Tucson Milestones

Ridin' Wild
Year: 1925
Director: Leon De La Mothe
This Western, the first recorded film shot in Tucson, starred William Barrymore who, despite his intentionally misleading surname, was not a member of the great acting clan. He was, in fact, Elia Bulakh, a former Cossack soldier in the army of Czar Nicholas II who had escaped execution during the revolution of 1917 by using the lid of a can of beef (which was supposed to be his last meal) to slit the throat of his executioner and escape from Russia to the United States via China. Things got really dicey when he decided to become an actor in Tucson.

Arizona
Year: 1940
Director: Wesley Ruggles
Old Tucson Studios was built for this Columbia Pictures western as the studio wanted to recreate Tucson as it was in the 1860s. The film, which starred Jean Arthur and a young William Holden as the romantic leads, took steps forward in increasing realism in the western genre, setting a standard that other films would soon match.

The Bells Of St. Mary's
Year: 1945
Director: Leo McCarey
Five years elapsed before a second film was shot at Old Tucson Studios, but the success of that film changed everything for Tucson as a movie town. The Bells of St Mary's, the sequel to Bing Crosby and director McCarey's Best Picture Oscar winner Going My Way, was another huge hit at the box office and at the Oscars (where it got 8 nods, including Best Picture) as audiences followed the continuing story of Crosby's Father Chuck O'Malley. Following this success, it became much more tempting for Hollywood to come to Tucson.

Winchester '73
Year: 1950
Director: Anthony Mann
The westerns Anthony Mann made with James Stewart in the 1950s, such as their first collaboration, Winchester '73, were darker, more psychologically complex films than earlier oaters and represented a shift in the cultural perception of heroism following World War II. In the 1950s, Old Tucson Studios was utilized by many classic westerns such as Broken Arrow (1950), 3:10 To Yuma (1957), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) and Rio Bravo (1959), and continued to be the backdrop for many a saloon barfight and high noon shoot-out, including in such revisionist westerns as Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josie Wales (1976).

The Lilies of the Field
Year: 1963
Director: Ralph Nelson
Nearly 20 years after The Bells of St. Mary, religion returned to Tucson in Ralph Nelson's uplifting The Lilies of the Field. Homer Smith (Sidney Poitier), a construction worker driving west to find work, has his life detoured when a group of nuns convince him that it's his destiny to build a church in the middle of the desert. Unfortunately this faith-based drama failed to inspire backers, and Poitier had to defer his salary and Nelson put his house up as collateral to get the film made. They shot in a lightning quick 14 days and in the end their belief paid off. Poitier won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance and the film is now a classic.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Year: 1974
Director: Martin Scorsese
Tucson represented a place of hope and second chances in Martin Scorsese's (decidedly different) follow-up to Mean Streets. A recently widowed single mother (Ellen Burstyn) takes a job as an waitress after her attempts to become a Phoenix lounge singer falter. Following the huge success of her previous film, The Exorcist, Burstyn had creative control on Alice: in choosing a director, she was torn between Scorsese (who had been recommended to her by Brian De Palma) and Hal Ashby. She was attracted to Scorsese's hard-edged style, and chose him when he confessed that he knew "Nothing [about women], but I'd like to learn."

Another Man, Another Woman
Year: 1977
Director: Claude Lelouch
French New Wave director Claude Lelouch revisited the themes of his greatest success, A Man and a Woman, in this multi-cultural Western about a widowed French immigrant (Geneviève Bujold) who meets and (eventually) falls in love with an American vet (James Caan) whose wife was raped and murdered. While the film is ostensibly a Western, Lelouch brought a quirky European touch to this all American genre, including the frequent use of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony for dramatic effect. Despite, or perhaps because of, its oddness, the film has become something of a cult favorite.

Revenge of The Nerds
Year: 1984
Director: Jeff Kanew
High noon fell on Tuscon as the Nerds faced up to their mortal enemies, the Jocks, in this geek comedy . While director Jeff Kanew got permission from the University of Arizona to shoot this nerdy National Lampoon's Animal House, school administrators nearly balked at the last minute when they actually read the script. But the lewd and ludicrous won out in the end as the film went on to become a big hit.

Bodies, Rest & Motion
Year: 1993
Director: Michael Steinberg
Helmer Michael Steinberg followed up The Waterdance, his critically acclaimed film about a group of paraplegics, with this contemplative romantic drama (adapted by Roger Hedden from his own play) about a quartet of twentysomethings looking for direction in Tucson's fictional alter ego, Enfield, Arizona. Steinberg reteamed with Waterdance star Eric Stolz, who played opposite Bridget Fonda (whose father, Peter, appears in a small role), while Tim Roth – one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood after Reservoir Dogs – played the malcontent who tests the patience of girlfriend Phoebe Cates.

The Quick and the Dead
Year: 1995
Director: Sam Raimi
In the 90s, the Western was back in the saddle. Sam Raimi's stylish movie about town which hosts a quick draw contest, with Sharon Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe and Gene Hackman as competitors, was just one of a slew of new Westerns. Tucson also hosted the Brat Pack western Young Guns II (1991), African American western Posse (1993), Australian culture-clash western Lightning Jack (1994) and, of course, Wild Wild West (1999), Barry Sonnenfeld's remake of the popular 60s TV show.