Jesus met the woman at the well — so who was that woman he met in the trailer park?

Jesus, played by Nelson Leigh, at "Jacob's Well" in 1952

The Bible story about Jesus' encounter with a Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well was brought to life in the early 1950s in a film series by the Christian-oriented production company Family Films.

 

This is where Jesus met the woman at the well

The "Jesus met the woman at the well" story was filmed in what is now the swimming pool area of the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village in Chatsworth, Calif. At the time the location was part of the Iverson Movie Ranch.

 

"The Living Bible Collection" — 12-episode series on DVD

The scene is included in a 12-episode series of Bible stories that first came out in 1952 and has been repackaged over the years and marketed in a variety of formats under various titles. One of the most common versions appears on a DVD set under the title "The Living Bible Collection."

 

The same series, repackaged as "The Bible Series: Jesus the Christ"

Another variation is "The Bible Series: Jesus the Christ," which can typically be found on DVD on eBay and other websites. The series has also been released as "The Life of Christ," while individual chapters also have multiple titles and have been edited to various chapter lengths for the different releases.

 

"Living Christ Series" (1951): NOT filmed on the Iverson Ranch

Adding to the confusion, a "rival" studio, Cathedral Films, produced its own series of Bible stories under similar titles around the same time. Cathedral's "Living Christ Series" was not filmed on the Iverson Ranch and is not the same production as Family Films' "The Life of Christ," "The Living Bible" or "The Bible Series: Jesus the Christ."

 

"The Living Bible": Jesus and his followers shuffle through today's swimming pool area

In this post we'll focus on the Family Films production, one major Bible series of the early 1950s that WAS filmed on the Iverson Movie Ranch — and for simplicity, we'll just call it "The Living Bible."

Jesus meets the woman at the well — Notice the rock at top right

Here we find Jesus chatting with the Samaritan woman, and we see not only Jacob's Well — the concrete-looking structure behind Jesus and the woman — but also a distinctive rock in the background.

 

Identifying marks on the background rock

The rock has two prominent horizontal indentations, which will be useful in helping us identify the same rock in other shots — and in turn should help pinpoint the filming location for the Jacob's Well sequence.

 

A better look at the rock

This shot from the Jacob's Well encounter provides a slightly closer look at the rock, and also reveals another distinctive marker.

 

Another key marker on the rock

Near the base of the rock on its left side, we can see another indent, this one more vertical in orientation.

 

"Secret Service in Darkest Africa" (Republic serial, 1943): "Walnut"

Here's a shot of that same rock from a different angle and in a different production, the old serial "Secret Service in Darkest Africa." I refer to this rock as "Walnut," based on its overall shape and general appearance.

 

The horizontal indents are also visible from this angle

The screen shot from "Secret Service in Darkest Africa" again shows those two distinctive horizontal indentations on Walnut, even though this is a different angle from the "Living Bible" shot.

 

"Six-Gun Gospel" (Monogram, 1943)

Walnut can be found in quite a few movies and TV shows, including the Johnny Mack Brown B-Western "Six-Gun Gospel." The big rock on the right is Walnut.

 

Walnut, a casualty of the mobile home park

Unfortunately, Walnut no longer exists, having been destroyed to make way for the rec center at the Indian Hills complex. For more about Walnut and some of its neighbors, please click here.

 

A survivor lurks in the background

Also seen in the "Six-Gun Gospel" screen shot is Tilted Cube, which was one of the closest neighbors to Walnut. Unlike Walnut, Tilted Cube did survive development — click here for a little more about that part of the story.

 

"Secret Service in Darkest Africa": Another appearance by Walnut and Tilted Cube

Here's a much different view of Walnut, essentially from the opposite side. That's Walnut at top center, and also visible in this shot is the "back side" of Tilted Cube, on the left.

 

Walnut, looking more like a tilted cube

From this angle, Walnut actually looks more like a tilted cube than Tilted Cube does — a fact that also complicated the search for the real Tilted Cube in today's landscape.

 

Tilted Cube — still tilted, but not nearly so cube-shaped

Tilted Cube doesn't look nearly as much like a tilted cube from this angle. It's much less orderly on this side, really just a big mess of a rock.

 

Tilted Cube and its new neighbor, the mobile home park's rec center

This is what that "messy" side of Tilted Cube looks like in the modern landscape. This photo, which I took from the swimming pool area in 2013, shows how close Tilted Cube is to the rec center.

 

Tilted Cube and the rec center from the north side

To get a better sense of the scale of some of these old movie rocks, note that today Tilted Cube rises well above the roof of the rec center — and Walnut was several times larger than Tilted Cube.

 

"The Lone Ranger" TV series (1956): Walnut and friends

For another illustration of how these big rocks size up, consider this shot of Walnut and some of its neighbors in the season five "Lone Ranger" episode "The Return of Don Pedro O'Sullivan."

 

The late, great movie rock Walnut

Pointing out the obvious, this is Walnut, outlined here in blue.

 

Tilted Cube — overshadowed by Walnut, as usual

Less obvious is Tilted Cube, dwarfed by its camera-hogging neighbor, Walnut. Their size difference is exaggerated here by Walnut's being closer to the camera, but even so, Walnut is a much larger rock.

 

"Secret Service in Darkest Africa": Another look at the south side of Walnut

Here's another shot of Walnut's "back side," which includes a vertical indentation we discussed previously — the dark area on the rock, to the right of the fighter.

 

Indentation near the base of Walnut

It's a little hard to see here, but this indentation is the same one near the base of Walnut that we pointed out in "The Living Bible."

 

"The Living Bible": Walnut, with its nooks and crannies

Here's the same indentation as it appears in "The Living Bible."

 

"Secret Service in Darkest Africa": Today's swimming pool area

In another shot from "Secret Service in Darkest Africa," we again see the back side of Walnut at top center, along with Tilted Cube to its left.

 

Two longtime neighbors vie for screen time

As we've noted, the two rocks were close neighbors. In this case Tilted Cube is closer to the camera, but even so, the larger Walnut makes its presence felt.

 

Another surviving rock in the swimming pool area

The shot also features a third rock, which I call Johnny Crawford Rock. Like Tilted Cube, Johnny Crawford Rock has survived and remains in place today in the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village.

 

"First Wages" ("The Rifleman," season four): Johnny Crawford at his namesake rock

The name "Johnny Crawford Rock" comes from a 1961 episode of "The Rifleman" called "First Wages," in which Crawford, as young Mark McCain, rides next to the rock.

 

Johnny Crawford Rock's copycat vertical indentation

Something to note about Johnny Crawford Rock is that it has a distinctive marker that is almost an exact duplicate of the vertical indentation we've been seeing on Walnut.

 

"The Living Bible": Jesus and his followers walk near Johnny Crawford Rock

Johnny Crawford Rock also appears in this shot we looked at previously of Jesus leading a group through the swimming pool area. Here again we see the rock's vertical indentation.

 

Johnny Crawford Rock in modern times

Today Johnny Crawford Rock is part of the landscaping around the swimming pool at the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village in Chatsworth, Calif.

 

The rock's distinctive marker

The rock's prominent vertical indentation remains a part of the modern landscape.

 

Famous movie rocks decorate the swimming pool area

A wider shot of the swimming pool area again shows Johnny Crawford Rock, toward the right, along with some other old movie rocks. All of these rocks appeared frequently in movies and on television.

 

The key indent in Johnny Crawford Rock

Here again, Johnny Crawford Rock's indentation is pretty easy to spot.

 

"The Living Bible": Behind Jesus we see a similar indentation

Taking another look at the Jacob's Well set in "The Living Bible," we again see an indentation in a rock behind Jesus and the Samaritan woman — but this is not the same rock we've been looking at.

 

This time the indentation is in Walnut

As we've noted previously, this is NOT the indentation in Johnny Crawford Rock — it's the oddly similar indentation in nearby Walnut.

 

"Blazing Bullets" (1951): Johnny Crawford Rock, Tilted Cube and Walnut

Ideally we could get a look at the indentations on both Johnny Crawford Rock and Walnut in the same shot, but the closest thing I've seen is this shot featuring both rocks, along with their neighbor Tilted Cube.

 

Three important movie rocks in "Blazing Bullets"

The three rocks line up nicely in the shot, and by examining their positions relative to each other, we can determine that the Jacob's Well set in "The Living Bible" would have been located in the swimming pool area.

 

Matching indentations — but only one is fully visible

The "Blazing Bullets" shot includes Walnut's indentation, marked here in red, but a tree prevents us from getting a clear look at Johnny Crawford Rock's matching marker, mostly hidden in the yellow outline.

The Jacob's Well location — now a swimming pool

In the end, the rocks confirm that the Jacob's Well encounter in "The Living Bible" was filmed approximately where the Indian Hills Mobile Home Village's swimming pool is located today.

Cowboy star Gene Autry in action at the Iverson Movie Ranch

The video above contains the climactic chase sequence from the 1947 B-Western "Robin Hood of Texas," Gene Autry's final movie for Republic Pictures before he spun off Gene Autry Productions and aligned with Columbia. The action takes place almost entirely on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., with just a few shots using stock background footage from other sites. 

I'll spotlight some of the features seen in the clip above with still shots from the video, below. I'm including the times to point readers to where these shots can be found in the clip:

0:09 — A wagon speeds along one of the main chase roads on the Upper Iverson, located in the South Rim area.

0:13 — In one of only a few shots in the clip NOT filmed at Iverson, Gene Autry joins the chase after mounting up at a barn on the Republic backlot in Studio City. The former Republic lot is still involved in the production of movies and TV shows, as the site is now the CBS Studio Center. Unfortunately, all of the outdoor sets from the Republic era have been leveled.

0:24 — Another shot filmed on the Upper Iverson, this one is interesting for the non-Iverson content seen in the background. The flat area at top right is part of the neighboring Brandeis Ranch, which was located immediately to the west of the Upper Iverson, and which was also used for filming for a brief period, mainly in the late 1930s. This flat section, which I call the Brandeis Plain, was separated from Iverson by the low line of trees you can see in this shot. One item of interest in the shot, although it's just a tiny feature in the background, is the rock formation that can be seen on the Brandeis Plain. It's a small white two-part rock stack, against the dark background of a tree. This rock, which I call the Sherman Tank, is still in place, and is now a part of the gated community that occupies the former Upper Iverson and Brandeis properties.

Here's the same shot with notations to make it easier to find the Sherman Tank and to indicate how the two movie ranches were oriented.

This is what the Sherman Tank looks like today, part of the decor at Indian Falls Estates, the gated community that occupies much of the former Upper Iverson Movie Ranch and neighboring Brandeis Ranch. The Sherman Tank was on Brandeis property during the filming era.

Here's a real Sherman Tank for comparison. The rock reminds me more of a Sherman Tank in reverse, with its gun aimed over the large, flat rear surface. I couldn't find a shot of that, but that's one of the "tactics" I used to employ during my tank-playing days. (My tanks were much smaller than the real ones, and made of plastic — but I had a lot of them.)

0:27 — Gene rides along a chase road on the Upper Iverson. The distinctive beak-shaped rock at top right is Eagle Beak Rock, a feature that turns up consistently in chase sequences in the B-Westerns and early TV Westerns. If you watch the video clip closely, the chase in "Robin Hood of Texas" speeds past Eagle Beak Rock multiple times.

0:30 — Not far from Eagle Beak Rock was, and still is, a rock that film historians call the Molar. Eagle Beak Rock is seen again in this shot, and the Molar is directly below it — a three-part rock that resembles the crown of a large tooth.

The same shot, with Eagle Beak Rock and the Molar highlighted.

Here's the Molar in recent times, part of the landscape of a driveway in the gated community. I talk about the discovery of the Molar in this earlier blog post.

0:38 — Gene is a blur as he rides past Round Rock, which isn't looking exceptionally round from this angle.

Round Rock as it appears today, in the lower left corner, with much of the frame filled by Prominent Rock, also known as Medicine Rock.

0:46 — Gene takes a shortcut through the rocks, and as he heads south he goes past a rock I call Bignose, seen framing Gene in this screen shot.

This is what Bignose looks like today, on the South Rim of the Upper Iverson.

1:09 — Cut to the Lower Iverson, where Gene rides past Stegosaurus, above and to the left of Gene, and Bill Rock, to the right.

Here's a detail shot from the top left corner of the above screen shot. This portion shows Stegosaurus, framed something like the way it is in the recent shot below.

Here's a closeup of Stegosaurus in modern times.

"Red River Renegades" (1946): Bill Rock, left; Cactus Hill, background; Stegosaurus, right.

Bill Rock comes up a lot in the old Westerns, and is a useful marker, as it's easily identified by its "bill" on top. Even though the above screen shot from the Sunset Carson B-Western "Red River Renegades" is taken looking north, from the opposite angle of the Gene Autry shot, the bill remains identifiable. Stegosaurus is unrecognizable from this angle, but that's it at the right.

It's hard to get a decent shot of Bill Rock in modern times because of a tree that conceals much of the rock. This shot — looking north again, similar to the "Red River Renegades" shot — is about the best we can do. The shot also shows the rock's proximity to the condos that now occupy much of the former Lower Iverson.

2:01 — Back on the Upper Iverson, the wagon continues along a chase road in what is now the cul de sac area. The distinctive rocks at the far left — I call them the Cul de Sac Crew — remain in place today, at the end of a cul de sac filled with large residential estates.

Here's a view of the Cul de Sac Crew in recent times. It's not obvious how the above two shots match up, but the rock seen in the color shot above, with a circular "hole" in it near the center of the shot, is the same rock seen in the black-and-white screen shot, at the very far left — and that same hole can be seen there, too.

2:25 — Here's some of that stock background footage I mentioned earlier, with the actors being filmed in a studio while location footage winds past them on a screen in the back. It looks to me as though this particular background sequence might be shot at Burro Flats, a filming location that was located just a few miles southwest of Iverson. The fake sequences seen in this movie do not appear to me to be Iverson, although Iverson footage was sometimes used in that manner. At any rate, to my eye these fake shots have a much different appearance to them from the actual on-location chase footage shot for this movie at Iverson, with the fake footage looking, well, fake, while the backgrounds are sharper and more realistic in the location shots. If you're following the video clip itself, you can probably see it too. (Another example of the fake backgrounds begins around 1:47.)

3:06 — Here's a nice shot of Gene and his horse, Champion, up near the eastern end of Cactus Hill, looking down on the wagon still speeding along a well-traveled Upper Iverson chase road, with Oak Flats in the background. Gene is looking more or less toward the west.

3:24 — Another look at the wagon as the action approaches its climactic moment. This shot looks north, with Oat Mountain filling the background. The dark triangular feature near the top of Oat Mountain, directly above the two men, is an important identifying mark I call the Triangle Brand, which has helped me identify Iverson in the movies countless times. The feature is formed by a patch of trees and bushes, and remains plainly visible today in the hills above the northwest corner of the San Fernando Valley.

3:26 — A stuntman dressed up as Gene Autry earns his pay by braving the perilous rock ledge known as Ambush Rock. Today Ambush Rock is in the back yard of an estate on the former Upper Iverson.

This is what Ambush Rock looks like today. Western film historian Tinsley E. Yarbrough was lucky enough to pay a visit to the site a few years back and captured this gorgeous shot of the rock in its fully landscaped contemporary setting.

3:33 — As the wagon speeds by, the stuntman prepares to take a flying leap off Ambush Rock.

3:33 — The stuntman flings himself toward the wagon ...

3:34 — ... and lands safely in the back of the wagon.

3:48 — Now the stuntman has been replaced by Gene, who proceeds to beat up bad guys as the wagon rumbles along.

4:08 — These two shots of Gene in the wagon — still working over that baddie here — are done in the studio, and provide another example of the fake background footage mentioned above. As with the previous example, my best guess is that this background material was filmed at Burro Flats.

4:17 — Back to the stuntman, now focused on subduing the second bad guy, and we're back to an actual location shot, with the wagon racing past the Upper Iverson feature known as Prominent Rock, or Medicine Rock, looking nice and rugged in the top right corner.

4:18 — The stuntman continues to have his way with Baddie No. 2 while the wagon speeds past the Iverson rock known as Frankenstein, directly above the two men fighting. Much of the background in the above two shots is taken up by Cactus Hill.

4:45 — Finally, Gene has control of the wagon. It's another studio shot with that fake background footage — Burro Flats or whatever it is this time.

This chase sequence provides a nice taste of the kind of action that was Iverson's bread and butter during the heyday of the B-Western and the early TV era. It's also a pretty good showcase for Gene Autry's formidable on-screen presence. Even though some of the heavy lifting in this action sequence is done by stuntmen — and even though it's kind of obvious at times, due in part to the primitive editing standards of 1940s B-Westerns and in part to our increased sophistication as movie watchers — the sequence represents Autry at his cowboy hero finest, more than holding up his end of the impressive riding and fighting.

For more clips like this, please check out my YouTube channel, which you can find by clicking here.

You can't tell me you don't see these faces ...

"The Cisco Kid" TV series, episode "Ride On," original airdate Nov. 19, 1951

On the surface the above screen shot depicts a routine sequence from a "Cisco Kid" episode with a dark horse at a gallop, almost unnoticed at the left of the screen. The sequence is shot on the old Upper Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., and includes a familiar feature, Eagle Beak Rock, in the top left corner. But would you just look at those other rocks? Some of them are almost unbelievably weird.

Let's take a closer look ...

This group has a lot going on.

Doesn't this rock look like some kind of ancient king? And what's he doing with a puppy on his head?

Here's the puppy.

Don't overlook this guy — sort of a 
hollow-eyed space something-or-other.

Or this guy — a grumpy Sesame Street 
character wearing a vest.

I'm not sure what to make of this one.

I see either a little girl or a doll here.

This one looks a bit demonic — which
may "explain" the rest of them.

That's kind of a lot in one freeze-frame — and I have a feeling I've missed a few. I honestly think it's just weird rocks, shot in a weird light using a weird color process that made them turn out looking weird. Still, I find this stuff mighty intriguing. That demon in the last shot goes 3D if you look at it long enough. Heck, they all do ... some of them just take a little longer.

Click here for the "tricks of light" thread, which is more of this sort of thing.

Below are some links to the "Cisco Kid" TV series on DVD and Blu-ray: