Joe Iverson's butterflies and big game trophies turn up in "Death by Dialogue"

"Death by Dialogue," a low-budget horror flick that went straight-to-VHS back in 1988, had one of the most intriguing location shoots ever done on the Iverson Movie Ranch.

"Death by Dialogue" (1988) — Inside Joe Iverson's trophy room

The unusual shoot for the movie takes viewers inside the home of Joe Iverson, the man who oversaw filming on the massive location ranch for more than half a century.

One of Joe Iverson's hunting trophies, in "Death by Dialogue"

Joe ran the Lower Iverson from the 1920s into the 1970s, and for years oversaw both the Lower and Upper ranches. In his spare time, he pursued a lifelong passion for big game hunting, and "Death by Dialogue," which features a taxidermist as a central character, works Joe's prize collection of hunting trophies into the storyline.

A character in the movie examines part of Joe Iverson's butterfly collection

A number of Joe Iverson's hobbies turn up in the movie. A man of diverse interests, Iverson turned much of his home into a museum, housing his collections of butterflies, gemstones, rocks and artifacts.

Iverson's hobbies are deeply interwoven into the plot of "Death by Dialogue." The above shot, looking through the horns of one of his hunting trophies, displays part of his extensive collection of precious stones.

Laura Albert is drawn to something in the Joe Iverson collection

Early scenes in "Death by Dialogue" depict the movie's five young protagonists being dazzled by Joe's collection.

And a dazzling collection it is. Here we see a panel highlighted by a variety of blue butterflies.

The blue butterflies are just a small part of a massive collection. Kelly Sullivan, who plays Shelly in the movie, is seen here with a portion of the butterfly display.

The scale of Iverson's collection of hunting trophies, like that of many of his passions, was enormous, although only a fraction of the collection found its way into the movie.

Joe Iverson's rock collection, in "Death by Dialogue"

Joe reportedly owned part of an opal mine in Australia, which was a source of items in his collection of opals, minerals and other precious stones.

Theodore Lehmann as Uncle Ive

In the movie the collection belongs to "Uncle Ive," played by veteran actor Theodore Lehmann. Although Uncle Ive is confined to a wheelchair, the mysterious collector, taxidermist and world traveler has more than a few things in common with Joe Iverson. My personal feeling is that "Uncle Ive" is based in part on Joe Iverson.

Front yard of the Iverson home, in "Death by Dialogue"

In addition to taking viewers on a tour of Joe Iverson's museum, "Death by Dialogue" ventures outside the home for rare shots of rocks, trees and other features of the front yard, many of which remain in place today.

Laura Albert at the pond near the Iverson house

The movie also captures a portion of the pond that once was part of the home's front yard.

Cast members, left to right: Ken Sagoes, Jude Gerard Prest,
Laura Albert, Kelly Sullivan and Lenny Delducca

Several of the main cast members of "Death by Dialogue" went on to successful careers in the entertainment business.

Laura Albert, who plays Linda in the movie, had a series of acting roles before moving into a career as a performance driver, stunt performer and stunt coordinator. She continues to find steady work, with recent stunt credits on "Grey's Anatomy," "Shameless" and a number of other productions.

Ken Sagoes as Lenny in "Death by Dialogue"

Ken Sagoes has worked as an actor, writer and director. Around the time of "Death by Dialogue" he had a run as Darryl on "What's Happening Now" and appearances as Kincaid in some of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies.

Jude Gerard Prest, as Gene

Jude Gerard Prest has focused mainly on producing TV programming in recent years, including a long run as a director and supervising producer on the Saturday-morning nature show "Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin."

"Death by Dialogue" serves as a reminder that filming did not end on the movie ranch when the era of B-Westerns and early TV Westerns ended. After Bob Sherman took over running the ranch in the early 1980s, it remained a working movie ranch for the better part of the next two decades.

Joe Iverson, left, and Bob Sherman, ca. 1983

Joe was no longer around by the time "Death by Dialogue" filmed in the house where he had lived for decades. Before Joe died in 1986, he sold the house to Sherman, along with turning over operation of the movie ranch to Sherman. Sherman maintained both the ranch and Joe's collections into the late 1990s.

"Motorcycle Cheerleading Mammas" (1997)
Directed by Bob Sherman and filmed at Iverson

Sherman, the great-nephew of Joe's second wife, Iva Iverson, had been hanging around the movie ranch off and on since he was a kid. Years after taking over the ranch, he tried his hand at directing with the rarely seen "Motorcycle Cheerleading Mammas."

"Xtro 3: Watch the Skies" (1995) — sci-fi movie filmed on the Iverson Ranch

Meanwhile, the Iverson Ranch, which barely saw any filming in the 1970s, made a bit of a comeback on Sherman's watch in the 1980s and 1990s. However, filming activity during this period has gone largely undocumented.

"Blade Boxer" (1997) — filmed on the Iverson Ranch

The low-budget sci-fi and horror productions, martial arts movies and straight-to-video exploitation flicks filmed on the ranch in the Bob Sherman era continued a tradition of shoestring production at Iverson established decades earlier, when Poverty Row studios flocked to the location ranch to film B-Westerns in the '30s and '40s.

Research into the movie ranch's intriguing and still largely undocumented later years is ongoing. Please comment below or email me (iversonfilmranch@aol.com) if you know of any productions filmed on the Iverson Movie Ranch from the 1970s on that may have slipped under the radar.

I wouldn't call "Death by Dialogue" Oscar-caliber entertainment by any stretch, but it's a fascinating movie from a location standpoint. The DVD is sold on Amazon, and you can order it by clicking on the image below ...