Ennis House (1923) - Los Angeles | Frank Lloyd Wright Sites (2024)

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Through its almost 100-year existence, the house has the interesting distinction of appearing in countless Hollywood productions (more than 80, according to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation). If you have seen Blade Runner, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Black Rain, Twin Peaks, The Karate Kid Part III, House of Frankenstein or House on Haunted Hill (a favorite Vincent Price vehicle), you have seen various shots of the Ennis House. See below for additional movies.

The exterior of the building is constructed from 27,000 precast and intricately patterned “textile” blocks ion a post-and-lintel system – also called a trabeated system – of horizontal beams held up by columns / posts. decorated in a Mayan revival style. The interlocking and delicately decorated blocks suggest Wright may have been greatly inspired by Mayan architecture.

The Ennis house is the last and – at 6200 sq. ft. – definitely the largest of Frank Lloyd Wright’s four “textile block” houses in the Los Angeles area. Charles Ennis passed away in 1928, only a few years after the house was completed. His wife, Mable sold the property eight years later.

From Architectural Digest (October 17, 2019): “After a little over a year on the market, the unique 6,000-square-foot residence—also known fondly as the Blade Runner house—was recently purchased by an unnamed buyer for $18 million, making it the most expensive property designed by the legendary architect ever sold.”

There are a number of movies and music videos that have been filmed in Wright’s Ennis House over the years. The movies are listed below in chronological order and have links to Amazon where may trailers are available to watch for free or the movie may be rented or purchased. Some are also linked to YouTube. You can view our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/@FLWsites

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Female (1933)
Ruth Chatterton, George Brent

House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Vincent Price

The Day of the Locust (1975)
Donald Sutherland, Karen Black, Burgess Meredith

Blade Runner (1982)
Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah

Black Rain (1989)
Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Kate Capshaw

The Rocketeer (1991)
Billy Campbell, Alan Arkin, Jennifer Connelly

Grand Canyon (1991)
Steve Martin, Danny Glover, Kevin Kline

Ricky Martin music video, Vuelve (1998)

The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Dennis Haysbert

Fuel video of the song “Bad Day”