Stagecoach 1939

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Just finished watching it for the umpteenth time. After 75 years, the stagecoach chase scene still holds up as one of the best of ever. No computer graphics or other special effects, just balls-out horsemanship. Those stunt men were amazing.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Yakima Canutt!

 

What a great movie.

[Warden Callaway]

I'm always amazed at the one indian on a hoseback at a full run reloading a trapdoor Springfield. I've slowed down frame by frame to see what track was performed in shooting an arrow into a panel on the stagecoach. I remember Claire Trevor is in the window next to the panel. It always looked like it was really shot into the panel.

[Warden Callaway]

Thomas Mitchell, John Carridine, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine and others were top notch actors. John Wayne was, in my opinion, the lesser of the lot.

[Nasty Newt # 7365]

I'm always amazed at the one indian on a hoseback at a full run reloading a trapdoor Springfield. I've slowed down frame by frame to see what track was performed in shooting an arrow into a panel on the stagecoach. I remember Claire Trevor is in the window next to the panel. It always looked like it was really shot into the panel.

It may well have been. They did things differently back then.

[Three Foot Johnson]

I remember seeing an interview with Mickey Rooney some years back, and he related a story about a scene in a gangster movie he was in. The scene involved him being shot at with a Thompson sub-machine gun while peeking around the corner of a building.

 

"In those days, it was all real. The director cued me to duck and the machine gun opened up, chewing up the corner of the building with real bullets."

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

That chase seen was filmed in Lucerne Valley next to the Double R Bar Regulators range.

http://www.rrbarregulators.com/RRBar-index.html

LG

[Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438]

Now that is a coincidence....

 

I was just reading "Stage to Lordsburg", the short story by Ernest Haycox that was the basis for Ford's Stagecoach. A very different story, but you can see the traces that framed the script.

 

The sparse dialogue reminded me of Robert Parker.

 

LL

[Nasty Newt # 7365]

I remember seeing an interview with Mickey Rooney some years back, and he related a story about a scene in a gangster movie he was in. The scene involved him being shot at with a Thompson sub-machine gun while peeking around the corner of a building.

 

"In those days, it was all real. The director cued me to duck and the machine gun opened up, chewing up the corner of the building with real bullets."

As recently as "The Shootist," Hugh O'Brien was shot in the forehead with a wax bullet full of fake blood fired by a sharpshooter. He told the director they better get it right, because there wasn't going to be a second take.

[Warden Callaway]

In the Adventures of Robin Hood, Errol Flynn and Olivia De Haviland, 1938, an archer Howerd Hill, did the stunt shots. Stunt men were paid $150 extra to take an arrow. Howerd also played the caption of the archers also fired the arrow that split the arrow in the bullseye. He reportedly did it in one shot.

[Rancocas]

That chase seen was filmed in Lucerne Valley next to the Double R Bar Regulators range.

http://www.rrbarregulators.com/RRBar-index.html

LG

YUP

Luzerne Dry Lake

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

YUP

Luzerne Dry Lake

 

It ain't dry in the winter-

It's used today by some RC airplane and model car builders.

LG

[Guest Hoss Carpenter, SASS Life 7843]

This is one of my top ten western Movies of all time. I loved every minute of it and like Dead Wood Slim, I have seen it more'n once!

 

Did not know where the "chase" scene was filmed; it is the greatest. I have since driven thru that area several time while roving the Cal/USA in our Motor Home!

 

Cheers, Hoss

[Rancocas]

STAGECOACH filming locations

 

http://www.movielocationsplus.com/stagecoa.htm

[J-BAR #18287]

That chase scene was also one of the clips that was shown on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Johnny (as Art Fern) and his eye catching assistant Carol Wayne would perform their TeaTime Matinee skit (..."and you will come to a fork in the road...). The Indians chasing the stagecoach were on continuous loop.