Baltimore In Fiction Information

Baltimore has been described by some as "Charm City," by others as "Bulletmore, Murderland."^[1] F. Scott Fitzgerald, who lived there for five years in the 1930s, wrote of it, "I belong here, where everything is civilized and gay and rotted and polite."^[2]

A recent listing of ten best movies set in Baltimore includes works by Baltimore natives such as Anne Tyler, John Waters, and Barry Levinson.^[3]

Filmmakers explained their choice of Baltimore as a setting for the 2009 movie He's Just Not That Into You because "We were trying to think of an American urban city that didn't feel like you'd seen it a million times before," and "We wanted something like, not exactly every-small-town U.S.A., but every-urban-young-center U.S.A., so we could all see ourselves in these people."^[4]

Books

• Thomas Harris' Dr. Hannibal Lecter operated a psychiatric practice in Baltimore before his confinement.
• Baltimore is the setting for the police procedural books and series based on the work of author and former police reporter David Simon, Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire. In addition, Simon's reality-based book and TV miniseries on drug dealers, The Corner, is set in Baltimore. Simon is a former reporter for the Baltimore Sun.^[5]
• Baltimore native Tom Clancy, a graduate of Loyola Blakefield and Loyola College in Maryland, often includes Baltimore and other parts of Maryland in his action/spy thriller novels and their corresponding feature films.
• Maryland native Nora Roberts also uses Maryland and particularly parts of the Chesapeake Bay as settings for her novels. This includes Baltimore in such novels as Inner Harbor.
• Anne Tyler lived in Baltimore for many years, and many of her books are set there, including The Accidental Tourist, which was also made into a movie.
• Laura Lippman is the author of detective fiction set in Baltimore, most notably the Tess Monaghan novels.
• The fictional character, Jane Porter, Tarzan's love interest, is a native of Baltimore and the last part of the first Tarzan novel, Tarzan of the Apes, is set there.
• In the 1922 short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", the titular character is born in Baltimore.
• Tim Cockey's mystery novel series, starring the character Hitchcock Sewell, is based in Baltimore.
• Jamie Wasserman's novel Blood and Sunlight is set in nearby Ellicott City with several scenes in Baltimore as well.

Film

• In the film The Sum of All Fears, based on the Tom Clancy novel of the same name, Baltimore is devastated by a terrorist nuclear bomb.
• In the 1997 film As Good as It Gets, the character of Melvin Udall (played by Jack Nicholson) gives his "queer neighbor" Simon (played by Greg Kinnear) a lift to Baltimore.
• Barry Levinson has written and directed a number of films set in his home town of Baltimore. Avalon is set in the 1940s, Diner and Liberty Heights are set in the 1950s, and Tin Men is set in 1963.^[6]
• A significant portion of the Terry Gilliam science fiction thriller 12 Monkeys takes place in Baltimore.
• John Waters' films are all set in Baltimore, and they have all premiered at the historic Senator Theatre.
• The musical Hairspray and its 2007 film adaptation are set in 1960s Baltimore and feature the song "Good Morning Baltimore".
• Steve Guttenberg appeared in The Bedroom Window in 1987. The exterior view of the bedroom window was done from a parking lot on Eager Street. The interior views showed that the windows overlooked the Mt. Vernon park and monument, nearly 2 blocks away.
• The film Ladder 49, starring John Travolta and Joaquin Phoenix, is set in Baltimore.
• The film Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman, had a significant portion set and filmed in Baltimore.
• The film Live Free or Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis was filmed in downtown Baltimore.
• The film ...And Justice for All, starring Al Pacino is set in Baltimore.
• The 1991 film He Said, She Said was filmed and set in Baltimore. Stars Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins play rival columnists for the Baltimore Sun.^[4]
• Meg Ryan's character in Sleepless in Seattle, Annie Reed, works for the Baltimore Sun and some of the scenes are shot at the paper's offices on North Calvert Street.
• XXX: State of the Union. The Capitol Cars that is supposed to be South D.C. is the Abandoned American Brewery from N. Gay St. Other scenes that are reported to be in D.C. area also filmed in Baltimore.
• Both Step Up and its sequel Step Up 2 the Streets are set in Baltimore.
• The 2008 film First Sunday starring Katt Williams, Ice Cube, and Tracy Morgan is filmed and set in the City of Baltimore.
• In the Alfred Hitchcock film Marnie, the title character is from Baltimore and consequently a portion of the film is set in Baltimore.
• In The Invasion (2007) starring Nicole Kidman she escapes Washington D.C. for Baltimore. Both appropriately filmed. But she gets in her car, in Baltimore and it has D.C. license plates.
• In the film-adaption of Silence of the Lambs (1991), Clarice Starling visits Hannibal Lecter in Baltimore.
• The 2009 romantic comedy He's Just Not That into You was set in Baltimore. Outside scenes were filmed in Baltimore though inside scenes were filmed in Los Angeles. Producers chose Baltimore as their setting as it had not been used as the setting for romantic comedies.

Television

• Acclaimed series Homicide: Life on the Street was set and filmed in Baltimore.
• Acclaimed HBO series The Wire is set in Baltimore, with each season focusing on different areas of the city and its society.
• The Seinfeld character Elaine Benes is a native of Baltimore County.
• Several episodes of The X-Files were set in Baltimore.
• The show One on One is set in Baltimore until Breanna moves to Los Angeles for college in season 5 (2005-2006).
• Roc was an American sitcom set in Baltimore.
• In Season 7 of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Mike Keppler, Grissom's temporary replacement, touches a dead body, to which Catherine Willows says, "Is that how they do it in Baltimore?"
• In season two of House an episode took place in Baltimore
• Hot L Baltimore is a play by Lanford Wilson (and later a short-lived Norman Lear comedy) that takes place in a hotel in inner city Baltimore.
• The American adaptation of Skins is set in Baltimore, however, it was filmed in Toronto, Ontario.

Miscellaneous

• Baltimore is referenced several times in the 1993 Lucasarts game Day of the Tentacle.
• The action-horror video game The Suffering: Ties That Bind is set in Baltimore.
• Baltimore is known as an Internet Phenomenon based on a vulgar commercial of Big Bill Hell's cars, with the beginning statement, "Fuck you Baltimore!"
• BBC Radio 4 comedy series Revolting People, starring Andy Hamilton and Jay Tarses is set in colonial Baltimore.
• The Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio play The Reaping is set in Baltimore.

References

1. ^ Guardian "Life and death in Bulletmore, Murderland" by Frances Stead Sellers
2. ^ Maryland by Earl Arnett et al. p. 339
3. ^ filmcritic.com "The Ten Best Real Baltimore Movies" by Don Willmott
4. ^ ^{a b} http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/movies/bal-al.justnot01feb01,0,7113919.story
5. ^ filmcritic.com "The Wire: Season One" by Mark Athikas
6. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2DA1130F933A0575AC0A966958260&sec=&spon=

See also

• List of films shot in Baltimore

Categories:

• Culture of Baltimore, Maryland

Related 'Baltimore In Fiction' Searches:

See Also:

• Baltimore City Public School System
• Baltimore Culinary Institute
• Baltimore International College