Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Finding the beach from From Here to Eternity (1953)

Carlos and I recently went to Oahu, Hawaii for our Honeymoon. We mostly took it easy on our trip but we also had a lot of fun finding filming locations. One of the ones we searched for was the beach in the famous kissing-crashing-waves scene from the film From Here to Eternity (1953).

The famous scene was shot at Halona Cove which is a very small beach in between huge lava rock formations. Right next to the beach is the famous Halona Blowhole. You can find the cove and the blowhole on the Southeast side of Oahu at Hanauma Bay.




When we first encountered Halona Blowhole observation area, I immediately started looking for the beach. I was on the wrong side and couldn't quite make out where it was exactly until Carlos pointed out that the beach was on the other side of the observatory.



There it is!


But geez, it's quite a climb down. I was too nervous to go down the rocks to see the beach up close. I don't know how they even got the film crew down there! You can't bring a boat up to the beach. It's way too narrow and rocky. They had to climb down quite a ways from the main road.




See the road behind Burt Lancaster? On the right is the parking lot and observation pier. We jumped a fence and climbed down all those rocks to get to the beach. It took two visits for me to get the courage to try it. I figured I would regret it if I didn't at least give it a shot.


I get dizzy just looking at this picture!








And here it is! The famous spot on the beach where Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster rolled around in the sand, wrapped in each other's arms and locked in a deep kiss as a big wave washed over them. A couple friends of mine suggested that Carlos and I recreate the scene. There were at least 50 people there swimming and sunning. I would have felt really foolish trying that in front of all those people!








I was so excited to find this beach! It's amazing how familiar the beach seemed even though I had never been there and my only knowledge of it was from the film. As soon as I was on the beach I just knew this is where the famous scene was filmed.






Right here!




Here is a short video I shot on my iPhone of Halona Cove. Enjoy!


14 comments:

  1. What a neat thing to do. Love your post. Thanks. FHTE is a favorite. Burt was a lucky man!

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    1. Thank you! Yes Burt was a lucky man but Deborah Kerr was lucky too. Wow, what a great slim figure he had!

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  2. Great photos! So terrific that you found the beach. Such a fun thing to do.

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    1. Thanks Jacqueline. It was a fun side trip (actually trips, more than one) and I'm glad I got the courage to climb down to the beach. It was worth it.

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  3. Wow, that is so very cool that you found the beach! It looks the same! Just with more people! Thanks for sharing the pictures.

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    1. DKoren - There were tons of people there! More so than the pictures showed. It would have been nice if it was more empty but I'm glad it's a popular spot. Thanks for stopping by!

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  4. Fantastic!! I love reading about movie locations and seeing current photos. Thanks for checking out the spot where they filmed this iconic scene, you were brave climbing down there!!

    Best wishes,
    Laura

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    1. Laura - I'm glad Carlos encouraged me to climb down even though I was scared. He helped me a bit but encouraged it to do it on my own. He's kind of my Gordon Ralfe (A Patch of Blue - 1965) in a way!

      I'm really glad you enjoyed the post! I hope to do more of these movie location posts. I have plans to do some for Boston films.

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  5. hi congrats on your marriage. what a fun idea, great photo's

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  6. What fun. Thanks for sharing. Of course you realize that every trip you guys take now requires you to search out a film location and document it. :-)

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    1. Bob - You know what, finding filming locations during this trip gave us something fun to do and a reason to explore different parts of the island. Finding Halona Cove was great because then we took a drive up the east side of Oahu and it was gorgeous!

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  7. This was a great idea, and recreating the scene in the honeymoon wouldn't be bad either... But not with lots of people watching (I don't know if there were a lot of public during the filming). Watching The Seven Year Ytch this weekend, I laughed a lot when Tom Ewell spoofed the scene in one of his dreams.
    Kisses!

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  8. Ive had many a "time" at that beach from 1-3 in the morning and had no idea Burt was there first......

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