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The day Marty Feldman came to town
"The film crew tried to keep me from going in"
Marty Feldman tries to hide from pursuers in Horton Plaza in a scene from In God We Trust
The 1979 film Hardcore shows downtown at its Sodom and Gomorrah peak, with George C. Scott stumbling through wall-to-wall porno shops in search of information about his missing porn-star daughter. He makes his way down Fourth and Fifth Avenues, dodging hunchbacked junkies and drooling perverts at every step.
"There are some fantastic shots of 1979 downtown San Diego," notes projectionist Dan Whitehead, who worked at most of the downtown movie theaters for over 20 years, beginning in 1972. "Places I'd all but forgotten. Great shot of the Pussycat on 4th. Also a fantastic shot of the Aztec."
You can see also the two Horton Plaza cinemas the Cabrillo and the Plaza during their final days in the 1980 Marty Feldman film In God We Trust, partially shot downtown where the crew spent around three days. Several locals were signed to contracts as extras to appear in street scenes. "They took one of the box-office ladies named Olivia and put glasses and a wig on her," recalls Whitehead.
"I think I ruined one of their shots. The Cabrillo paged me with an emergency, and the film crew tried to keep me from going in. I just pushed past them and went in anyway. As far as I was concerned, there was an emergency, and [theater operators] Walnut was paying my check, not them. Asshole me, ha?"
Released in September 1980 and directed and co-written by Feldman himself, In God We Trust was the second film in a multi-picture agreement between Universal and Feldman, following the moderate success of The Last Remake of Beau Geste.
The film features Feldman as Brother Ambrose, a monk from the Order of St. Ambrose the Unlikely who is conscripted to seek desperately needed funding from televangelist Armageddon T. Thunderbird (Andy Kaufman). Kaufman, whose character announces at one point "Money can't buy happiness, only POWER can do that," is said to have practiced preaching on the actual streets during filming, never breaking character. Along the road to finding Thunderbird, Brother Ambrose is ripped off by a traveling preacher (Peter Boyle) and befriended by a friendly prostitute (Louise Lasser), who helps him to track down the elusive televangelist.
(Local newspaper scans courtesy Kimberly Windom) 
Kimberly Windom recalls being cast as an extra in the film and is seen (mostly from behind) walking the street in a white dress. "I think I worked a week on that. In fact, I met my soon-to-be boyfriend on that film. He was a cameraman, Alan Disler."
"I think I was 20 when it filmed," she says. "Usually, the down time is boring, but this was great. The special effects crew had just wrapped up Dracula with Frank Langella. They had a case of remote controlled bats they let me fly over old Horton Plaza...the cast and crew were staying I think at the Hotel San Diego. Alan and I were in the room under Louise Lasser. Although we didn't know each other yet, David Farage of San Diego's DFX2 fame was also an extra on this. He was put into almost a Paul Stanley kind of make up, the star over the eye, and was filmed wandering carrying his guitar case. I think he worked two or three days."
(Film extras including Kimberly Windom in the white dress)
"We worked late into the night and sometimes it got very cold. Couldn't ask to work with or for better people. Marty was great fun and so nice but, when he was directing and working, he was very serious. As you can imagine, all of the stars were hilarious, and many ate their meals with the rest of the crew. Very nice and such fun."
The movie tanked at the box office, with Roger Ebert giving the film 1.5 stars out of 4. According to Ebert, "[Feldman] doesn’t realize that he’s primarily a comic actor, and needs material if he’s going to be funny. It’s not funny just to sit and look at him, no matter what this movie apparently thinks." Feldman passed away two years later, in 1982. Here's some San Diego screenshots from the DVD -
Here's something you might be interested in.
The day Marty Feldman came to town
"The film crew tried to keep me from going in"
The day Marty Feldman came to town
"The film crew tried to keep me from going in"
Marty Feldman tries to hide from pursuers in Horton Plaza in a scene from In God We Trust
The 1979 film Hardcore shows downtown at its Sodom and Gomorrah peak, with George C. Scott stumbling through wall-to-wall porno shops in search of information about his missing porn-star daughter. He makes his way down Fourth and Fifth Avenues, dodging hunchbacked junkies and drooling perverts at every step.
"There are some fantastic shots of 1979 downtown San Diego," notes projectionist Dan Whitehead, who worked at most of the downtown movie theaters for over 20 years, beginning in 1972. "Places I'd all but forgotten. Great shot of the Pussycat on 4th. Also a fantastic shot of the Aztec."
You can see also the two Horton Plaza cinemas the Cabrillo and the Plaza during their final days in the 1980 Marty Feldman film In God We Trust, partially shot downtown where the crew spent around three days. Several locals were signed to contracts as extras to appear in street scenes. "They took one of the box-office ladies named Olivia and put glasses and a wig on her," recalls Whitehead.
"I think I ruined one of their shots. The Cabrillo paged me with an emergency, and the film crew tried to keep me from going in. I just pushed past them and went in anyway. As far as I was concerned, there was an emergency, and [theater operators] Walnut was paying my check, not them. Asshole me, ha?"
Released in September 1980 and directed and co-written by Feldman himself, In God We Trust was the second film in a multi-picture agreement between Universal and Feldman, following the moderate success of The Last Remake of Beau Geste.
The film features Feldman as Brother Ambrose, a monk from the Order of St. Ambrose the Unlikely who is conscripted to seek desperately needed funding from televangelist Armageddon T. Thunderbird (Andy Kaufman). Kaufman, whose character announces at one point "Money can't buy happiness, only POWER can do that," is said to have practiced preaching on the actual streets during filming, never breaking character. Along the road to finding Thunderbird, Brother Ambrose is ripped off by a traveling preacher (Peter Boyle) and befriended by a friendly prostitute (Louise Lasser), who helps him to track down the elusive televangelist.
(Local newspaper scans courtesy Kimberly Windom)
Kimberly Windom recalls being cast as an extra in the film and is seen (mostly from behind) walking the street in a white dress. "I think I worked a week on that. In fact, I met my soon-to-be boyfriend on that film. He was a cameraman, Alan Disler."
"I think I was 20 when it filmed," she says. "Usually, the down time is boring, but this was great. The special effects crew had just wrapped up Dracula with Frank Langella. They had a case of remote controlled bats they let me fly over old Horton Plaza...the cast and crew were staying I think at the Hotel San Diego. Alan and I were in the room under Louise Lasser. Although we didn't know each other yet, David Farage of San Diego's DFX2 fame was also an extra on this. He was put into almost a Paul Stanley kind of make up, the star over the eye, and was filmed wandering carrying his guitar case. I think he worked two or three days."
(Film extras including Kimberly Windom in the white dress)
"We worked late into the night and sometimes it got very cold. Couldn't ask to work with or for better people. Marty was great fun and so nice but, when he was directing and working, he was very serious. As you can imagine, all of the stars were hilarious, and many ate their meals with the rest of the crew. Very nice and such fun."
The movie tanked at the box office, with Roger Ebert giving the film 1.5 stars out of 4. According to Ebert, "[Feldman] doesn’t realize that he’s primarily a comic actor, and needs material if he’s going to be funny. It’s not funny just to sit and look at him, no matter what this movie apparently thinks." Feldman passed away two years later, in 1982. Here's some San Diego screenshots from the DVD -