The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance | 1962
Poorly received on release and since re-evaluated to become one of John Ford's major works, there's still debate over whether filming in black and white on the studio lot was an artistic choice or studio cost-cutting.
Maybe both – with Ford choosing to use the limitations creatively?
This is more of a human drama, there's no Monument Valley, filmed sparsely on the Paramount lot 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.
Exteriors for the ranch of Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) were filmed on what was the Janss Conejo Ranch, a sheep and cattle grazing area which became much used from the Thirties to the Sixties as a Western backdrop for film and TV shows.
It sits within the Studio Zone, a thirty mile radius of Hollywood inside which studios are not obliged to pay extra for 'on-location' shooting. The area is now Wildwood Regional Park, 928 W Avenida De Los Arboles, to the northwest of Los Angeles in western Thousand Oaks, northern Newbury Park, and southern Moorpark.
The railway shots that bookend the film are long shots of the old Sierra Railroad, while 'Shinbone Station' was built on the Paramount lot.
A stretch of the Sierra Railroad in central California lives on as Railtown 1897 State Historic Park at Jamestown, a few miles south of Columbia.
Dubbed the ‘Movie Railroad’ from its appearance in countless films and TV shows, including Clint Eastwood's 1985 Pale Rider, Blake Edwards' 1965 The Great Race, the Marx Bros Go West and many others.
