Earlier this fall, a Yale graphic design student dropped a tabloid-style publication dubbed Evil People in Modernist Homes in Popular Films. In the boldly-colored newsprint pages, Ben Critton brings up the fact that many movie villains have holed up in emotionally cold mid-century environs that tend to match their attitudes toward human life. We decided to take our own look at some of the best lairs of all time, like Ernst Blofeld's mountaintop retreat from the 1969 Bond flick, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Known as Piz Gloria, the structure is actually a rotating restaurant, but, as in the film, is only publicly accessible by cable car. No official word on whether there's a secret pathogen lab buried in the peak.
? Another Bond movie, 1971's Diamonds are Forever, features a house built by midcentury starchitect John Lautner. The Elrod House in Palm Springs served as the desert escape where Bond dueled with two scantily-clad female assassins. Built in 1968, the Elrod is considered one of Lautner's masterpieces and has a price to match. The concrete and glass structure is on the market for almost $14M.
Lautner's distinctive architecture popped up again in the 1998 cult classic The Big Lebowski. In this Lautner star turn, the house is the home of Dude antagonist and sleezy movie producer Jackie Treehorn. Thanks to the magic of cinema, the Sheats-Goldstein House was made to look like it sits on the beach at Malibu, while in fact it occupies a lush site in Beverly Crest, Calif. Owned today by the mysterious eccentric James Goldstein, the house has been meticulously refurbished.
? Over on the East Coast, some tech wizardry was necessary to produce the office of devil incarnate John Milton in The Devil's Advocate, but the terrace with its death-defying lack of a railing was real, though built for the film. The only CGI addition was the water. In a coincidence sure to please certain Occupy Wall Streeters, the office building, Continental Plaza, once hosted the offices of oft-vilified investment bank Goldman Sachs and crippled insurer AIG.
? One of LA's best known modernist homes, Richard Neutra's Lovell House, was the home of L.A. Confidential evildoer Pierce Patchett. Set in early '50s Los Angeles, the stark modern look of the Lovell House was quite a break from the dark wood cottages and dusty downtown locales. Don't worry though, the flick is still historically accurate: the house was completed in 1929.
· Evil People in Modern Homes [Dwell]
· 2175 Southridge Dr [Redfin]
· The Devil's Advocate [On the Set of New York]
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