Great Chicago-set films:

Ferris Beuller
the Hughes films
Blink
The Fugitive (probably my favorite Chicago film because it spends time in the various neighborhoods as well as the touristy spots)
Blues Brothers (the first time the city fully cooperated with a film crew)
Running Scared (best car chase ever on the El tracks, as well as the great finale in the atrium of the State of Illinois building designed by Helmut Jahn)

And I have great hopes that the upcoming film version of The Time Traveler's Wife will also showcase the city.

Blues Brothers

There is a big billboard I see on my way to work advertising for a country radio station that says "We play both kinds." It turns out that my wife was totally mystified by it until I explained. She needs to see more of these culturally important movies.

Mame

Oh, Mame!! Was there ever anyone better in that role than Rosalind Russell?

Wait, what was the original question? Wasn't Rising Sun set in Los Angeles? Or am I thinking of another movie? Probably so. Maybe I should IMDB so as not to make an idiot out of myself if it turns out to be that movie about the last emperor or something. Wait, that was China, wasn't it? And it was called The Last Emperor.

Haha, no! My brain scores again! O brain, why couldn't you store USEFUL information in there? Mind you, I did walk into the last ten words of a conversation in my first class and not only correctly identified, but actually corrected them on the plot of, a movie. I guess impressing my students is a little useful.

Wow. Babbly and rambly, definition of. Is the cure more coffee, or less?

I think the thing about the Hughes films is for me, they really illustrated what I thought of as a "normal American" backdrop in a lot of ways.

Totally. As a grownup, I'm still kind of surprised when I see the actual suburbs that look like that.

I am home, have the day off, and have had one meeting and checked my email. I think that's all I'm going to do, though.

Oh, Mame!! Was there ever anyone better in that role than Rosalind Russell?

No, but Lucille Ball gave it a pretty good try.

A quick follow-up as to why I think The Fugitive is probably the Best Chicago Film Ever--Andrew Davis picked great Chicago faces and people to play Chicago characters. Most if not all of the cops featured in the conviction and subsequent pursuit of Richard Kimble were actual Chicago cops, as were the reporters (Lester Holt, now on NBC and MSNBC, is prominent in the news pack), and the other regular people Kimble encountered. The woman who was Kimble's landlady in the basement apartment was someone they met (IIRC) at O'Hare, and the guy who played her son who ratted out Kimble was a buddy of someone on the set.

Also, Davis showed the cops eating Chicago hot dogs at the station--gotta love the hometown boy featuring the local cuisine!

Most if not all of the cops featured in the conviction and subsequent pursuit of Richard Kimble were actual Chicago cops

Heh. I think there's a law that if you're a man and you want to be a Chicago cop, you have to be a big guy with a mustache. Although they sometimes grant waivers, and allow new cops time to gain weight and grow a 'stache....

I think there's a law that if you're a man and you want to be a Chicago cop, you have to be a big guy with a mustache.

Case in point: Dennis Farina.

No, but Lucille Ball gave it a pretty good try.

She did-- and she got to utter the better version of the immortal line, "Life's a banquet..."

But Ros had the cooler version of the apartment.