The first film critic to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize was Roger Ebert. The film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years, he wrote “If you wanted to show a single year that demonstrated the full potential of the movies, 1939 would be it.”
Whether that year’s stellar cinematic output was the result of great scripts, talented directors, or simply good luck, that one year produced more great films than any other in the nearly 150-year history of motion pictures.
To prove the point, these are just 10 of the films released in 1939: Gone With the Wind; The Wizard of Oz; Stagecoach; Union Pacific; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; Wuthering Heights; Dark Victory; Ninotchka; Goodbye, Mr. Chips;and Destry Rides Again…and fully half of them were filmed in and around the San Fernando Valley.
So, let’s start with one of the most popular – and highest-grossing – films of all time: David O. Selznick’s Civil War epic: Gone With the Wind. Selznick leased the RKO Encino Ranch for filming portions of Gone with the Wind, notably the lumber mill and road to Tara scenes.
Although the film is set largely in Atlanta, Georgia, not a single shot was filmed in that state; most of it was lensed on Selznick’s Culver City lot. However, when Scarlett O’Hara vows never to go hungry again, that early morning sunrise scene was filmed at Lasky Mesa in Calabasas. The field hands “Quittin’ time” scene was shot in nearby Agoura Hills, while the final horse ride of Gerald O’Hara, played by Thomas Mitchell, was filmed in Calabasas, on Lasky Mesa, near the end of today’s Victory Boulevard.
If there is one genre that the San Fernando Valley was famous for in the middle decades of the twentieth century, it was the Western. And perhaps the greatest of them all was partially filmed in the Valley.
A number of key scenes from John Ford’s classic Stagecoach were filmed at the IversonRanch in Chatsworth. While much of Stagecoach was filmed in Monument Valley, Utah, several action scenes were shot in the San Fernando Valley, particularly close-up action, stunts, and inserts that could not practically be shot in Monument Valley. Many close-ups of the stagecoach on mountain or canyon roads, and cliffside and rock outcropping shots were shot at the Iverson Ranch. Some of the tight, winding canyon shots of the coach were likely filmed at Iverson’s at Garden of the Gods.
As is often the case with reference sources, there is disagreement where a specific shot was made. A good case in point is the setting of the Golden Spike in Cecil B. DeMille’s Union Pacific, about the building of the first transcontinental railroad.
The International Movie Database (IMDb) lists the Paramount Ranch in Agoura as the site of the film’s climactic scene. However, Larry Jensen’s Hollywood’s Railroads, Vol. 1, states that Paramount also staged scenes on the Southern Pacific Canoga Park/Burbank branch (now Pierce College) for the Golden Spike sequence.
Hollywood trade publications from 1939 mention DeMille’s production team constructing a large railroad set in Canoga Park for the spike ceremony scene.
The Douglas County Historical Society and other historical film sources confirm that Canoga Park was used to film parts of Union Pacific as a substitute for Utah landscapes during production in late 1938 and early 1939.
Dark Victory was the vehicle for one of Bette Davis’ Academy Award nominations. The film was shot entirely in the San Fernando Valley, largely on the Warner Bros. Burbank lot, the Warner Ranch, and several Calabasas locations.
Director George Marshall’s film, Destry Rides Again, is no doubt the funniest film of these 1939 hits. The New York Times called it a “rollicking comedy.” Much of the fictional town of Bottleneck was a constructed Western street on Universal’s back lot. Most of the interiors, including scenes of the saloon, jail, and courtroom, were filmed on the studio’s sound stages. The outdoor sequences were filmed not far away, on the Iverson Ranch.
Time magazine’s 1989 retrospective article, “1939: Hollywood’s Greatest Year,” celebrated the 50th anniversary of that banner year, and dubbed it “Hollywood’s greatest year… a stunning explosion of cinematic energy and artistry that has never been equaled.”
We may never see such a burst of creative energy, filmic craftsmanship, and fine acting, again.
Martin Cooper, President of Cooper Communications, supervised public relations for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for ten years; held executive positions with Disney and Universal Studios; and was Board Chairman of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. He is a Fernando Award Honoree and Past Chairman of VICA. An award-winning author, he has written four books, two of them on the San Fernando Valley. His next book, The ‘Reel’ Hollywood: The San Fernando Valley, the history of motion pictures in the Valley, will be out later this year.
