Lone Pine Movie Locations: Hell Bent for Leather (1960)

When we were in Lone Pine earlier this month we hunted down locations for a number of movies.

One of the films was the Audie Murphy Western HELL BENT FOR LEATHER (1960), which I reviewed a few months ago for my Western RoundUp column at Classic Movie Hub.

HELL BENT FOR LEATHER costarred Felicia Farr and Stephen McNally. It was directed by George Sherman and filmed by Clifford Stine. Much of the movie was shot in the Alabama Hills outside Lone Pine.

We tracked down three main locations from HELL BENT FOR LEATHER, starting with this location, as seen in a screenshot booklet my husband made prior to our trip:

Here's a clear shot of how the area looks today:

Note the large boulder towards the bottom left of the above photo. (Click on any photo to enlarge it for a closer look.) Below it can be seen in the movie with Murphy and Farr:

The next morning we climbed the path to Gary Cooper Rock, one of several rocks in the Alabama Hills which has been named over the years. Rocks have also been named for Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy, among others.

Above is a shot of Stephen McNally chasing after Audie Murphy near Gary Cooper Rock, and below is how the same area looks today, over 60 years later:

The overhanging rock toward the left in the photo below is Gary Cooper Rock. Here's how the area looks today:

And here's how it appears in the film, with Murphy and Farr to the right of the photo.

Here's the same area from a more distant perspective, with the overhang of Gary Cooper Rock seen in the center.

Following the path in this photo past Gary Cooper Rock, up and to the right, leads to nearby locations for KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES (1953) and RIDE LONESOME (1959), which we'll look at in a separate post.  (Update: Please visit my post on the locations for these films here.)

Here's one more look at our screenshot booklet and Gary Cooper Rock as seen in THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER (1935):

More Lone Pine locations to come!

Update: HELL BENT FOR LEATEHR is now available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.  Please visit my review here.

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