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Despite its distance from Hollywood — and general lack of glitz — Maine has a strong connection with the movies. With far more bears than paparazzi, the state has still courted some of the biggest stars in some equally big films . . . and some, well, less-than-big films.

We do serious. Just a few years ago, Paul Newman, Ed Harris, Helen Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman — you don’t get too much bigger than that, do you? — took over Skowhegan to take on the somber “Empire Falls,” based on the 2001 Pulitzer Prizewinner of the same name.

We do downright funny. Betty White. Missing husband. Man-eating crocodile. Need we say more? Yes: “Lake Placid,” with a Camden connection.

And a whole lot in between.

So come along as we take a brisk, Maine-wide backlot tour of Vacationland, with enough information so that you can fashion your own tour to some Maine movie locales.

Maine’s link to the film industry actually dates back to the beginning, the silent movie days, because New York was then the hub of the movie business. We were just a hop, skip and jump away from New York, with amazing landscapes waiting to be filmed. Looking for mountains? We had them. Lakes? Yes. Ocean beaches, islands and lighthouses? It was here. Old creepy cemeteries? In abundance.

One of the earliest films made in Maine was “The Sailor’s Sacrifice”; filmed in 1909 and 20 minutes long, it was made by one of the earliest American film studios, Vitagraph, based in Brooklyn, N.Y. The story: a sailor and his girlfriend, and what happens when he is reported to be lost at sea. Director Larry Trimble shot about a dozen films on the coast of Maine, likely including Cape Elizabeth, and portrays the way life in Maine was, both historically and biographically. Many of the country’s first major studios used Maine as their locations, including Edison Studios in New Jersey.

The first color movie filmed in Maine was a blockbuster (in the day): the 1956 musical “Carousel.” Filmed in and around Boothbay Harbor, Camden and New Harbor, the movie starred Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones and contains some of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s best songs. (No, it’s not “Sound of Music” Mom, but get over it.) It is said that many of the harbor scenes were filmed in what is now Shaw’s, a local restaurant in New Harbor. (Want to visit? Shaw’s is located at 129 Route 32 in New Harbor; 207-677-2200; on Facebook. They’re open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.)

The following year the film “Peyton Place” was filmed about 40 miles up the coast, starring Hollywood starlet Lana Turner as well as Hope Lange, Lloyd Nolan and Arthur Kennedy. The seminal drama became the inspiration for a popular TV series of the same name that ran from 1964 until 1969. The film was shot mostly in Camden, with additional exterior shots in Belfast and Rockland, and at — coincidence? we think not — Lake Placid, N.Y.

While Betty White didn’t make it into “Peyton Place,” lots of Camden locals and many Camden locales did — so much so that the Camden Public Library and Camden Rockport Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce teamed up to produce a map for the public of some of the many places in town where the movie was filmed.

It turns out the Camden area is believed to be the most filmed location in Maine, and here — thanks in part to the knowledgeable Marlene Hall, who runs the Camden-Rockport Historical Society — are a few reasons why:

— “In the Bedroom” starring Sissy Spacek, Marisa Tomei and Tom Wilkinson. One of the most memorable shots in that 2000 movie is Camden’s welcoming arch on Union Street, coming from Rockport. (Also, according to Heather Bilodeau, the equally well-connected director of Camden’s Walsh History Center, the Camden Library amphitheater also served as the site of a festival scene toward the end of the movie. The production company was hoping for about 900 volunteers and extras for the scene, but only about 200 turned out, Bilodeau said.)

— “The Cider House Rules” starring Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron and Michael Caine (speaking of a heavy-weight cast). The 1999 multiple Oscar winner was also filmed in Maine in Corea and on Sand Beach in Acadia National Park.

— “Casper” starring Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci; this 1995 film used an aerial of Rockport Harbor.

— Stephen King’s 1996 “Thinner” did some shooting on Camden’s village green.

— “Captains Courageous” from 1937. Yes, this is reaching back a bit, but when a movie stars Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore and Mickey Rooney, with shots of Camden’s harbor, it’s worth floating it out there, so to speak.

— “The Man Without a Face” starring Mel Gibson. While this 1993 film has many Camden-area connections, including the Camden library, Bayside, the belted galloways on the back road to Rockport, that same iconic archway going toward Rockport (it read “Welcome to Bridgeport”), Main Street Rockport, Rockport harbor and the Lincolnville General Store, it should be noted the film also featured Bowdoin College and Bradbury Mountain in Pownal.

— And who could leave out “Lake Placid” starring Bridget Fonda, Bill Pullman (again) and Betty White as an alligator wrangler. Camden’s connection to the 1999 movie? Not so dangerous . . . or humorous: A flyover of Mount Battie and Camden Harbor. No gators reported.

But notable films have been shot throughout Maine, some substantially so and some using the state for very specific shots. The 1994 movie “Forrest Gump” includes a well-known scene in which the simple Gump, played by Tom Hanks, runs across the country to end up at a lighthouse on the Maine coast. That lighthouse is Marshall Point Lighthouse in Port Clyde. Part of the movie was also shot at Pemaquid.

Maine’s coast is a prime backdrop for many films. Head out to Cliff Island in Casco Bay if you want to surround yourself with the feel of “The Whales of August,” the 1987 movie that featured veteran Hollywood stars Bette Davis, Vincent Price and Lillian Gish.

Offering a bit more action, “The Islander” was filmed more recently in 2006, shot in part on Vinalhaven and in Rockland. It tells the story of an old lobsterman on a small island who gives another younger lobsterman a second chance after he goes to jail for manslaughter because of a fight over lobster territory. (In 2009, on Matinicus Island, a similar real-life incident occurred when one lobsterman shot another over territory. Coincidence? Definitely.)

“Message in a Bottle,” starring Kevin Costner, Paul Newman (again) and Robin Wright Penn, was filmed in 1999 in Phippsburg (at Popham Beach), as well as in Bath, New Harbor and Portland. The film company turned an 1800s four-bedroom cottage on Popham Beach — with a view of Kennebec River channel, Bay Point in Georgetown and Sequin Island lighthouse — into the setting of the Costner character’s home. The Maine Maritime Museum in Bath was the location for the shots of the boat shop where he builds his sailboat.

“Shutter Island,” the 2010 film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, used scenes from Mount Desert Island.

And Stephen King, to his credit — and he has a few — has set many of his works in Maine, although not all that many were filmed here. One of the more notable: “Pet Sematary,” filmed in 1989 and shot in Hancock, Bangor and Ellsworth, as well as Acadia National Park. And his TV miniseries “The Storm of the Century,” filmed in 1999, was an epic shot in Southwest Harbor on Mount Desert Island.

But the coast is not the lone star. Look no farther than Bethel for that feel-good holiday movie “The 12 Dogs of Christmas.” The film, shot in 2005, features recurring scenes in a large white farmhouse and barn. To see the locale, drive a few miles east of Bethel on Route 26 until you come to Lake Side Drive, just before you get to Bryant Pond, and right there on the corner, you will see the large white farmhouse and barn surrounded by pastures. Across the street is a ballfield where some other scenes from the movie were filmed. Also, inside the building at 19 Main St. that houses the town office, some scenes from the movie were filmed on the second floor, mostly for the Christmas play. “The Myth of Fingerprints” was also shot in Bethel, in 1997.

Not unexpectedly, the Portland area is another popular setting. In six months, grab your skates and a date and re-enact the wintry scene from “The Preacher’s Wife,” starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston. The 1996 film — about a preacher who inexplicably ignores his gorgeous wife for his “calling” — featured a skating scene shot in Deering Oaks Park, the 55-acre park bordered by Forest Avenue, Park Avenue, Deering Avenue and Interstate 295.

“Message in a Bottle,” the Nicholas Sparks frustrating tear-jerker, also featured some scenes shot in a 130-year-old historic house at 97 Danforth St. in Portland, just down the street from Victoria Mansion.

The most photographed lighthouse in Maine was used in the 1999 film “Snow Falling on Cedars,” a Washington State-based drama about murder in a coastal community starring Ethan Hawke and Max von Sydow. The film calls for a snowstorm at a lighthouse, and the filmmakers got one . . . the infamous ice storm of 1998. The lighthouse was none other than Portland Head Light at Fort Williams Park, 1000 Shore Road in Cape Elizabeth.

And in the movie “Man Without a Face” — can anyone get too much of Mel? (don’t answer that) — there were scenes shot with the Miss Portland Diner in the background, located at 140 Marginal Way, just across the street from the new Trader Joe’s. They serve breakfast all day, BTW.

Enough reading. How about hitting a movie? Get into your car and go to the drive-in for some nostalgic fun, or sit in an air-conditioned theater to get the full movie experience. Better yet: Go for a drive to one of the locations above and take photos, or your own movies. (Send alligator-in-Maine-pond photos to this address. We’ll forward to Betty.)

And that’s a wrap!

For more on Maine and the movies

— For more information about film in Maine visit the Maine Film Office at www.filminmaine.com and Northeast Historic Films at www.oldfilm.org.

— If you’re interested in learning about filmmaking/photography/design and book arts and multimedia, check out Maine Media Workshops in Rockport. Online at: http://www.mainemedia.edu/. You can sign up for MFA programs, professional certification or summer enrichment programs.

— For more on Camden’s tour of “Peyton Place” sites go to www.librarycamden.org and click on Peyton Place Filming Locations. The library, at 55 Main St., also has scrapbooks, posters and other materials on “Peyton Place” and other movies.

More films on the way

— If you hope to see more films made in Maine, some exciting news broke recently. On May 3 it was announced that South Portland has finally approved the plans for a movie sound stage at the old Portland Armory building, which is sure to lure more filmmakers to Maine. Negotiations had been ongoing for three years with Fore River Sound Stage and were finally approved.

— Need a more immediate fix? The 14th Annual Maine International Film Festival at Railroad Square Cinema and Colby College in Waterville began Friday and goes through July 24. It will show more than 100 American independent, international and Maine-made films. For more information go to www.miff.org.

— And you can already start planning for next year’s second annual Lewiston-Auburn Film Festival. The dates have been announced: April 13 to 15. For more: www.lafilmfestival.org/

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