7 Memorable Movies Filmed in Sedona, Arizona

Seven Films Shot in and Around Sedona, Arizona

Following is a list of four Westerns, two really bad movies, and one New Age movie filmed in Sedona, Arizona. Read interesting factoids about their history, stars, and more.

1. Angel and the Badman (1947)
2. Broken Arrow (1950)
3. Johnny Guitar (1954)
4. The Rounders (1965)
5. Stay Away Joe (1968)
6. Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)
7. Sedona (2011)

The earliest film shot in Sedona of note, filmed in 1923 in Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona, was Call of the Canyon, based upon the novel by Western author Zane Grey. Although Call of the Canyon was silent, the surrounding scenery "spoke" volumes to those who saw the film, and it wasn't long until Sedona was being touted as "Little Hollywood" as Western films filmed in Sedona were so popular.

1. Angel and the Badman (1947)

Director: James Edward Grant

Starring: John Wayne, Gail Russell, Harry Carey

Angel and the Badman is a black-and-white Republic Films movie starring John Wayne and Gail Russell. This was Wayne's first time as the producer of a film; in addition, Wayne plays Quirt Evans, a gunslinger who is nursed back to health for gunshot wounds by the Worth Quaker family.

Gail Russell is Penelope, the young daughter of the Quaker family, who falls in love with Quirt and tries to convince him to become a farmer and join the Friends Society or Quakers. Quirt is drawn into a crooked deal and returns to his former ways.

Angel and the Badman was not a typical Western film of the times and was not a box office success. Critics dubbed it more of a romance than a Western. John Wayne had several comical scenes, including a real classic with a baby, and today's John Wayne fans compare this film to The Quiet Man.

Gail Russell is beautiful in this film. Her film career was short-lived, as she passed away at age 36. The town scenes were filmed on a Western set in front of Coffee Pot Rock, and the other areas that viewers will recognize include Bell Rock, Courthouse Rock, and Slide Rock in Oak Creek Canyon. The Worth family ranch was located in Little Horse Park, which has been called the Chapel area since 1957, when the Chapel of the Holy Cross was built.

Because the copyright was allowed to lapse, the film became public domain and can be found on YouTube and regular television. Angel and the Badman was remade for TV in 2009 with Lou Diamond Phillips in the role of Quirt Evans.

2. Broken Arrow (1950)

Director: Delmer Daves

Starring: James Stewart, Jeff Chandler, Debra Paget

The story of Broken Arrow, starring Jimmy Stewart, Jeff Chandler, and Debra Paget, is based on the true-life story of U.S. Army captain and Indian Scout Tom Jeffords during the Apache Wars in the Arizona Territory (1849–1924). Jeffords is in charge of an Overland (Butterfield) mail line, and he enters the stronghold of the Chiricahua Apache to convince Chief Cochise to allow the mail riders to pass through Apache territory unharmed.

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Jeffords, acting on the authority of Army General O.O. Howard, convinces the tribe to sign a peace treaty that would allow the Chiricahuas to keep their land. The treaty is broken by the Americans, which precipitates the Apache Wars until 1875, when Geronimo, the chief of the San Carlos Apaches, is captured.

Jimmy Stewart plays Tom Jeffords; Jeff Chandler plays Chief Cochise (for which he was Oscar-nominated), and Debra Paget plays the Apache maiden who marries Tom Jeffords. The marriage is a Hollywood fiction, as was the Sedona setting since the actual Cochise Stronghold is in the Dragoon Mountains in Southern Arizona. That said, the movie's use of Technicolor is wonderful, and a number of Sedona's Red Rock formations, such as Schnebly Hill Road, Merry Go Round Rock, Bell Rock, Red Rock Crossing, Little Horse Park (now Chapel area), are easy to identify.

Fun facts: Following the success of the film, a 72-episode Broken Arrow TV series was made (1956–58), and a popular hiking trail in Sedona is named Broken Arrow in honor of the movie.

3. Johnny Guitar (1954)

Director: Nicholas Ray

Starring: Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Ernest Borgnine

Johnny Guitar is a Trucolor Republic Films movie starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, and Ward Bond. It's a Western drama that features a power struggle between the cattlemen and the railroad, but more unusual was the power struggle between Vienna (Joan Crawford), a saloon owner where "undesirables" hang out, and Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge), who is trying to force Vienna out of town.

Fistfights, a bank robbery, and a lynch mob force a final showdown between the two women. The best story is the relationship between Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge during filming. Both actresses were drinking heavily and there was bad blood because Mercedes believed that the director was having an affair with Crawford. Crawford's husband was said to have dated Mercedes.

Eventually, Crawford threw Mercedes's costumes into the street in a drunken rage. The director called it a "dream situation" because the looks of hate and body language between the two women was real. That chemistry meant that, while not a smash hit, Johnny Guitar was a legit box office success. Years later, director Martin Scorsese said, "Johnny Guitar is an example of a minor film grown to achieve the status of a classic. There is really no other film like it."

Today, Rotten Tomatoes gives Johnny Guitar a 94% Tomatometer rating, with an audience score of 85%. With this kind of popularity, it's not entirely surprising that in 2004, the story was made into an Off-Broadway musical that has been staged all over the world.

4. The Rounders (1965)

Director: Burt Kennedy

Starring: Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda

The Rounders is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Western comedy in Metrocolor starring Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda, Sue Ann Langdon, and Hope Holiday. Two aging bronc buster cowboys, Ford as Ben Jones and Fonda as "Howdy," try to earn some quick money breaking horses for the boss man, played by Chill Wills.

Instead of wages, they opt to take "Ol' Fooler," an old bucking bronco, to a rodeo, where they plan to bet against any cowboy being able to ride him. The bronc busting scenes occur in the current area of the Village of Oak Creek, with the rodeo scenes at Posse Grounds and the rodeo parade filmed in Uptown.

Lots of comedy occurs when Ben and Howdy visit two sisters whose pappy makes fine moonshine. The sisters go skinny-dipping with Ben and Howdy, and Ben and Howdy take them along to the rodeo. A classic line used by both Ben and Howdy during the film is "Whatever suits you-tickles us plum to death."

Metro-Golden-Mayer released The Rounders as a second billing film, which meant it was intended to play second during a double-feature, but TMC Classic film critics call The Rounders what we would call a "sleeper" today, and if The Rounders had had the right advertising, it would have been a box office hit.

5. Stay Away Joe (1968)

Director: Peter Tewksbury

Starring: Elvis Presley, Katy Jurado, Joan Blondell, Burgess Meredith

Based upon a book by Dan Cushman intended as a comical farce, Stay Away Joe is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film starring Elvis Presley, Burgess Meredith, Katy Jardo, Joan Blondell, Quentin Dean. It was panned upon release as an embarrassing, tasteless, forced slapstick comedy that's offensive to Native Americans.

Presley plays Joe High Cloud, a good-looking rodeo rider returning home. His father, played by Meredith, is supposed to be a Navajo living in an ancestral teepee. (No matter that ancestral Navajos lived in Hogans.) Jardo plays High Cloud's mother, who lives in an interesting tar paper shabby house. And finally, Blondell plays a bar owner with the hots for Presley, but his interest is in her 19-year-old daughter, played by Dean.

The plot, if there is one, is that Joe earns money by encouraging a prize bull to do his thing. Meanwhile, Presley sings less than memorable songs, fights, herds cattle in a convertible, and has scenes with Dean. The only notable thing during the filming was that Priscilla Presley and the other wives of Presley's entourage came to Sedona for part of the shoot. As an Elvis fan, I admit that he was looking fine in Western wear, but even that doesn't save this dumb and offensive movie.

6. Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)

Director: John "Bud" Cardos

Starring: William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode

Kingdom of the Spiders is a sci-fi cult classic and horror film produced by Dimension Films and starring William Shatner, Tiffany Boling, and Woody Strode. It was filmed in Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon, and Camp Verde in the Verde Valley.

Veterinarian Dr. Rack Hansen, played by Shatner, is called to determine the cause of death in a prize calf. A lab determines the death was caused by spider venom, and archaeologist Diane Ashley, played by Boling, is called in for advice. She believes the spiders (tarantulas) are attacking because their natural food sources are being eradicated by pesticides.

The tarantulas continue to attack animals and people by wrapping them in a giant cocoon before injecting them with venom. Many people still living in the area worked as extras and remember the excitement when the film crew brought in 5,000 tarantulas.

Since tarantulas are shy, streams of air were required to move them forward toward people. The acting and the attacks are so bad that the film makes most people laugh, and the film is considered a cult classic.