My Cousin Vinny Filming Locations: Where was the Marisa Tomei starrer filmed?

Released in 1992, My Cousin Vinny is a comedy directed by Jonathan Lynn, who also directed the 2003 NAACP Image Award-winning musical The Fighting Temptations. The movie features a talented cast and is the production that introduced Marisa Tomei to many viewers.

The story is about Vinny Gambini (Joe Pesci), a tough lawyer from Brooklyn. He goes to Alabama with his girlfriend Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei) to defend his nephew Bill Gambini (Ralph Macchio), who has been falsely accused of murder.

Bill and his friend Stan Rothenstein (Mitchel Whitfield) are arrested for the killing of a store clerk. The two are from New York, and while on their way to enroll at UCLA, they stop at a convenience store. There, they unintentionally steal a can of tuna.

After leaving the store, a robbery happens, and the clerk is killed. The two confess to stealing the tuna, but they are then wrongly linked to the murder, with Bill being accused as the main suspect and Stan as an accomplice.

Vinny, who passed the bar exam after failing five times, isn’t prepared for a murder case. He is a personal injury lawyer with no trial experience. However, he manages to convince Judge Chamberlain Haller (Fred Gwynne) to let him handle the case.

Vinny’s lack of experience brings humor to the film, especially through his interactions with the polite Southern people. Critics praised the acting of Pesci, Gwynne, and Tomei, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role.

Legal experts also praised the film for accurately showing trial strategies and court procedures. The movie made $64.1 million at the box office, far more than its $11 million production budget.

My Cousin Vinny Locations

The main filming location for My Cousin Vinny was Monticello, Georgia. While the movie is set in rural Alabama, three towns in Georgia were used to represent the fictional Wahzoo City. These towns include Gainesville, Bostwick, and Alto.

Monticello, which has roots going back to the 1600s, is known by locals as the “Deer Capital of Georgia.” The town’s buildings and surroundings look very much like what you would expect in the Deep South.

The opening scene of the movie includes a montage showing different places in Eatonton, rural Georgia, and Monticello. Many of the real locations shown in the film are still standing today and are worth seeing if you visit Georgia.

Before planning a trip to visit these locations inspired by the movie, you can take a virtual tour of the places where the production team filmed some of the movie’s most memorable scenes.

In one of the earlier scenes, Vinny and Lisa, who have just arrived, stop to fix a problem with their car. Lisa, wearing a short skirt and black tights, gets out of the car to stretch, and Vinny jokes about her sticking out.

To prove his point, she starts taking pictures of the area and comments that the town probably has bad Chinese food. A local walking by tells them that they have mud on their tires and adds that the town is famous for its mud. Lisa then replies, “Famous for mud… how’s your Chinese food?”

Downtown Monticello was used as the setting for Wahzoo City, where most of the movie takes place. The town square in Monticello is where they filmed the car trouble scene. Several local businesses appeared in the movie, including when the film shows cars driving past Forsyth Street.

In one of the first scenes of the film, Bill and Stan stop at a convenience store to get supplies for their road trip. They go inside the Sac-O-Suds store and pick up different items while discussing whether to buy generic or brand-name canned goods.

Bill notices canned tuna and starts a new argument with Stan about it. Bill thinks they should get tuna for the protein, but Stan mentions that they already have beans, which are also full of protein. Bill argues, saying “beans make you fart,” and grabs a can of tuna.

As he tries to carry everything, he accidentally shoves the tuna can into his jacket pocket, while struggling to keep everything balanced. Sac-O-Suds, the unfortunate store from the film, hasn’t had a better fate off-screen either.

Located at Monticello, GA 31064, on State Road 16, the store was closed for many years before reopening in 2014. If you’re taking a tubing trip on the Ocmulgee River, you can stop by the store to buy some movie-themed items, bait, fishing gear, and barbecue.

A visit to the filming location of My Cousin Vinny is even more special because you can take a picture next to the signed movie poster and see the original script.

You can even buy a can of tuna from the store, but be careful not to make the same mistake Bill and Stan did. From downtown Monticello, the store is 9.5 miles west. If you’re coming from the Ocmulgee River bridge, it’s located to the east.

After Vinny tricks the judge, he talks about his plan with Lisa outside the courthouse. Vinny tells her that when he was an actor, he learned that there was already a person named Vincent Gambone, so he decided to change his name legally.

Lisa asks him what name he chose, and Vinny tells her that he picked Jerry Gallo. His girlfriend wonders if that was a good idea since Gallo was a well-known lawyer who made the news the week before.

Vinny says that’s the reason he chose the name. If the judge looks it up, he’ll find articles in the newspaper. Lisa then asks, “But you didn’t read the articles?” If Vinny had read them, he would have known that Gallo was a dead lawyer.

The Jasper County Historic Courthouse was used for the outside shots of the courthouse and some indoor scenes. In addition to being a filming location for My Cousin Vinny, it has appeared in other productions like “Murder in Coweta County” and “The Bingo Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings.”

This neoclassical-style brick building is located in Monticello, GA 31064. It is the third courthouse for the county, and its cupola clock tower, shaped like a hexagon, is one of the building’s most noticeable features. Inside, you can see a beautiful cast-iron staircase and impressive stained woodwork.

After the judge tells Vinny not to show up in an outfit that doesn’t look “lawyerly,” Vinny arrives wearing a suit that’s too small for him. The judge is upset and asks if Vinny is making fun of him by wearing such a tight suit.

Vinny tries to explain, saying that the suit he bought earlier got covered in mud. He says the town doesn’t have a one-hour dry cleaner, which made him have to buy another suit. The only store that sells suits was closed because of the flu, so he ended up buying the ill-fitting suit from a secondhand store. The courthouse is also where the famous line “What is a yute?” was said.

For the interior shots at the courthouse, the My Cousin Vinny production team turned a warehouse in Covington into a film set. Bruce McGill, who played Sheriff Dean Farley, told Rolling Stone that the constant rain in Georgia made it hard to record the sound properly in the warehouse.

According to McGill, the rain made it sound like they were filming inside a drum, so they had to stop filming several times until the rain stopped. Even with these challenges, the courthouse set is considered to have added a lot of realism to the film.

Lee Arrendale State Prison, located in Alto, Georgia, is where Bill and Stan are taken to prison for the first time. The other inmates are large and tough-looking, while Bill and Stan are clean-cut, young men. As they walk to their cell, the other inmates yell and whistle at them.

Once in their cell, Stan tells Bill, “Sometimes there’s a big guy no one wants to tangle with who’ll ‘protect you’ – but you have to become his s*x slave and do anything he wants.”

The Lee Arrendale State Prison was used for the prison scenes in My Cousin Vinny. Filming the scenes inside and around the maximum-security prison helped make them feel more real.

The prison has since been changed into a women’s prison, and unless you are a state guest or visiting an inmate, it’s unclear if you can tour the area. However, you can still get a view of the filming location by driving on 2023 Gainesville Highway.

Vinny and Lisa stay at a hotel while they are in town for the trial. One morning, they are woken up by the sound of pigs squealing. Vinny looks out the window and sees a sign on the building next door that says Johnson’s Pork Products.

Vinny tries to go back to sleep by covering his head with a pillow to block out the sound of the pigs being slaughtered, but it doesn’t help. This is also where Vinny says one of his famous lines: “Lisa, I don’t need this… I’ve got a judge that’s just aching to throw me in jail, an idiot who wants to fight me for two hundred dollars, slaughtered pigs, giant loud whistle.”

The old Susie Agnes Hotel, located at 5951 Bostwick Rd, Bostwick, GA, was used for the hotel scenes in My Cousin Vinny. The brick building, which was built in 1902, now houses the Bostwick City Hall. Unfortunately, they don’t sell any pig t-shirts there.

Vinny saw the pig business sign at the James S. Thrasher Memorial. Several bus lines, including buses 7, 105, 46K, 33B, and 49, can take you to the filming location.