Location Shooting:
MGM backlot

Aerial view the brick bridge so often seen in Combat!

The French village, with its familiar clock tower and stone bridge, was located on the MGM backlot. "At MGM we were on Lot 1 with 9,000 stages," says Georg Fenady, "And we had Lots 2 and 3 in terms of villages, French and English, and streams and rivers and lakes, any kind of terrain you needed."

The French village on Lot 2 was built for Madame Bovary, and the Nelson Eddy/Jeanette MacDonald musicals were filmed on Lot 2. "We destroyed it for six years every week and rebuilt it," says Pierre Jalbert. "Lot 3 was 80 acres with a lake, where they filmed Meet Me in St. Louis and all the MGM features. Now it's condos." Lot 3 featured Eucy Road, River Road, and the Lady L area.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Book: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of a Television Classic, describes how U.N.C.L.E. producer Sam Rolfe had problems sharing the MGM backlot with Combat! They would arrange for a location, then show up to find that Combat! had been there the preceding week and blown up all the streets. U.N.C.L.E. crews would repair the sets for non-wartime filming, then Combat! would destroy them again the following week.

Combat! also had its challenges sharing the backlot. Jack Hogan remembers, "Although you're working here, somebody else is doing a Western over here. And pretty soon you're running into their lights or into the back of their horses."

Click here to see Large Aerial Shot of MGM backlot
(thank you to Marty Black for providing this photo)

MGM: Hollywood's Greatest Backlot by Steven Bingen. - Going behind the scenes at one of Hollywood’s greatest movie studios, this extraordinary history reveals the untold story of the soundstages and outdoor sets where many of the world’s greatest films were produced. MGM’s backlot was the setting for more than a fifth of the films produced prior to 1980.

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