked. They had three Panavision cameras trained on the scene to make sure they got it. The film was only recently made available on DVD. It is truly a camp film and a cult favorite. Full trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=byyQSmf9wqU Seattle was a favored location back in the 1970s for shooting movies. Another film "Cinderella Liberty" starring James Caan and Marsha Mason was also shot there and the jazz group I worked in played the cast party. I accompanied James Caan as he "tried" to play a little 3/4 blues on piano. Sorry, no video of that though a "making of" crew did shoot some of the party but it wound up on the cutting room floor. I also came home from work one night and wondered what all the trucks were doing parked across the street. I had noticed earlier in the day that no parking posters had gone up. The next day a scene for a TV movie was shot in the bar across the street.
