The Big Screen from A to Z:
Exploring Arizona’s Movie Roles
By Sam Lowe

Arizona was just barely a state when the film industry discovered its potential as a movie location. Months after statehood was granted in 1912, the Lubich Company shot a western entitled The Sleeper near Sedona and The Cringer was filmed in and around Prescott. 

And the pattern was established.
According to Phoenix film historian and lecturer Julian Reveles, Tom Mix was one of the first actors to take a liking to the state and was the hero in a number of horse operas shot at the Grand Canyon during the 1920s. Other western heroes, from Hoot Gibson to John Wayne, became regulars in the Arizona spotlight during the halcyon days of the Old West as big screen material. Before that genre rode off into the sunset, it was responsible for the creation of Old Tucson, built in 1939-40 by Columbia Pictures as a location for Arizona, which starred William Holden and Jean Arthur.

But a decreasing interest in the westerns didn’t reduce Hollywood’s interest in Arizona. This may be testimony to its versatility.  Over the years, the state has substituted (in the movies) for the Middle East, India, China, planets other than Earth, and states other than Arizona.

It was Oklahoma for the filming of Oklahoma, the Middle East in The Kingdom, North Africa in The Desert Song and Beau Geste, India in Gunga Din, China in The Mountain Road, Texas in Duel in the Sun, and a futuristic Earth in Planet of the Apes.

During his lectures, Reveles often tells about the dispute following the selection of Arizona over Texas for the filming of Duel in the Sun. Because the movie is set in Texas, the decision caused a major exchange of verbal blows between the two states. Several Texas newspapers called it an injustice and a slap in the face, and one columnist said producer David O. Selznik should be “shot down like a prairie dog.” Arizona lawmakers retaliated by introducing legislation that would ban Texans from entering Arizona, and Life magazine’s report on the incident noted that only the presence of neutral New Mexico between the two prevented an all-out war.

Moviemaking in Arizona became a serious enterprise in 1923 when To the Last Man and The Call of the Canyon, both starring Richard Dix, were filmed in the Tonto Basin and Sedona. Since then, according to the filmography produced by the Arizona Department of Commerce, about 800 full-length features have used the state as a location. And it’s rewarding not only artistically, but financially. In 2007, television and film productions spent an estimated $208 million in Arizona.

Some of the movies with Arizona production ties rank among the classics. Among them, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, John Ford’s Stagecoach and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Joshua Logan’s Bus Stop (which brought Marilyn Monroe to the state), and the Coen brothers’ Raising Arizona.

Also, Planet of the Apes (the first version), Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Return of the Jedi and Star Trek: First Contact, Back to the Future III, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Stir Crazy, Forrest Gump, Murphy’s Romance, Tin Cup, Contact, A Star Is Born, Major League, Harry and Tonto, Hombre, Road to Moroccoand Road to Zanzibar, and The Flight of the Phoenix. 

Superman (Christopher Reeve) flew over the Grand Canyon and Moon Valley. Elvis Presley made Charro and Stay Away Joe in Apache Junction and Sedona. William Shatner fought giant arachnids in Kingdom of the Spiders, filmed in Camp Verde.
Steve McQueen was a rodeo rider in Junior Bonner, filmed in Prescott. Sean Penn stayed in Superior while shooting U-Turn. Whitney Houston lived it up in Carefree in Waiting to Exhale. And Tom Cruise cruised around Phoenix International Raceway in Days of Thunder.

John Wayne almost became a permanent fixture in Arizona during his career. Besides owning a cattle feed lot operation near Stanfield and a ranch near Greer, he starred in as many as 15 movies that were filmed, all or in part, in the state. Besides the aforementioned Stagecoach and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, the more notable efforts included: Rio Lobo, Rio Bravo, McClintock, El Dorado, Rio Grande, The Searchers, Red River, Tall in the Saddle, The Angel and the Badman, Fort Apache and The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Old Tucson quickly became a prime location for film crews. Since it opened in 1940, there have been about 170 major movies shot there, including Gunfight at the OK Corral, Wagon Train, Strange Lady in Town, Winchester 73, The Bells of St. Mary’s, Last Train from Gun Hill, Lilies of the Field, Death of a Gunfighter, Hawmps, Cannonball Run II, Three Amigos and Geronimo.

After Old Tucson was established, several other studios decided to get into the business. Apache Land opened in Apache Junction and was the locale for Partners, the last movie Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made together. And singer Marty Robbins, who grew up in Glendale, was the hero when they filmed The Drifter there.

Cuda City, built near 40th Street and Camelback Road in Phoenix in the 1950s, was used as a location for several Red Ryder westerns, but was better known as the site of the television series 26 Men.

The Graham Movie Studio in Carefree was established later by Fred Graham, who had appeared as a black-hatted bad guy in several B westerns. Bob Hope made Cancel My Reservations there and his frequent co-star, Bing Crosby, shot A Man and a Boy on the set.

In 1968, Old Tucson owner Bob Shelton purchased Mescal, a film lot north of Benson, and its 44 buildings and 60 acres have become regular settings for more realistic and edgier westerns. Tombstone was filmed there rather than in Tombstone. So were The Quick and the Dead, Tom Horn, The Frisco Kid, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Monte Walsh and Dirty Dingus Magee, which starred Frank Sinatra.

Metro Phoenix has also become a star, with such movies as Bus Stop, The Gauntlet, The Kingdom, The Banger Sisters, Psycho and Used Cars on its resume. Some of the others filmed in the Valley didn’t quite achieve full stardom, however. To name a few: Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, Bad Girls From Mars, Unholy Matrimony, To Find a Son, The Gumball Rally, Sunstroke, Mafia Marriage, No Code of Conduct and Gila Monsters Meet. 

Sedona’s picturesque red rocks gave that community an early start and it was a major location until the last few years. Among its credits are Riders of the Purple Sage, Robbers Roost, The Texas Trail, Billy the Kid, Leave Her to Heaven, Cheyenne, Blood On the Moon, Broken Arrow, The Redhead and the Cowboy, Fort Defiance, Pony Soldier, Apache, Drum Beat, The Rounders, The Appaloosa, Wild Rovers, The Karate Kid, National Lampoon's Vacation, Midnight Run, and Breakdown.

Prescott is also more than a bit player with at least 40 appearances in the silver screen. Movies made there in full or part include Billy Jack, Easy Rider, The Texan, Universal Soldier, Transamerica, Bless the Beasts and the Children, Creepshow II, and The Cactus Kid.

And Flagstaff is also a veteran player, starting with a 1923 flick named The Johnson Family Vacation. Since then, the city has appeared in such cinematic efforts as Stormy, Kit Carson, The Quick and the Dead (1984 version), Dream West, A Man Called Horse, Comes a Horseman, Renegade, Over the Top, Dead Man, Terminal Velocity, and Little Miss Sunshine.

At least 30 other Arizona towns and cities have played major or minor roles in the movies. They range from Globe (Great White Hope) to Mission San Xavier del Bac (Mark of Zorro) to Gila Bend (The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing) to Oatman (How the West Was Won), and from Willcox (Red Rock West) to Winslow (Starman), from Safford (Lost in America) to Douglas (Pontiac Moon), and from Amado (Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore) to Chino Valley (Zoo Gang).

And it’s not just the inhabited places that show up in the theaters. The Grand Canyon’s credits include Thelma and Louise; Canyon de Chelly’s majestic formations have appeared in Contact and McKenna’s Gold, and Monument Valley was made famous by the likes of My Darling Clementine and Fort Apache.

So who shared the screen with Arizona? The cast of characters is long, but here’s a partial listing of major stars who have smiled, grimaced, kissed, lived and died in the pretend world’s ventures into the state:

Jodie Foster, Clint Eastwood, Tom Selleck, John Travolta, Kevin Costner, Gary Cooper, Mary Tyler Moore, Alan Alda, Robert Mitchum, Tom Hanks, Marlene Dietrich, Charlie and Martin Sheen, Whoopi Goldberg, Kim Basinger, Steve Martin, Jamie Foxx, Johnny Depp, John Cusack, Liz Taylor, Dorothy Lamour, James Earl Jones, Russell Crowe and Michael J. Fox.

And, since we're in a name-dropping mode: James Spader, Nicholas Cage, Sylvester Stallone, Audrey Hepburn, Barbra Streisand, Harrison Ford, Humphrey Bogart, George C. Scott, Robert Redford, Lee Marvin, Gail Russell, Jane Russell, Jane Fonda, Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, Alan Ladd, Sophia Loren, June Allyson, Yvonne de Carlo, Greer Garson, Anthony Quinn, Richard Widmark, Maureen O’Hara, Sidney Portier, Paul Newman, Barbara Eden, Shelley Winters, and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Plus Gene Autry.

And Tim Holt. 

Photos by Sam Lowe

For a more complete listing of films made in Arizona, as well as directors and stars, log on to www.azcommerce.com, then go to Filmography in the film links.