Harry Langdon in The Strong Man

One of the great set pieces from Harry Langdon’s The Strong Man (1926) takes place as Harry attempts to transport a femme fatale up a flight of stairs into her apartment.  With a suspicious cop on her tail, “Lily” of Broadway, played by Gertrude Astor, has hidden her criminal boyfriend’s roll of cash in Harry’s coat.  Unable to retrieve it, she tries to lure Harry in to her apartment, where she can relieve him of the money in private, but Harry’s virtue will not be compromised.  In desperation, she pretends to faint so that Harry will carry her inside.   Harry maneuvers her upstairs by sitting on the stairs, with her lying prone across his lap, and scooting backwards, upwards, step by step.

Harry refuses to compromise his virtue by entering the apartment

The apartment used is the former Westmoreland Arms, located at 777 S. Westmoreland Avenue.  I found the spot, in the pre-Google Street View days, during a visit to Los Angeles, simply by driving around the neighborhood southwest of MacArthur Park following a hunch.

777 S. Westmoreland Avenue - Google Street View (c) 2011 Google Inc.

This point of view shot, below, supposedly taken from in front of the apartment entrance looking towards a different building across the street, is actually another view of the same building.  For the shot, Harry and Gertrude crossed the street, and posed on the sidewalk with the north end of the same building behind them.

The building in the background, presented as if a different building located across the street, is actually the north end of the same Westmoreland Arms building.

The north end of the Westmoreland Arms - Google Street View (c) 2011 Google Inc.

Here is a later post that shows more locations from The Strong Man.

The Strong Man (C) 1926 First National Pictures, Inc., (C) renewed 1954 Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc.