The island (officially called Little Munson Island) had been a fishing camp and vacation site for presidents Roosevelt and Truman. In-season rates for one of the only 30 suites on the five-acre island run from $545 to $695 per night per suite.īecause of its South Seas appearance, Little Palm was selected by Warner Brothers for filming PT 109, based on John F. A launch called Escape takes overnight guests and dining-only guests to Little Palm. Little Palm Island is a lush, upscale resort three-and-a-half miles off Little Torch Key, at mile 28.5, in the Atlantic. The eastern end parking lot had to be resurfaced to support the Harrier planes which landed there in a movie sequence. Though the moviemakers didn't really blow up the bridge, scorch marks are still visible on its surface from Hollywood explosives. In a harrowing sequence in True Lies, Curtis is whisked from a driverless limousine by husband Schwarzenegger an instant before the car plunges off the blown-up bridge into the water. The bridge spans the meeting place of the gulf and the Atlantic, and gives the feeling of walking out to sea.
#Key largo movie filming locations free
Five dollars gets you a two-way ride and admission to the island, but the walk is free and delightful. For filming the Arnold Schwarzenegger-Jamie Lee Curtis action movie True Lies on the old Seven-Mile Bridge, makeup and wardrobe trucks parked on Knight's Key for a month.Ī trolley runs from the center to Pigeon Key, two miles down the bridge, where former bridge tender buildings are being historically reconstructed. Housed in an old railroad car, the center is actually on Knight's Key (few things in the Keys are where the name presupposes). The original bridge, relieved of automobile service in 1982, is still there for the use of joggers, bikers, anglers, Rollerbladers and, of course, Hollywood.Īt mile 47, the eastern terminus of the bridge, I stopped at the Pigeon Key Visitors' Center. After a 1935 hurricane washed out the railroad, the Overseas Highway was built between 19 by laying I-beams over the trestles. The Seven-Mile Bridge is a remnant of the ancient railroad that linked the Keys to the mainland. I also watched tourists have a Dolphin encounter, where for $90 one can swim and be pushed and pulled around by dolphins. I took the $9.50 tour to meet 12 dolphins, watch them perform and see how the fence nearest the gulf can be lowered to give the illusion of open water for movies. Mitzi, after recovery, made film history as Flipper in the 1963 black-and-white movie, and dolphin movies have been made at the center's holding pens ever since. In the 1950s a fisherman rescued a dolphin and brought her to Grassy Key for recovery. I passed through built-up Islamorada and eased onto Grassy Key, home of the Dolphin Research Center. A gaping hole in the boat's bottom had resulted from Katharine Hepburn wrecking it, sending Henry Fonda flying off the bow. Also on display, for whatever reason, was the wooden Chris-Craft boat used in On Golden Pond.
He had bought the riverboat used in The African Queen, now docked beside the motel. I wouldn't have known the site from the Key Largo movie presentation, but could see how a location scout would have been inspired to re-create the atmosphere.Īt mile marker 100, the owner of the Holiday Inn was obviously a Bogart fan. People sitting around the rectangular bar were several degrees beyond casual. A narrow beach, a couple of palms and a short dock whisked me momentarily into film reality. Through the open front door I could see through the open back door to the gulf. Near mile marker 104 (the highway is marked with signs beginning with 110 at the top of Largo and ending with 0 in Key West), I pulled into the Caribbean Club, the bar of movie myth, as the sign outside says. 1 is four lanes here, with billboards and other commercial clutter hiding the nearby blue water of the Atlantic and the green gleam of the gulf. Largo, meaning "long" in Spanish, is the largest and most developed of the Keys. I came to the Keys to find the myth behind the fact, seeking the Hollywood rendition of this string of coral rocks running 110 miles, from Key Largo to Key West. Nonetheless, moviemakers have been drawn to the little islands ever since, but what you see on screen isn't always what is really there.
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