Garden of the Gods, 1930: Walking in the footsteps of Gary Cooper in "Morocco"

Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich in "Morocco" (Paramount, 1930)

The early talkie "Morocco" has been a fixture on my Iverson Movie Ranch "to do" list for years. I've scanned it several times since 2011, but until last week I never found proof that it was filmed on the ranch.

Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper in the Garden of the Gods in "Desire"

It's generally well-known that Gary Cooper was a fixture on the Iverson Ranch — I think my tally of Cooper's movies filmed on the ranch is up to at least seven and counting.

Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich's association with Iverson is less widely known — I might even go so far as to call her one of the Iverson Movie Ranch's "best-kept secrets."

"Rancho Notorious" (RKO, 1952)

Dietrich is hardly the type of movie star typically associated with the B-Westerns that are the Iverson Ranch's meat and potatoes. But Dietrich appears in at least four movies filmed on the ranch, including "Desire," which I've blogged about before, and the RKO "A" Western "Rancho Notorious," later in Dietrich's career.

"The Devil Is a Woman" (Paramount, 1935)

I was recently looking into another of Dietrich's Iverson movies, "The Devil Is a Woman," as part of a renewed focus on Paramount movies after last month's Woolsey Fire ravaged the Paramount Ranch.

DVD set containing five Marlene Dietrich movies, including "Morocco"

I picked up a five-movie Dietrich set, "The Glamour Collection," because it had "The Devil Is a Woman," but while I was at it I also took another look at "Morocco," which is in improved picture quality on the DVD set.

"Morocco" (1930): A rock that looks suspiciously like Iverson

When I got to "Morocco's" main rock sequence, something finally clicked: I think I know that rock!

The same rock, photographed last week

Then it was off to Iverson to check it out, and yeah, there's that same rock.

"Desert Tortoise" in 2017

Here's a wider view of the rock, which I call "Desert Tortoise." It's located on property that has been preserved as the Garden of the Gods Park, which is open to the public from dawn to dusk.

This is the part of the rock that appears in the "Morocco" scene. You can find a map to Desert Tortoise by clicking here — scroll down to the directions to the "fake rock arch," because it's the same spot.

Gary Cooper pokes around the Iverson rocks in "Morocco"

While I was there, I searched for the route that might have been taken by Gary Cooper as the sequence played out. In the movie Cooper's Legionnaire is sent on a dangerous mission that involves poking around in the rocks.

Gary Cooper, center, pauses near a large triangular rock

The sequence took Cooper and the "Morocco" crew to an obscure area in the depths of the western Garden of the Gods that was almost never filmed. Notice the large triangular rock behind Cooper.

The same triangular rock in 2018

The triangular rock looks different today, and was a challenge to find. Intrusive foliage makes it impossible to accurately match the movie shot. But the triangular rock was the key to finding "Morocco's" secret filming area.

Notice the "rock sliver" indicated here.

The same sliver of rock appears in the movie as the scene progresses and Cooper moves forward.

Gary Cooper emerges from a previously unknown cave

How cool would it be to find this obscure cave where Cooper poked his head out as he closed in on the end of his mission? When I began my own mission, it seemed like too much to hope for.

The same cave, discovered in 2018

But suddenly I found myself peering into that very cave. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but even after all the rocks and shooting sites I've explored, my heart was racing as I took this shot.

Any number of markers can be matched up between the recent shot and the movie shot, starting with these three rocks in front of the cave.

The same rocks, A, B and C, can be readily identified in the movie sequence.

Here we see a shot slightly farther along in the sequence, and I've noted two rock features.

Tab A and Slot B as they appear today

The rock parts may not meet the technical definition of "tab" or "slot," but for some reason I got nostalgic about when I was a kid assembling some plastic junk where the instructions would say "Insert Tab A into Slot B."

Notice the section of rock above Gary Cooper's head.

Sometime between 1930 and 2018, a big piece of rock that was up there fell off.

Marlene Dietrich in "Morocco"

Below I've posted a link to the DVD "Marlene Dietrich — The Glamour Collection" on Amazon. I paid about $10 for the set, which contains five movies on two discs, including at least two, "Morocco" and "The Devil Is a Woman," that feature scenes filmed on the Iverson Movie Ranch.

Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper rendezvous at the border between France and Spain — really the Iverson Movie Ranch's Garden of the Gods

I found a terrific sequence filmed at the Iverson Movie Ranch in the 1936 Paramount movie "Desire," starring Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich — with both of the film's big stars putting in some time on location in Iverson's Garden of the Gods for the sequence.

Dietrich watches as Cooper tries to figure out what's wrong with her car in a scene that takes place at the border crossing from France into Spain. In reality it was shot in the Garden of the Gods on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif. Notice the sharp, pointed rock in the top right corner, which is a widely filmed movie rock.

The same pointed rock appears at the far left in this shot taken on a recent visit to Iverson. You can also see Rocky Peak in the background, in the hills directly to the west of Iverson.

The pointed rock is at the left again in this shot from the 1937 Columbia B-Western "Ranger Courage." You may recognize the rock at the right, as it also appears in the recent shot above.

Here's one more look at the pointed rock, in the 1938 RKO B-Western "The Renegade Ranger," starring George O'Brien. This time the pointed rock fills up the middle of the frame.

A promotional still of Dietrich in the car was part of the Iverson shoot, with minor Garden of the Gods rocks visible in the background. The car was a fairly spectacular ride back in its day (and still is) — a 1935 Auburn 851 Supercharged Boattail Speedster.

Here's a shot of the Auburn 851 in action, cruising past Iverson rocks as it nears the border crossing. It's kind of obviously not Dietrich at the wheel in this shot, but I'm not going to quibble about that with all the great shots coming up.

This is what the same car looked like when it was put up for auction in 2010. This was the exact car used in the movie, and it had been specially fitted with a rear-mounted spare for the movie. The spare was removed before the sale to restore the car to its original state, but was included as part of the sale.

Here's another shot of the car as it appeared when it was being auctioned. I'm told it went for $377,000.

The focal point of the scene in "Desire" is the border crossing between France and Spain, a source of tension because Dietrich's character is carrying stolen pearls. Here Dietrich's car approaches the crossing, where the filmmakers apparently built a set in the Garden of the Gods to serve as the border guards' headquarters.

Dietrich's car arrives at the border, with a familiar Iverson movie rock visible in the distance, at top center.

That same movie rock as it appears today, toward the top left of this shot. The rock is a prominent feature of the Iverson Gorge and a part of the Hole in the Wall group. I have referred to it in the past as GTR, and noted that from its back side it adopts the persona of a Jaunty Sailor. I hope you can match up the profiles of the rock in the above two photos.

Another view of the border crossing. Now Cooper is behind Dietrich in his Pontiac, about to get dragged into her situation. This shot offers a better view of part of the border crossing set, along with an improved view of some of the rocks.

This shot of Dietrich has the look of a studio shot or backlot, and we might think that's what it was if we hadn't already got a look at the border crossing set. She was on location at Iverson, and at this point was setting her sights on Cooper.

Dietrich and Cooper connect, with Garden of the Gods and part of the set in the background. Technically, I've never heard that this set was built specifically for this movie, but everything adds up: Paramount had the budget for that sort of thing, and this was a heavily filmed area and a busy time for Iverson. If these buildings had been built for any other reason, or had remained standing for any length of time, they would have turned up in other productions.

Another shot from the sequence, featuring Cooper's Pontiac, is also filmed in Garden of the Gods. Notice the rock and tree in the background.

"Cowboy Holiday" (1934)

The same rock and tree also surface in the 1934 Guinn "Big Boy" Williams B-Western "Cowboy Holiday," as seen above.

By the end of the scene in "Desire," Cooper is clearly smitten with Dietrich — and appears to have no idea what kind of trouble he's in.

"Desire" seems to be a hard movie to find. I wanted to include a link here for a DVD or Blu-ray on Amazon.com, but I could only find non-USA DVD formats and clunky old VHS — so you're on your own. Good luck!