How Golden Age Hollywood inspired our favourite holiday spots
Whether it is Peter Fonda kicking up dust on a Harley in the Arizona desert, Anita Ekberg bathing nymph-like in the spray of the Trevi Fountain, or Julie Andrews twirling and belting her heart out in the Austrian Alps, Golden Age Hollywood changed how we go on holiday: catapulting destinations onto the global stage, inspiring generations to go there, and forever defining what they hoped to find when they arrived.
From steamboat escapades along the crocodile-infested Nile to jewel heists on the French Riviera and romantic romps through Rome, New York and Paris, the Big Five studios (MGM, RKO, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros and Paramount) did more than just scoop Oscars and entertain smooching, popcorn-scoffing audiences with their box-office hits. Their films made us want to get out there, live a bit, see the big wide world.
The advent of sound film production and Technicolor brought this world dazzlingly to life on big screens during the Golden Age, officially from 1927 to 1969. Song, dance, glitz, glamour and fairy-tale magic – it was all yours for the price of a cinema ticket. Romance simmered in these movies of moonlight, longing gazes and lingering embraces. Directors plucked from a galaxy of stars to deliver the dream: Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, and Gene Kelly tripping the light fantastic.
Even today, you can’t watch one of these movies without suffering from serious wanderlust. To inspire your travels, here are 10 of our all-time favourites, in which a glorious location steals the limelight, smouldering in the memory long after the closing credits.
Easy Rider
1969 | US
The mind-expanding freedom of the open road, the bubble-popping reality of the American Dream, the joint-smoking, rebel-let-loose spirit of the 1969ers and the delirious beauty of the US landscape are all rolled up in this cult classic.
Ultra-cool “Captain America” Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and his crazy, acid-dropping buddy Billy (Dennis Hopper) cut deep into the body of America’s southwest, and watching them rumble cross-country from LA to New Orleans through valleys, canyons and desert on their Harley-Davidson choppers will have you longing to fly to the States and hit the road. The backdrops are epic: the wilds of New Mexico, the fiery buttes of Monument Valley, the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana’s bayous – and, of course, Route 66.
The movie cost less than $400,000 to make, with Fonda and Hopper saving on crew by picking up hippies across the country and using friends to hold cameras. They were reportedly stoned most of the time, too: Jack Nicholson, who cut his teeth in the film, said they smoked 155 joints during filming.
Stay: In Wild West road trip country, Goulding’s Lodge (001 435 727 3231; gouldings.com) has a Monument Valley view , a pool and spacious rooms. Doubles from £170.
The Sound of Music
1965 | Salzburg
Who can look at an Alpine meadow in bloom without wanting to do a Julie Andrews-like twirl while singing The Hills Are Alive? In Salzburg and its surrounds, the peaks send spirits soaring like Maria’s octave-leaping vocals in this Rodgers and Hammerstein hit. This is the movie that taught the world to sing, to reinvent old curtains as play clothes, and that true love triumphs over scheming socialites and Nazis.
Devising your own self-guided spin of the film locations is a terrifically fun way to see Salzburg. The Sound of Music is everywhere here: from the easily reached mountaintop of Untersberg (the opening and closing scenes) to Benedictine Nonnberg Abbey, where nuns still waltz on their way to mass (come at 6.45am to hear Gregorian chants), the Sixteen Going on Seventeen pavilion in Hellbrunn Park and the Mirabell Palace gardens of Do-Re-Mi fame. If you wish, book Fräulein Maria’s warble-as-you-pedal Bicycle Tour.
The Sound of Music is admittedly a Marmite movie, and word has it that Christopher Plummer (Captain Georg von Trapp) hated it. He called the film “the sound of mucus” and, despite being the best of friends with Julie Andrews, likened working with her to “being hit over the head with a big Valentine’s Day card, every day”.
Stay: Stay at Schloss Leopoldskron (0043 662 839830; schloss-leopoldskron.com), the baroque palace in the lake scene. The Venetian room was the blueprint for the von Trapps’ ballroom where the children bade farewell. Doubles from £180, B&B
La Dolce Vita
1960 | Rome
If you were to choose just one scene to embody the Golden Age of cinema, it might be pneumatic, blonde and improbably gorgeous Anita Ekberg (Sylvia) in the Trevi Fountain, puckering up to swarthy Marcello Mastroianni (Marcello Rubini) in Federico Fellini’s sublime La Dolce Vita, which follows philandering, carefree, party-loving tabloid journalist Marcello in his search for love and happiness.
And ah, bella Roma! If you haven’t been, you will be itching to go after bingeing on its beauty in this riotous three-hour frolic through the Italian capital, whizzing past the Terme di Caracalla baths, Piazza del Popolo, the Spanish Steps and St Peter’s Basilica.
The Trevi Fountain clincher was filmed in winter, during which Swedish-born Ekberg cavorted in freezing water for hours like a true pro. Mastroianni, however, wore a wetsuit and downed a bottle of vodka.
With too much sex and religious fun-poking, the film was denounced by the Catholic church as immoral and blasphemous, and it asked that it be boycotted. It was a hit anyway, of course.
Stay: A coin’s throw from the Trevi Fountain, Hotel Barocco (0039 06487 2001; hotelbarocco.com) is a swish number overlooking baroque Piazza Barberini. Doubles from £177, B&B
The African Queen
1951 | East Africa
The heat and thrill of Africa are palpable in this adventure flick starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. Set in East Africa during the First World War, it recounts prim English Rose (Hepburn) convincing a gin-swigging steamboat captain (Bogart) to journey up a treacherous river to attack a German gunship. The pair fight, dodge death and – spoiler – fall in love.
Filmed on the Nile and on a tributary of the Congo River, this classic triggers serious yearnings for the wilds of Africa, thanks to the jaw-droppingly beautiful Ruki River in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda’s Lake Albert and Murchison Falls.
Bogart hated Africa from the outset, dodging sickness by surviving on “baked beans, canned asparagus and Scotch”. Hepburn, on the contrary, thought it was “utterly divine”.
Stay: Go off-grid at Murchison River Lodge (00256 714 000085; murchisonriverlodge.com) on the Nile’s south bank. Doubles from £156 (full board)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
1961 | New York City
With that slinky black shift dress and pearls, Breakfast at Tiffany’s put a gorgeously gamine Audrey Hepburn on the podium as a global style icon. Directed by Blake Edwards and beautifully adapted from Truman Capote’s 1958 novella, the American romantic comedy propelled Hepburn to stardom as the naïve and eccentric social butterfly Holly Golightly.
Who can forget that heart-melting moment when she plays Moon River by the fire escape of her Upper East Side brownstone apartment? No wonder struggling writer Paul (George Peppard) was utterly captivated.
New York burns brightly as the backdrop: the skyline of Manhattan, Central Park and (Holly’s favourite) Tiffany & Co on Fifth Avenue, with most of the exterior shots really filmed in the Big Apple.
While the film is forever synonymous with Hepburn, Capote famously wanted Marilyn Monroe to play the role of Holly, calling it the “most miscast film” he had seen. As for the dress – often copied, never matched – it was custom made by Hubert de Givenchy and auctioned at Christie’s for £467,200 in 2006.
Stay: Channel your inner Holly with a lavish night at five-star the Mark (001 212 744 4300; themarkhotel.com) on the city’s Upper East Side. Doubles from £980, room only
An American in Paris
1951 | Paris
Even if you have never set foot in Paris, you will feel its joyous heartbeat watching this all-singing, all-dancing American musical, inspired by George Gershwin’s 1928 jazz-influenced orchestral piece. The energy and pouty allure of the French capital shine in this tale about struggling American artist Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly), who falls for ingénue Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron) and her light-footed dance moves.
There is a shot of romance and a bucketload of razzmatazz in the film, but Paris is the true star, despite the fact that the movie was largely shot on 44 purpose-built sets in California, where the Left Bank, the fountain in Place de la Concorde, and Café Bel Ami near the Seine were all lovingly recreated in glorious detail.
Gene Kelly was a huge fan of France, loving its language, art, joie de vivre and elegance. This is mirrored in his character, Jerry Mulligan, who famously says: “Paris is a mood, a longing you didn’t know you had until it was answered. Paris is like love or art or faith, it can’t be explained, only felt.”
Stay: Book boutique-chic L’Hôtel (0033 144 41 99 00; l-hotel.com), the final home of Oscar Wilde. Doubles from £335
The King and I
1956 | Thailand
All the romance and mystique of old Siam (now Thailand) drifts through this mood-boosting Rodgers and Hammerstein knockout, which won five Oscars in 1957. With its flurry of sumptuous costumes and feel-good tunes, the musical is based on Margaret Landon’s 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam, inspired by the escapades of Anna Harriette Leonowens, governess to King Mongkut (Rama IV) of Siam. Deborah Kerr steals the limelight as Anna, British tutor to the numerous children of King Mongkut (Yul Brynner).
Bangkok’s gilded wats, bell-shaped pagodas and Grand Palace (residence of the Kings of Siam since 1782) seem pretty convincing to non-critical eyes, but the movie was actually shot at the 20th Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles. No matter, you will still hanker after the sizzle and spice of Thailand after curling up under a blanket to watch this on a grey, rainy day.
Deemed disrespectful and historically inaccurate, the film is banned in Thailand to this day. However, it was correct on at least one point: King Mongkut really did have 32 wives and concubines, and sired at least 82 children during his lifetime.
Stay: Just steps from Wat Pho and the Grand Palace, Aurum the River Place (0066 2622 2248; aurum-bangkok.com) is an elegant four-star base, with dreamy views across the Chao Phraya River. Doubles from £75, B&B
Roman Holiday
1953 | Rome
The giddy romance of Rome roars to life in this American romantic comedy, directed and produced by William Wyler. And who better as the leading lady than Audrey Hepburn? The sparky 24-year-old starlet gets her big break alongside a dashing Gregory Peck in this sunny, far-fetched tale about a princess (Hepburn) who gives her guardians the slip, heads out to explore Rome and meets an American reporter (Peck).
Seventy years down the line, the movie still seduces, with Hepburn and Peck whirling through the Italian capital’s café-rimmed piazzas, careering through narrow streets on a Vespa and ticking off the blockbuster sights – the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps, the Mouth of Truth on Piazza Bocca della Verità. Even in black and white, you feel the pulse and vibrancy of the city in what the trailer calls a “romance as radiant as the Roman moonlight”.
Paramount wanted to shoot in Hollywood, but Wyler insisted they do so on location, albeit on a lower budget. Filming in Technicolor was ditched because of the expense, though the official line was that it was filmed in black and white to focus on characters over location. It worked, with Hepburn getting an Oscar for Best Actress.
Stay: Petite Palazzo Velabro (0039 06 9761 9197; marriott.com), an 18th-century manor, places you in Rome’s historic heart. Doubles from £244
Lawrence of Arabia
1962 | Middle East
Sweeping desertscapes make for riveting viewing in this three-hour epic. Up there with the best films of all time, Lawrence of Arabia unravels the life and adventures of T E Lawrence and his 1926 book Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Directed by David Lean and produced by Sam Spiegel, it features a star-studded cast: Peter O’Toole (Lawrence), Omar Sharif (Sherif Ali), Alec Guinness (Prince Faisal) and Anthony Quinn (Auda Abu Tayi). Women are relegated to the occasional ululating tribe of Bedouin wives as men race off to battle in a thunder of hooves.
The gripping tale details Lawrence’s involvement in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. While much of the film was made in Spain (Seville representing Cairo, Jerusalem and Damascus), it is the deserts of Jordan that blaze in the memory, especially the rust-red cliffs of Wadi Rum.
Despite bagging seven Oscars, the movie was banned in some Arab countries, which found it culturally disrespectful. It was, however, shown in Egypt after Omar Sharif arranged a viewing with President Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein.
Stay: Sleep under the stars in a bivouac at the Bedouin Camp (00962 7 8125 1184; bedouin.camp) in Wadi Rum. From £38pp, including dinner and B&B
To Catch a Thief
1955 | French Riviera
In this Hitchcock stunner, the French Riviera sparkles as brightly as the rocks around the swan-like neck of leading lady Grace Kelly, who plays Frances Stevens, the filthy-rich daughter of an American widow. Based on the David Dodge novel of the same name, this is a wittily told caper about reformed jewel thief John “the Cat” Robie, acted by a chiselled Cary Grant, who was lured out of retirement for the role.
The story unfolds as Robie seeks to clear his name and catch the imposter thieving from wealthy tourists. He falls – as they mostly did back in those days – for a blonde bombshell.
Blingy costumes, cat burglars, champagne on tap – this one has it all, but it is the images of the South of France that endure. The flawlessly blue skies, beaches, palms, pastel sunsets and glittering seas of Cannes, Nice, Villefranche-sur-Mer and Saint-Jeannet on the Côte d’Azur are as seductive now as then. The Sanford Villa? It is Château de la Croix-des-Gardes in Cannes (available for private hire, in case you are wondering).
The movie sparked true love. Grace Kelly met Prince Rainier of Monaco while filming on the French Riviera and married him in 1956, becoming Princess Grace of Monaco. The acting was up and now the diamonds were for real.
Stay: For dazzling Mediterranean views and art deco glamour, check into the iconic Hôtel Martinez (0033 4 93 90 12 34; hyatt.com) in Cannes. Doubles from £230, room only
