Birmingham Post-Herald from Birmingham, Alabama • 51

Kudxu Magazine Birmingham FoJ-Hfald Friday July 29 1918 Toga 7 Birmingham hasn't forgotten the gangster that brought Hollywood to town By SUSAN KBTH KUDZU lUpntK got the gals: Barbara Stock left plays Vi Lucinda Jenny is Bobby If you've seen "The Untouchables" you may experience a feeling of deja vu while watching the latest gangster movie Miller" it came out I was there the first thing to see said producer Ann Brooke Ashley first time you see A1 Capone in that movie sitting in a chair getting a manicure from a blonde woman never guess what doing the first time you see him in our Yep sitting in a chair getting a manicure I from a blonde The similarity of the ways the movies illustrate Capone's legendary fastidiousness is coincidence Miss Ashley says read their script and I think they read mine" But the feeling of deja vu Birmingham residents will get from is no coincidence The story of A1 Capone's colleague-turned-foe was filmed in their backyard From Nov 5 to mid-December 1986 Birmingham and surrounding areas subbed for Chicago Kansas City and Hot Springs Ark and other points in the Midwest Birmingham got the stand-in job because the Alabama Film Office convinced Miss Ashley that the city bad the settings needed needed a great deal of variety We needed areas that could double for Chicago We needed the hills of Oklahoma We needed a lot of areas we could use without When she and others planning the movie sent queries to state film commissions we got a form letter or we got a pamphlet from the Chamber of Commerce extolling the virtues of their Miss Ashley said That wasn't the case with Alabama DP and Josie Knapp know what like to open their home to strangers at 7 am then wait 14 hours for them to leave They did just that for a week while was filming in Birmingham Several of the scenes were filmed at the Knapp's Redmont Road home The house built in 1929 became mobster Verne mansion was very trying and it was very interesting Knapp said the house is a pretty good size (30-plus rooms) and we assigned them one section of the house to lounge in" Interior scenes were filmed in the entrance hall upstairs hall and in the so named Knapp said because stonework from a 12th-century Norman cathedral in England is incorporated into its design The Norman room was used asVerne living room Other Birmingham area locations used in the movie include: Alabama Theatre Brothel scenes were filmed in the second balcony in a hallway outside the first balcony and onstage The projection booth at the Alabama become a projection booth at a theater visited by Verne Miller (Scott Glenn) and one of his molls Bobby (Lucinda Jenny) The upstairs ladies lounge was transformed into a dressing room for girlfriend Vi (Barbara Stock) escape from a hotel room where he kills snitch Vinnie Caruso was filmed on the a stairway going to the second balcony University of Alabama at Birmingham house Alta moot Road The home of chief became the home of chief gangster A1 Capone Tunnel under US 31 in Homewood To avoid being apprehended by lawmen on the streets A1 Capone traveled in underground walkways beneath the streets of Chicago youths hired by Capone would travel ahead of him to shoo rodents away before he approached Late at night the Homewood tunnel connecting Shades Cababa Elementary School with a grocery store parking kit made a great stand-in for the walkways said Shirley Crumley casting director for going to be so surprised when you see it" Rhodes Professional Ballding Rhodes Circle Two rooms of the South-side building were used as the bedrooms of Verne Miller and another gangster Tatwiler Hotel Park Place at 21st SL North Exterior shots with vintage cars were filmed in front of the hoteL Please turn to page 8 As December went on the weather got worse Finally the "Verne Miller" crew packed up and went back to Los Angeles where a few scenes were shot on sound stages But the difficulties over Post-production "took a long concedes Miss Ashley a third-generation And now that the movie has been released its fate is uncertain After its premiere tomorrow night will open in Atlanta Aug 12 Miss Ashley said What happens after that she said is up to Alive Films the company that is distributing the film in the United States She does know however that Europe will get to see Birmingham soon UAA Films an Australian company that helped finance and holds all non-U-S rights to the movie and has distributed what Miss Ashley calls an unusually large number of pints in Europe Please tun to page 8 Alabama Film Office locations coordinator Michael Boyer sat up and took notice of said Miss Ashley who arrived in Birmingham Monday for tomorrow premiere It was also of paramount concern that Alabama is a right-to-work state where union scales do not control the salaries of all movie employees Miss Ashley a first-time producer and Rod Hewitt a first-time screenwriter and first-time director had a budget of only 825 million low by any standards and especially low to a period movie But good locations and lower wages couldn't offset the part of Alabama that cooperate the weather weather was Murphy's Law We did a lot of shooting in the Crews twice had to rebuild a carnival set to a scene when bad weather destroyed it went up there and my production designer and set designer were standing there with tears in their Miss Ashley got 20 file folders of color pictures showing specific locations from especially loved the part where everybody was on the set with Two beautiful women pulled a gun on Paul Woods during the filming of He figures it was all in the line of duty to his seconds of Woods 32 who acts in commercials and does video production in Birmingham played a local yokel from Hot Springs Ark His character crosses Verne Miller's path when the gangster on the lam stops In the Arkansas town which has a reputation of being a haven for mobsters Please turu to FACES page tographen worked to get a shot was sort of he said sun kept shining in my eyes I had to die with my eyes open" For his work Gary received a paycheck (part of which he donated to the building fund at SL John's United Methoifist Church) and a dressing trailer door that read took such good care of said his mother Peggy Gary is saving the rest of the money he earned for college might go to college to be an actor since this he said What was his favorite part of making a movie? a newspaper article about auctions for and told their pap ents he wanted to try out The movie makers said David now IK was too old for the parts they had in mind but Gary now 11 was just about the right age Gary who enters the sixth grade this fall at Grace Christian School plays a rich child who is kidnapped and ultimately killed by Verne mm He had to struggle with another actor hold fake blood in his mouth and play dead lying motionless with his eyes open while rinema- sent to.