John Payne and Emile Meyer join forces in the Iverson rocks on "Restless Gun"

Emile Meyer

Emile Meyer was one of those actors you probably recognize by face, but almost nobody knows by name. He appeared frequently in Westerns, both on TV and on the big screen, with notable performances in "Shane" (1953) and on the James Garner TV show "Maverick" (1957). And like most of the Western actors of the period, he put in his time on the Iverson Movie Ranch.

"The Restless Gun" (1957): Emile Meyer on the Upper Iverson

Meyer worked the Upper Iverson with John Payne when Meyer made a guest appearance on Payne's TV show "The Restless Gun." Meyer played Sheriff Wade Lawson opposite Payne's idealist cowboy-gunfighter Vint Bonner in the episode "Man and Boy," which premiered Nov. 25, 1957.

John Payne on Iverson's South Rim in "The Restless Gun"

Here's a shot of Payne from the same episode of "The Restless Gun," taken during the lead-up to the climactic shootout at the Miner's Cabin on the South Rim.

The episode features some unusual lighting, at times creating the impression that the rocks are lit by campfire light. This one looks like day for night, given how well-lit the background is.

A unique image seen in the episode is this silhouette of a cactus in full bloom, apparently taken atop Iverson's Cactus Hill. Meyer and Payne are the riders.

Here's a shot of a rider traveling along the top of Cactus Hill against a dramatic Chatsworth sunrise — although I get the impression we're supposed to see it as a sunset. In the distance we can see a little bit of Chatsworth Reservoir from back when it was an actual reservoir. It appears as a tiny lighter-shaded horizontal strip to the left of the horse's snout.

Another interesting shot from the episode is this one filmed against the backdrop of Oat Mountain, with a radar dish visible that was part of the Nike missile defense system that was in place during the Cold War. The missile base slips into the backgrounds of a number of Iverson Movie Ranch productions of the 1950s and early 1960s — to read more about it, please check out this earlier blog post.

The "Restless Gun" episode makes ample use of the Iverson rocks, but they're often shot using lighting and angles that make identification difficult.

The climactic sequence plays out behind the Miner's Cabin, on the Upper Iverson's South Rim. This is a relatively rare view of the back of the cabin, looking north toward Oat Mountain, visible in the background.

Much of Meyer's on-screen time is spent against the same background rocks.

Meyer did break out from that one rocky background just long enough to be shot against a different rocky background. Here Meyer displays his trademark frown — and the rock behind him seems determined to match it.

Wonders of the Upper Iverson: Screen shot from the old Whip Wilson movie "Montana Incident" is filled with hidden gems

"Montana Incident" (1952)

At the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., where more movies were filmed than in any other outdoor location, there's almost always more to the picture than meets the eye. The above shot from the Whip Wilson movie "Montana Incident," in which not much appears to be going on, is a case in point.

Here's the same screen shot with some of the main movie rocks and one manmade set noted. Whip Wilson, in the lower left corner, is doing some surveying for the railroad, with the help of a number of armed riders. (It seems the local cattle ranchers don't cotton to railroad folk.) Around the edges of the shot lurk a number of widely filmed Upper Iverson features, which I'll talk about in more detail below.

"Tennessee's Partner" (1955) — Miner's Cabin and mine entrance

The Miner's Cabin, sometimes called the Lone Ranger Cabin, was often featured with a fake mine entrance affixed to the rocks to its left, as seen in the above screen shot from the Ronald Reagan-John Payne Western "Tennessee's Partner." Part of the lore of the cabin is that it's here the Lone Ranger mined silver and forged his trademark silver bullets.

"The Roy Rogers Show" (1952)

At times the Miner's Cabin set included two mines, as seen above in the "Roy Rogers" TV show episode "Ride in the Death Wagon," which first aired April 6, 1952, during the show's first season.

The foundation of Miner's Cabin survives today, on the former Upper Iverson. You can click here to see a previous blog entry about the cabin, with additional photos of the cabin and foundation.

Also still in place near the old Miner's Cabin is a rebar fastener that was used to hold a fake mine entrance in position. One of only a few remaining manmade artifacts from the filming era at Iverson, it's located directly below the rock I call Gorilla. See below for more about Gorilla.

A closer look at the fastener that remains from the old fake mine entrance reveals that it's a two-piece metal device, and you can also see indentations and other markings on the rock that were left over from decades of attaching and removing the fake mines.

"Ghost Town Renegades" (1947) — Smiling Lion

Smiling Lion, usually seen in the background, is still around today, overlooking Fern Ann Creek. It had a fair amount of screen time back in the old B-Western days, and it can reflect a number of different "moods" depending on the camera angle.

"Wild Horse Ambush" (1952)

Still smiling in the Republic B-Western "Wild Horse Ambush," above.

"The Blocked Trail" (1943)

Smiling Lion is a little dark in this shot from Republic's Three Mesquiteers movie "The Blocked Trail," but the rock is right behind the cowboy in the center of the shot. The rock's "smile" gets wider as the camera position shifts — here the head appears slightly more elongate than in the previous photo.

The mood appears darker, even sinister, in this recent photo of Smiling Lion — looking more like "Scowling Lion" here. Notch Hill can be seen at top right in this shot, with the color tones and long shadows indicating the picture was taken late in the day, looking east.

"Boots Malone" (1952) — Whale Rock

Whale Rock is most often associated with its appearance in the horse racing movie "Boots Malone," with the above shot being one of only a scant few times the rock is seen clearly from this angle — its most "whale-like" — in any movie or TV show.

Whale Rock also appears in a less obvious but I think still interesting shot in another scene from the movie "Boots Malone."

Same shot with a couple of notations, as it's possible to miss the partially blocked Whale Rock from this distance. The photo also points out Fern Ann Creek, with its rocky creekbed. Notice the smooth dirt road below Whale Rock, seen here supporting a vehicle towing a horse trailer.

"Man From Cheyenne" (1942)

Whale Rock's "mouth" did make it into other productions on occasion, one being the above appearance in the Roy Rogers movie "Man From Cheyenne." Here again, the dirt road below Whale Rock is getting some use.

Here's a recent shot of Whale Rock. Overgrown and all but gone is the smooth road that once curved just below Whale, although traces of it can still be seen in front of the rock, in the lower right corner of the shot.

"Rawhide Rangers" (1941) — the Slates

I've blogged previously about the Slates, and did a "Classic Rock" segment on the rock that you can find by clicking here. Even so, it's always worth another look at the rock that has been described as the best thing since sliced bread.

Here's the same shot from the Universal B-Western "Rawhide Rangers," with a number of features highlighted — and showing the proximity of the Slates to the Tomb. The Slates and Gorilla are also seen in the "Montana Incident" shot at the top of this post.

"California Firebrand" (1948)

Practically the same shot, in color this time, from a different movie. This one appears in the Monte Hale movie "California Firebrand," from Republic.

A contemporary shot of the Slates from a slightly different angle includes another familiar Upper Iverson landmark, Turtle Rock, in the background at top left.

"Five Guns West" (1955) — Gorilla

The rock known as Gorilla really looks like a gorilla when it's shot from the right angle, but it was apparently a hard angle for film crews to get because only a few productions have captured it. One of the best Gorilla shots is in the above scene from Roger Corman's Western "Five Guns West," where the rock gets in touch with its inner gorilla.

In case you're having trouble seeing it, I've highlighted Gorilla in the "Five Guns West" shot, above. Corman's first movie as a director, "Five Guns West" is an Iverson spectacle — check out this blog entry for more about the master cult film director's terrific Iverson shoot for "Five Guns West," and you can click here for another example of Corman's showcasing of Iverson, in the 1957 release "The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent."

Gorilla's contemporary setting

These days, Gorilla can still be elusive when hunted in the wild.

This may be the rock at its most "gorilla-like," in a recent shot that also features a few of the estates now occupying the former Upper Iverson. The major rock feature to the left of Gorilla is Turtle Rock.

All of the rocks spotlighted above appeared in that single shot at the top of this post, from the Whip Wilson movie "Montana Incident." The movie has terrific Iverson content virtually nonstop from beginning to end, and is on my list of the Great Iverson Movies. The movie is included in a nicely put-together DVD set, "Monogram Cowboy Collection, Vol. 2," which you can find on Amazon by using one of the links below. I'll add links to some of the other volumes as well — the whole series contains a lot of Iverson material, in great picture quality.

Location verite: You can visit the spot where Ronald Reagan was gunned down

The 1955 RKO Western "Tennessee's Partner," starring Ronald Reagan, John Payne, Rhonda Fleming and Coleen Gray, has one of my favorite Iverson Movie Ranch sequences, shot in Garden of the Gods. It's the climactic sequence of the movie, and it takes place in an area that has been preserved as a park and remains open to the public.

"Tennessee's Partner" (1955): Ronald Reagan at the Miner's Cabin

Reagan plays a character known only as Cowpoke — he's the "Partner" in "Tennessee's Partner." Here's a shot of Cowpoke from early in the movie, at the Miner's Cabin — also known as the Lone Ranger Cabin — which was located on the Upper Iverson. The stone foundation visible at the bottom of the photo is still in place at the site.

Foundation of the Miner's Cabin in recent years

This is what's left of Miner's Cabin today — the stone foundation and front steps. The two largest rocks toward the left of the photo are the same as the two big rocks at the bottom left of the Reagan photo at the cabin, above.

Stop reading here if you don't want to know what happens in the movie, as I have to reveal it to show what happened to Reagan's character and where it all went down. Cowpoke meets his demise toward the end of the movie, setting up the climactic chase and fistfight. He's gunned down in an underhanded way by a sniveling weasel named Turner, played by veteran character actor Anthony Caruso. Cowpoke dies heroically, stepping in front of a bullet from Turner, intended for Cowpoke's friend Tennessee.

The shooting takes place near Grubstake's Claim, which in reality is a shallow cave on the back side of a familiar sandstone giant known as the Phantom. That's the weaselous Turner holding Grubstake's sign as Turner tries to take over the claim. The back side of the Phantom is in the background.

Turner takes cover just inside the entrance to Grubstake's Claim — actually a shallow indentation in the rock and not the full-on mine or cave the filmmakers made it out to be.

The site of Grubstake's Claim in modern times

Here's a shot of Grubstake's Claim as it appears these days. You may be able to match up both the main "mine entrance" at the center of the photo and the small diagonal crack in the rock seen at the left. That smaller crack can also be seen in the screen shot above of Turner holding the sign. The site is a little less accessible today, with some foliage blocking the view.

This is the scene moments before Reagan's character, Cowpoke, takes the fatal bullet. That's Reagan in the light-blue shirt. He and his partner, Tennessee (John Payne, at the right), appear to have captured Turner — but they don't realize that the slippery villain is carrying a concealed handgun.

The sequence is filmed in what I call "location verite," meaning if someone runs off in a certain direction, the next shot really takes place in that direction, not somewhere else that may have been more convenient — or cheaper — to shoot. The characters are in approximately the same position in both of the above two shots — filmed first from the back and then from the front. If you go to the site today you can find all of the rocks in this sequence — although the huge tree in the above shot is not there.

Reagan's character is not aware he's about to die. As he and Tennessee are preoccupied with the sheriff, who came up behind them, Turner, at center, goes for his gun.

In this shot, Reagan has just taken the bullet. Turner's about to make his getaway and Tennessee, at the right, missed the whole thing because he had turned around to face the sheriff. Grubstake's Claim in the background pinpoints the spot.

Reagan's death scene — Cowpoke's last words to his friend Tennessee.

Here's where Cowpoke fell dead, in central Garden of the Gods.

In the movie, Turner makes a run for it ...

The getaway site as it appears today — Getaway Rock on the right

Here's that same spot during a recent visit, including the large boulder on the right, which I call Getaway Rock because of its role in this sequence. I walked the area with screen shots and was able to trace the path of the action and find where every shot was taken — thanks to the movie being shot in location verite.

Tennessee takes off after Turner, catches him, and they launch into an epic fistfight, all of which is captured in a series of lavish shots of rarely filmed rock features on the west side of Garden of the Gods. In the above scrape, Turner starts to get what's coming to him, being flung over a sharp-edged rock by an enraged Tennessee.

The sharp-edged rock today

Here's the same spot in recent times — still easy to get to and easy to find if you follow the action in the movie. Many of the same rocks can be seen in both of the above two shots. The movie shot was taken from a distance with a long lens, which accounts for the rock in the background (behind the dead tree in the movie shot) appearing closer in the movie than in the recent photo. That background rock is one of the highest in Garden of the Gods.

Here's another view of the fight scene today, from a reverse angle. The big rock that dominates this shot — a mighty distinctive critter — appears on the left in the previous shots. The "sharp-edged rock" appears here as the small, triangular one in the foreground, toward the left.

Below is a clip from "Tennessee's Partner" containing the climactic sequence — including most of the rocks mentioned above:



Location verite is a technique that was rarely used in the B-Westerns, where keeping costs to a minimum was the guiding principle. It's refreshing to find it here, and it's an indication the movie probably had a little bigger budget. It's a good technique from the standpoint of realism, and as a bonus it makes it easier to do location research.

Click here for a little more about the "Tennessee's Partner" shoot in a blog post mainly about the Judy Garland movie "The Harvey Girls," which was partially shot in the same area.