American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1952)

Record Details:

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goal he sent cinematographer Mellor as his personal emissary to scout locations on the Mojave desert in California and in and around Kanah, Utah — famed locale of countless western fdm dramas. Here was a picture in which the studio art direc¬ tor was to play a minor role. The settings for the picture would be already built by nature, and much would depend upon the inspiration the cameraman found in the natural set¬ tings chosen for staging the action. No wonder, then, that Mellor’s camerawork achieved such perfection. For the first time in all Hollywood history, per¬ haps, a cameraman was entrusted with the responsibility of selecting the major location sites for the picture he was about to film. Normally, a cameraman follows the script, and shoots in locations and on sets that have been prepared, for the most part, without benefit of the photographer’s counsel. Before Mellor set out to scout locations for director Well¬ man, the studio already had made a tentative survey of sev¬ eral location sites. These had been photographed in 16mm and the film screened at the studio. Mellor, in a jeep, retraced the studio scout’s trail into Paria and Johnson canyons, near Kanab, with only mild enthusiasm. Just as he was turning hack toward Kanah. the driver of the jeep casually mentioned a site in the vicinity called Surprise Valley which, he said, to his knowledge had never before been used by a motion pic¬ ture company. After about an hour’s drive, they reached the canyon and what Mellor saw sent him scurrying back to Kanab to put in a hurry-up phone call to Wellman back in Hollywood. At Mellor’s insistence, a dubious Wellman flew to Kanab and Mellor drove him out to Surprise Valley. The director was overwhelmed. Not only did he approve the site but began a mental rewrite of the story in order to take fur¬ ther advantage of the unusual pictorial elements he found so abundant there. “The Valley had every pictorial element we could ask for,” Mellor said, “from stark desert wastes to deep walled canyons, plus a stream that grew from a small rivulet far up the canyon to a good size river with many pictorial possibilities. Here in this valley we could shoot the greater part of the exteriors written into the script; do most of the picture here, and save the studio considerable in production costs.” In the beginning the story idea for Westward The W/omen was Frank Capra’s. “Look,” he said, “It’s 1851. Put 200 women in covered wagons. Take ’em across hell to California. Stampedes, accidents, Indians, sudden death.” THE CAMERA setup for an important scene in one of the closing sequences of picture, depicting arrival of the women at McIntyre's California ranch, ready to meet his men. Director Wellman, in toreground, is giving directions to players in another wagon (not shown). TWO BILLS — "Westward The Women" marks the fifth picture Bill Mellor (top) has photographed for director Bill Wellman, shown here contemplating a new camera setup on location near Kanab, Utah, where much of the picture was photographed. PICTURED above are two important camera aids trucked to desert location by MGM — the steel camera parallel in distance, and the "Blue Goose" camera car with hydraulic lift (foreground) which Mellor used both as a camera and light parallel. Here the equipment affords two simultaneous takes of important action from different camera angles and heights. From this capsule scenario, screenwriter Charles Schnee wrote the script. Briefly, the story concerns a pioneer rancher in California with a yen to provide wives for his ranch hands. Taking along Robert Taylor as guide, the rancher, John McIntyre, goes to Chicago. There he signs up 200 women to make the trip to his California ranch. Taylor, meanwhile, en¬ gages a dozen men to go along and assist him as drivers, cattle ranglers and Indian fighters in the westward trek. “But stay away from the women!” he warns them. (Continued on Page 42) January, 1952 American Cinematocrapher o 15