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| Almería,
Capital City
and Cinema
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| In the early fifties, the city of Almería became the set for first movies filmed in the province. The port of Almería was used as a set in the Spanish film La Llamada de Africa and the city's Plaza Vieja was choosen as the backdrop for several scenes in the French film Eye for an Eye. Obviously, these films called attention to the Almería landscape and important directors began to take full advantage of what they saw and filmed so-called super-productions during the sixties.
Open season was declared and Anthony Mann began with El Cid, which was followed by one of the greatest classics of contemporary film-making, Lawrence de Arabia. Some of the scenes from this film were filmed at the Parque Nicolas Salmeron. These films were followed in time by Cleopatra, with stunning Liz Taylor in the lead role, The lost Command, which used the Plaza Vieja of Almería to film the entrance of the troops in Cavas, and Calle Recocijo and Calle Tenor Iribarne for ocupation scenes, and Play Dirty, with Michael Caine. The entrance of the troops in Catedral as the backdrop, or the entrance of General Patton in Palermo which was filmed in the area surrounding the Alcazaba in the film that carries the general's name, also mark a dividing line in film-making history. | |
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| Over 600 extras participated in a scene from Patton that was filmed in the old part of the city, in which Scottish pipers precede the triumphal entrance of General Montgomery into a town occupied by American troops. | | More recent films worth pointing out that used areas in the city as settings include Never Say Never from the James Bond saga, filmed in the part at the Alcazaba, and Indiana Jones an the Last Crusade, part of which was filmed at the Calle Almanzor and the School of Arts and Trades, the latter being transformed into a palace of the Republic of Hatary, Rolls Royce and all. | |
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