Detroit History -- 'Old' Movies filmed in Detroit
One of the movies that still fascinates me & gives me goosebumps is a rather bleak 1973 'cops & robbers' movie called 'Detroit 9000,' due to the phenomenal filming locations.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069966/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_9000
Watch it here for free:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rvfqv
Note: I don't think the movie holds-up well unless you're interested in Detroit history -- in my case, seeing buildings that I only knew as abandoned eyesores back in their heyday, or at least when they were still in-use. For example, the opening scene of the movie shows the Book-Cadillac Hotel [[then called the Sheraton Cadillac). DPD HQ at 1300 Beaubien, the old Wayne County Morgue in Greektown, Belle Isle, Windsor Tunnel etc. are all featured as they were circa 1972/1973. Still a mystery to me, towards the end of the movie, someone decides to escape with something by taking a cruise ship [[Princess Cruise Lines, ship is the Italia) that seems to be docked at a terminal in Detroit. Around the 1+20 mark, there's some nice exterior & interior shots of the old railway terminal that was around Fort St & 3rd Ave -- Detroit Central terminal I believe it was called. A shootout that starts there eventually becomes a foot chase & shootout through it's old rail yard -- the exact spot of the Riverfront Towers apartment complex where I lived at when I first saw the movie around 1999. So image being in your living room, looking straight-ahead at the TV showing the movie, but then turning your head to the right, and looking at some of the exact same background scenery [[most prominent, the main Detroit Post Office sorting station) from the same distance away, the only different being I was about 250' up in the air, in my 23rd floor apartment.
Another movie which I just watched on HBO recently was called Kill the Irishman.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1416801/
It's available for Streaming if you have HBO Max.
The amusing thing about this 2011 movies is that the setting is Cleveland in the 1970s, but since Cleveland had apparently modernized itself so much, they actually filmed it in... Detroit. They used very tight shots, so prominent Detroit landmarks were never shown except for a split instant in the distance. My suspicious were first aroused when I saw a faded Nicholson Terminal sign in a beginning scene where they were supposedly at a Cleveland dock, then I saw what I sure recollected to be the main entrance area for Tiger Stadium. My hunch was quickly verified by doing a Google search on the names of other businesses and streets and addresses shown in the movie.
