Tonight's Movie: King of the Pecos (1936) at the Lone Pine Film Festival

Saturday morning at the Lone Pine Film Festival we watched an early John Wayne film, KING OF THE PECOS (1936), followed by a tour of its locations.

KING OF THE PECOS was a solid film of its type, briskly directed by Joseph Kane.

Wayne plays Texas lawyer John Clayborn, who as a child (Bradley Metcalfe) had witnessed the murders of his parents (Mary MacLaren and John Beck) by hired guns working for Stiles (Cy Kendall). Stiles, a ruthless cattle baron, wanted to claim the Clayborns' property and water rights as his own.

When the adult John returns to his childhood home for the first time in many years, he uses both the law and his guns as he unites local ranchers to go against Stiles both in court and on the range.

This was a nicely done little film which presents an interesting story in just 54 minutes. There's a good mix of courtroom drama with action scenes; John and his neighbors cleverly thwart an attempted ambush as they head to file claims, and there's some good poetic justice in the climactic gun battle filmed in the Alabama Hills.

Wayne, who was 28 at the time this was filmed, is an appealing screen presence, though not yet the authoritative star he would soon become. This film, like so many others of the '30s, was part of his movie-making education which prepared him for major stardom in STAGECOACH (1939) and the next four decades.

The supporting cast includes Muriel Evans, Jack Rube Clifford, Arthur Aylesworth, Herbert Heywood, Edward Hearn, and Yakima Canutt. The movie was filmed by Jack Marta, who shot many "B Westerns over the course of his long career.

The screenplay was by a trio of writers, Bernard McConville, Dorrell McGowan, and Stuart E. McGowan, based on McConville's story. It's interesting to note that the movie was edited by future director Joseph H. Lewis (MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS, THE BIG COMBO).

KING OF THE PECOS is available in a nice-looking DVD from Olive Films.

Shortly after the screening it was time to gather for our tour in the parking lot of the Museum of Western Film History.

This year's tours were all car caravan tours; typically more than one tour would be falling into line at the same time, well organized with cones, signs, and volunteers.

The majority of tours at the festival begin with a drive out of town on Whitney Portal Road, headed to its intersection with Movie Road:

Here's the first page of our screen shot booklet, looking towards the homestead location seen in the photo on the upper right.

A clear shot of the area where the Clayborn cabin is located at the start of the movie:

Tour participants explore another area seen in the movie:

Our guide, Don Kelsen, is an expert on Lone Pine locations, with an impressive ability to match up movie scenes with the countless rocks in the Alabama Hills. We've enjoyed several of his tours over the last few years.

The wagon accident pictured in the color lobby card higher up in this post was filmed right here:

Here's a good example of another screen shot, seen at the lower right...

...and how it matches up with the rocks:

Famed stuntman Yakima Canutt, seen at right in the screenshot below, played one of the bad guys in this film...

...and that scene was shot right here, where our guide Don is standing behind the rock:

The big rocks seen here were also in a scene. We showed a family camping in a nearby trailer that John Wayne had once been there.

Exploring film locations at the festival is great fun, a wonderful mix of film history and enjoying the great outdoors, not to mention good exercise! As always, I highly recommend the experience.

For looks at the two other tours I participated in at this year's festival, please visit my posts on BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955) locations, posted here, and the HOP-A-LONG CASSIDY (1935) tour, posted at Classic Movie Hub.