The King of Marvin Gardens was shot almost entirely on location in Atlantic City in the winter months of 1972. It is therefore of considerable historical significance as a visual record of the very last days of the city's "classic era" resort architecture. Many of the grand hotels shown in the film's exterior scenes were demolished during the next few years to make way for the new generation of casino-hotels that were built after the legalization of gambling. Filming took place only months before the vast Traymore Hotel was explosively demolished in April 1972, and the movie's main location, the once-opulent Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel was demolished in 1978 to make way for Bally's Atlantic City.
The portion of the film depicting Philadelphia was shot in Toronto. The apartment the Scatman Crothers character, Lewis, occupied is located at Jarvis and Isabella Streets in Toronto. It was in an old mansion that had been converted to apartments.
The title of the film (which originally was to be called The Philosopher King) is an ironic reference to the original version of the board game Monopoly, in which the main properties were named after locations in Atlantic City. This reference was also reflected in the film's original poster art.
According to actress Ellen Burstyn, who portrays Sally in the film, Jack Nicholson was originally cast as Jason and Bruce Dern as David.[1] During rehearsal, director Bob Rafelson asked them to switch parts and liked the result. The actors agreed with the choice "because they were both parts that they weren't usually cast in", Burstyn said. "Especially Jack, to be cast as such an introvert ... that's not the usual Jack Nicholson role. ... And, of course, Bruce got to be the dominant brother, and that was fun for him."
The film was one of several collaborations between Nicholson and Rafelson, which included the Monkees film Head (1968) and Five Easy Pieces (1970), which established both men as major figures in Hollywood. Dern and Nicholson had previously worked together in Psych-Out (1968) and The Rebel Rousers (1970). Scatman Crothers co-starred, with Nicholson in the lead role, in Miloš Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980). Co-star Ellen Burstyn had worked in the TV series Gunsmoke, in which Dern had also appeared, and soon achieved fame with her starring role in William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973).
The film was one of the few screen appearances made by Julia Anne Robinson (Jessica), who died in an apartment fire in Eugene, Oregon, in 1975, aged 24.[2][3]
References[]
- ↑ White, Mike (June 17, 2014). Episode 171: The King of Marvin Gardens (1972). Retrieved on April 17, 2022.
- ↑ Le Fanu, Mark (November 27, 2010). The King of Marvin Gardens: A Killing=work=The Criterion Collection. Retrieved on March 1, 2013.
- ↑ Mack, Don (April 1, 1975). Apartment fire kills Eugene actress. Eugene Register Guard. Retrieved on November 16, 2013.