Every Florida Book Project
feature films set in Florida: 1900-1999
in chronological order
1910s
A Florida Enchantment
Sidney Drew
1914
filmed and set in St Augustine
Birth of a Race
John W. Noble
1918
this anti-racist response to Birth of a Nation was filmed in Tampa, but was not set in Florida
1920s
The Cocoanuts
The Marx Brothers
1929
1930s
Hell Harbor
Henry King
1930
Stolen Heaven
George Abbott
1931
1940s
Moon Over Miami
Walter Lang
1941
Reap the Wild Wind
Cecil B. DeMille
1942
The Palm Beach Story
Preston Sturges
1942
Sunday Dinner for a Soldier
Lloyd Bacon
1944
The Yearling
Clarence Brown
1946
Make Mine Music
(numerous directors)
1946
Mostly forgotten today, Make Mine Music was one of six "package films" produced by the Walt Disney Company during World War II. Rather than have a single narrative, these films were compilations of shorts set to music, much like Fantasia, but without reaching Fantasia's quality. One short in Make Music Mine was "Blue Bayou," which featured an egret walking through a South Florida swamp on a moonlit night, then joining a second egret in the air above the Everglades. This sequence was originally meant to be part of Fantasia and set to "Clair de Lune," but was cut from the film for time. In 1992 the short was restored, set to "Clair de Lune," and released as an extra in a Fantasia DVD. You can watch it on Youtube here.
Key Largo
John Huston
1948
Slattery's Hurricane
André De Toth
1949
1950s
Under the Gun
Ted Tetzlaff
1951
Beneath The 12-Mile Reef
Robert D. Webb
1953
The Barefoot Mailman
Earl McEvoy
1951
Easy to Love
Charles Walters
1953
The Miami Story
Fred F. Sears
1954
Lure of the Swamp
Hubert Cornfield
1957
Wind Across the Everglades
Nicholas Ray
1958
A Hole in the Head
Frank Capra
1959
staring Frank Sinatra
The Wild Women of Wongo
James L. Wolcott
1958
Set in the mythical land of Wongo but filmed at Coral Castle
1960s
The Bellboy
Jerry Lewis
1960
Nude on the Moon
Doris Wishman & Raymond Phelan (credited as O. O. Miller & Anthony Brooks)
1961
sexploitation filmed at Coral Castle
Where The Boys Are
Henry Levin
1960
Follow That Dream
Gordon Douglas
1962
All Fall Down
John Frankenheimer
1962
Clambake
Arthur H. Nadel
1967
Tony Rome
Gordon Douglas
1967
staring Frank Sinatra
Nest of the Cuckoo Birds
Bert Williams
1965
The Happening
Elliot Silverstein
1967
Lady In Cement
Gordon Douglas
1968
staring Frank Sinatra
1970s
The Florida Connection
Robert J. Emery
1974
Deep Throat
Gerard Damiano (credited as Jerry Gerard)
1972
Deady Encounter aka The Meal
R. John Hugh
1975
Trapped Beneath the Sea
William A. Graham
1974
Black Sunday
John Frankenheimer
1977
Empire of the Ants
Bert I. Gordon
1977
Thunder and Lightning
Corey Allen
1977
Crime Busters
Enzo Barboni
1977
Italian film set in Miami
Barracuda
Harry Kerwin & Wayne Crawford
1978
Gal Young 'Un
Victor Nunez
1979
The Crash of Flight 401
Barry Shear
1978
staring William Shatner
Hot Stuff
Dom DeLuise
1979
also staring Dom DeLuise
1980s
Super Fuzz
Sergio Corbucci
1980
Italian comedy
Title
Author
date
Gideon's Trumpet
Robert L. Collins
1980
Condominium
Sidney Hayers
1980
Body Heat
Lawrence Kasdan
1981
Honky Tonk Freeway
John Schlesinger
1981
Running Scared
Paul Glickler
1981
Spring Fever
Joseph L. Scanlan
1982
Porky's
Bob Clark
1982
Cross Creek
Martin Writt
1983
Stranger Than Paradise
Jim Jarmusch
1984
Cocoon
Ron Howard
1985
A Flash of Green
Victor Nunez
1984
The Mean Season
Phillip Borsos
Invasion USA
Joseph Zito
1985
Chuck Norris
Band of the Hand
Paul Michael Glaser
1986
Flight of the Navigator
Randal Kleiser
1986
Knights of the City
aka Cry of the City
Dominic Orlando
1986
Revenge of the Nerds II:
Nerds in Paradise
Joe Roth
1987
Making Mr. Right
Susan Seidelman
1987
Harry Kirkpatrick
1988
Italian slasher film
Florida Straits
Mike Hodges
1987
Police Academy 5:
Assignment Miami Beach
Alan Myerson
1988
1990s
Miami Blues
George Armitage
1990
Folks!
Ted Kotcheff
1992
Cabeza de Vaca
Nicolás Echevarría
1991
Cop and a Half
Henry Winkler
1993
Ruby In Paradise
Victor Nunez
Wrestling Ernest Hemingway
Randa Haines
1993
Triumph Over Disaster:
The Hurricane Andrew Story
Marvin J. Chomsky
1993
Matinee
Joe Dante
1993
La Florida
George Mihalka
1993
Dark Universe
Steve Latshaw
1993
Wilder Napalm
Glenn Gordon Caron
1993
True Lies
James Cameron
1994
The Specialist
Luis Llosa
1994
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Tom Shadyac
1994
Keys
John Sacret Young
1994
Miami Rhapsody
David Frankel
1995
Just Cause
Arne Glimcher
1995
Jack-O
Steve Latshaw
1995
Bad Boys
Michael Bay
1995
Biohazard: The Alien Force
Steve Latshaw
1995
Fair Game
Andrew Sipes
1995
better known as "the Cindy Crawford movie"
The Birdcage
Mike Nichols
1996
Strip Tease
Andrew Bergman
1996
Blood and Wine
Bob Rafelson
1996
Flipper
Alan Shapiro
1996
South Beach Academy
Joe Esposito
1996
Ulee's Gold
Victor Nunez
1997
Holy Man
Stephen Herek
1998
supposedly Eddie Murphy's worst movie
Any Given Sunday
Oliver Stone
1999
Rosewood
John Singleton
1997
Wild Things
John McNaughton
1998