Location Filming In The Alabama Hills

In addition to the spectacular locations of the Alabama Hills, many production companies also filmed in the Eastern Sierras and along Highway 395. Starting from the dry lake at Victorville, California, visitors will pass a location for Stagecoach (1939). Continuing on Highway 395 are very small towns near Red Mountain where Hidalgo (2004) was filmed. A Star Trek location can be found at the Trona Pinnacles, located near the turnoff to Trona. The town of Randsburg follows, where Johnny Depp starred in The Brave (1997) and Kirstie Alley appeared in Nevada (1997).

When directors filmed in the Alabama Hills, they often chose to add a shot or “pick up” scene to contribute to the final touches of a production. For example, places like Corraganville, Malibu Creek State Park, Melody Ranch, Paramount Ranch, Bronson Canyon, Universal, or the Warner Bros. back lot were used as locations to add to films shot in the Alabama Hills.

Moreover, most of the riding sequences in the introduction to the Lone Ranger were filmed in the Alabama Hills. However, the latter part of the introduction (where the Lone Ranger rears up his horse, Silver) was shot at Iverson Ranch near Chatsworth, over 200 miles away.

Vasquez Rocks and Red Rock Canyon were a favorite filming location for science fiction productions, such as Star Trek, and Western singing cowboy movies starring Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. In the 2013 Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp, an added shot was filmed on the Owens Valley Dry Lake, even though most of the filming took place in Monument Valley, Utah. Owens Valley Dry Lake was also the filming location for numerous car commercials and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989).

In addition to movies, Gatorade commercials, music videos, and a Twilight Zone episode were shot in and near the Alabama Hills. Death Valley is featured in scenes from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983). Rock Creek Lake was an early 1920s movie location, and several scenes from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) were filmed in and around the ski resort town of Mammoth. Diaz Lake, another recreational area, is where the Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) and many Westerns were filmed.

In the Inyo County towns of Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine, and Darwin, numerous filming locations exist. Outside of Lone Pine, along Lone Pine Narrow Gauge Road, a bustling train station once stood and served as a filming location for a Gene Autry production. An area near Big Pine was inspiration for the film Man of a Thousand Faces (1957), starring James Cagney, and the town of Darwin, with a population of 43 as of the 2010 US Census, was featured in Kalifornia (1993), starring Brad Pitt and David Duchovny.

This image shows the Ranch House Café, a great breakfast place on Highway 395 where Camel Spiders was filmed. The movie, which featured giant spiders taking over a small town, is science fiction cult classic that was also filmed in the Alabama Hills.

The sand dunes of Olancha served as a location for another science fiction film, Crossworlds (1998), as well as many other productions, like Bagdad (1949) and Iron Man (2008).

The town of Darwin, near Lone Pine, California, was the location of Tremors (1990) and Kalifornia, starring, from left to right, Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, Michelle Forbes, and David Duchovny.

Shown here is Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town, one of Billy Bob Thornton’s first films, made in Randsburg, California, which doubled for the fictional town of Zariah, population 127.

Death Valley can be reached from Lone Pine, California, and is shown in this still from Zabriskie Point (1969). Death Valley was used for many filming locations, including Star Wars. Not far from this location is where Barker Ranch once stood and where the infamous Charles Manson was captured in 1969.

Pictured here is a Lone Pine High School patch from Lone Pine, California, where the town itself served as locations for movies. Jamie Foxx from Django Unchained (2012) donated to the sports teams in exchange for use of the high school gym.

Aberdeen is a filming location of Camel Spiders. It has a nice restaurant that used to be on old Highway 395, and in the area are wild burros, as pictured here.

Manzanar was a Japanese internment camp during World War II and has been a filming location as well. The view above, looking south from Manzanar to Alabama Hills, was taken by famous photographer Ansel Adams in 1943. Below are the author and his dog at the abandoned Manzanar gatehouse. (Above, courtesy of Library of Congress.)

In Independence, California, is the courthouse where the films Daft Punk’s Electroma (2006) and Trial and Error (1997), starring Jeff Daniels, Michael Richards, and Charlize Theron, were filmed. The photograph at right shows Daniels on the roof of the courthouse with the Eastern Sierras in the background.

Charlize Theron plays a small-town waitress who becomes involved in the romantic-comedy courtroom story that is very entertaining. Local residents were used as extras in the Trial and Error.

The Pines Café, the café that Charlize Theron worked at in the movie and where she confronts Jeff Daniels with a paper bag, is an old structure that has been used in other films. Near the café is where Nicholas Cage, in Gone in 60 Seconds, was a teacher of a little boys’ racing school.

The Winnedumah Hotel was owned by the Dow family. Famous stars stayed there, and the building can be seen in old Westerns.

This grove of trees just east of the town of Independence was a location in Django Unchained (2012). In the film, Jamie Foxx escapes with Christoph Waltz in a dentist wagon that can now be seen at the Lone Pine Film Museum. This location is also the site of Fort Independence, established on July 4, 1962.

The town of Big Pine is important to film history. Lon Chaney Sr. built a stone cabin near Glacier Lodge Resort and enjoyed the outdoors. He entertained his Hollywood friends, who would venture into the mountains to hunt or fish. The stone cabin was used as inspiration for the film The Man of a Thousand Faces (1957); in the movie, James Cagney plays Chaney, and the cabin is shown. The abandoned structure still stands today three miles from the Glacier Lodge trailhead, despite attempts by the US Forest Service to remove it. Chaney Sr. was the star of the original Phantom of the Opera film, released in 1925. Glenn Strange, the original Frankenstein monster, starred as an antagonist in many Westerns shot in the Alabama Hills.

Mary Hunter Austin, whose home in Independence, California, is seen above, wrote nice poems about the Sierras. It is rumored that on this street is where the 1920 film Pollyanna with Mary Pickford was filmed.

Mary Pickford is seen here in her role as a director. After starring in Pollyanna as a young girl, she went on to be a very successful movie-maker. (Courtesy of Library of Congress.)

The radar transmitters, known to locals as “Big Ears,” are where the end of Man of Steel (2013), in which Henry Cavill says “I’m from Kansas,” was filmed.

King of the Royal Mounted (1936) was filmed near the ski resort of Mammoth. The Golden Child and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom were other films shot there. In the nearby town of Bishop, Joe Kidd, High Plains Drifter, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra were filmed along Highway 395. The Rock Creek Lake area was also an early filming location for The Golden Princess (1925).

Continuing along Highway 395, one will come to June Lake Loop, where Oblivion (2013), starring Tom Cruise, was filmed. Most of this film was shot in Iceland and Maui, but the lake and meadow scene was filmed on June Lake. The site is a popular spot for kayaking and other recreational activities. (Courtesy of Library of Congress.)

Mono Lake, which sits near the town of Lee Vining, gateway to Yosemite, featured a scaled model of a volcano from the film Fair Winds from Java. It was built by the Lydecker brothers, and the remnants of the structure are still there. (Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.)

The town of Bridgeport, north of Lee Vining on Highway 395, is the filming location of one of the best film noirs, Out of the Past (1947), starring Robert Mitchum. Look across the street for the Bridgeport Courthouse in the beginning of the film. The Western Stampede (1949) was also filmed near Bridgeport, California.

Pictured here are Mitchum and costar Jane Greer in Out of the Past. Mitchum also starred in two movies filmed in the Alabama Hills: Nevada (1944) and West of the Pecos (1945). (Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.)

Yosemite Valley is most famous for three films: The Long, Long Trailer (1953), starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), and The Caine Mutiny (1954), starring Humphrey Bogart. This scene is from Star Trek V, in which Spock saves Captain Kirk from a fall off of Inspiration Point, doubling as El Capitan. Maverick (1994) was also filmed inside the park at Leidig Meadow and Washburn Point.

The Ahwahnee Hotel’s notable guests have included Queen Elizabeth II and Pres. John F. Kennedy. The hotel, which is seen in The Caine Mutiny, served as a US Navy hospital during World War II. Some say the mezzanine floor is haunted.

This scene from The Caine Mutiny shows one meadow of many in Yosemite Valley. The film shows one the best attractions Yosemite used to have—the Firefall—which was created when logs that were lit on fire were pushed over a steep cliff, resembling a waterfall of fire.