The Big Country | 1958
- Locations |
- California
- DIRECTOR |
- William Wyler
Discover the spectacular locations of The Big Country, William Wyler's epic Western, set in 'Texas' but filmed in California.
William Wyler's epic Western lives up to its name, filling the Technirama screen with magnificent vistas which put into perspective the crazy rivalry between cattle barons Major Henry Terrill (Charles Bickford) and Rufus Hannassey (Oscar-winning Burl Ives).
Set in 'Texas', the film establishes two main settings – the endless plains of the vast Terrill Ranch contrasted with the towering cliffs beneath which the Hannassey clan lives in more modest style, both in California (despite claims, I can't find evidence for any filming in Arizona).
The plains were filmed largely around Farmington (a town also seen in 1974' s Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry), a few miles east of Stockton in Northern California. Behind the opening credits – designed by Saul Bass and accompanied by one of the most famous Western themes from Jerome Moross – the stagecoach rattles along Copperopolis Road.
Copperopolis, by the way, is the Californian mining town that didn't focus on gold (can you guess what metal was mined there?).
The coach is bearing bowler-hatted city dude James McKay (Gregory Peck) to the isolated town of 'San Rafael', where he's pledged to Terrill's daughter Patricia (Carroll Baker). The one-street town was built on the Drais Ranch, Drais Road.
The ranch has since closed but after filming the buildings had been moved a few miles away to Pollardville, a ghost town tourist attraction. Sadly, Pollardville itself was demolished in 2010.
Both the Terrill Ranch and the 'Big Muddy' estate of Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons) were filmed in the sprawling 3,000 acre ranch.
The 'Big Muddy' itself, the vital water supply which causes much of the tension, was Rock Creek, running north-south a couple of miles to the east.
Contrasted with the Terrills, the Hannassey homestead is nestled in Red Rock Canyon State Park, 37749 Abbott Drive, Cantil on CA-14 about 80 miles east of Bakersfield, in the Mojave Desert, California (don't confuse this with the Red Rock Canyon in Nevada).
The Hannassey spread was built at the foot of the sheer cliffs of Hagen Canyon on Abbott Drive, west off CA-14.
The fictitious 'Blanco Canyon' (the film was based on a short story called Ambush at Blanco Canyon), the winding track cutting through white rocks to the Hannassey encampment, where the climactic showdown in staged, is Jawbone Canyon, off Aerospace Highway west of Cantil, a few miles to the south.
Interiors, including the spacious interior of the Terrill mansion, were filmed on sets at the old Goldwyn Lot, now The Lot Studios, 1041 North Formosa Avenue at Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. This place was by then familiar territory for Wyler who made several films here, including Wuthering Heights (1939) and The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946).
