Off to Lone Pine!

Wednesday morning it's time to head north once more to the Lone Pine Film Festival!

The festival is held from Thursday through Sunday or Monday every Columbus Day weekend; this year the dates are October 6th through 9th, with a "bonus" tour available on Monday the 10th.

We usually drive to the festival on Thursday morning, but my husband is now a guide for the festival's horseback locations tour, and tickets have sold so briskly this year that a second ride was added on Thursday; we'll thus be heading up a day earlier than usual. I'm looking forward to a little extra time in town this year!

I previewed the festival here back in July. In addition to looking forward to seeing films and guests, I'm signed up for four location tours this year:

*A YELLOW SKY (1948) tour with William Wellman Jr. accompanying the group; as he described at a UCLA screening in 2015, he was on location during filming as a child and has some fun memories.

*An Owens River tour past the old train depot; I previously wrote about the depot in a review of ARMY GIRL (1938). Randolph Scott's THE NEVADAN (1950) and some '30s John Wayne films were shot in the area. It's always especially interesting learning about locations in the area outside the more commonly seen Alabama Hills.

*A tour of locations for THE TALL T (1957). I've been to the main "cave" location in the Alabama Hills many times -- I shared a photo in last year's Classic Movie Hub article -- but I welcome the chance to learn more about the location shooting of this favorite Western. I most recently saw THE TALL T at this year's TCM Classic Film Festival.

*A tour for the Hopalong Cassidy film DANGEROUS VENTURE (1947). I always enjoy the "Hoppy" tours -- check out my 2019 Western RoundUp piece -- and indeed, it's my time in Lone Pine over the years which has turned me into an appreciative fan of the series.

Other eagerly anticipated events include an interview with Rod Cameron's son Tony after a screening of PANHANDLE (1948) and an interview with Claude Jarman Jr. after a ROUGHSHOD (1949) screening. These are two favorite lesser-known Westerns, and I'm really thrilled that Cameron and Jarman will be there. I had the chance to meet Claude at last year's festival, where he attended screenings of RIO GRANDE (1950 and HANGMAN'S KNOT (1952), and it was quite a thrill. He's seen here in a photo I took last year.

While I'm at the festival I'll be sharing photos on Twitter; please check out my Twitter feed or search Twitter for the hashtag #LonePineFilmFestival. After the festival check back here for additional coverage!

For anyone new to the festival or my Lone Pine Film Fest coverage, please visit my posts on the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 festivals for more information. (I also covered the 2020 "virtual" fest for Classic Movie Hub.)

My life was so busy after the 2021 Lone Pine festival, with two additional trips out of town immediately afterward -- including the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival -- that I didn't get a chance to write much about last year's Lone Pine Fest, though I did share some interesting location photos in my Classic Movie Hub Western RoundUp column.

Along with coverage of this year's festival, I'll be doing some catching up here on 2021 festival coverage, starting with a post on locations for THE HITCH-HIKER (1953) which is scheduled to run while I'm in Lone Pine.

I've prescheduled a couple of additional posts for my time away, so please check back periodically for new content over the next few days.

Tweet