Why we love old movie locations — especially the Iverson Movie Ranch

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Tuesday, February 24, 2015

The Iverson Movie Ranch Western street, one building at a time ... Part IX: The Lost Dutchman

"Along Came Jones" (1945): Loretta Young and Gary Cooper

The Lost Dutchman was around for just one movie, "Along Came Jones," starring Gary Cooper and Loretta Young, but the building played an important role in the movie. In the above screen shot, Young surprises Cooper, a stranger in town, by planting a kiss on him outside the Lost Dutchman.

What Cooper doesn't realize is that he's about to be shot by a would-be bushwhacker hiding inside the building, and Young's sudden gesture is a ploy to lure him to safety.

The building on the left is the South Adobe, which was discussed in the previous entry in this series and which remained in place for the next 13 years. The North Adobe was not yet built in 1945, and the Lost Dutchman occupied what would later be the gap between the North and South Adobes.

A wider shot, taken from the side deck of the General Store, again shows the South Adobe on the left and the Lost Dutchman on the right. The General Store was across the street from the Lost Dutchman.

This view of the town shows where the Lost Dutchman fits in on the west side of the street. The building's stone storefront, which is similar to that of the Saloon, can be seen near the right of the shot, above the black horse.

A number of the key structures along the west side of the street are noted in this version of the shot. All of the screen shots in this post are taken from "Along Came Jones."

The Lost Dutchman's sign is prominently displayed as Loretta Young drives a cart past the structure. The Barber Shop, with its striped poles, can be seen toward the right, in the approximate spot where the North Adobe would later stand.

Another sign out front, seen from inside the General Store across the street, suggests that the Lost Dutchman, along with presumably being another saloon, was also a Wild West liquor store, dealing in "Fine whiskies — Jug trade a specialty." Shots of the interiors of buildings along the Iverson Western street were rare, with "Along Came Jones" being one of the few times it was done.

Here's a blowup of the sign on the front of the Lost Dutchman.

A closeup of the bushwhacker's hiding place inside the Lost Dutchman reveals that he's working with a partner. The shot also provides a look at some of the contents of the establishment.

Like the General Store, the Lost Dutchman was used for a few interior shots in "Along Came Jones." This view of the bushwhackers' post from the inside looks out on the east side of the street. Visible in the background are two businesses that appeared in "Along Came Jones" — the Chinese Laundry, on the left, and Ladies' and Gentlemen's Furnishings, on the right.

While these types of shots are often faked, it appears that in this case the shot was in fact taken from inside the Lost Dutchman. The building may have been used, in effect, as a mini-soundstage during this sequence, but the Lost Dutchman was dismantled soon after production on "Along Came Jones" and did not become a part of the permanent town set.

A wider shot of the Chinese Laundry and Ladies' and Gentlemen's Furnishings is taken from almost the same angle, from just outside the Lost Dutchman, with the Livery Stable at center. The storefronts adjacent to the Livery Stable would soon undergo extensive remodeling, which will be discussed in an upcoming post.


"The Iverson Movie Ranch Western street, one building at a time" is a series of posts on the movie and TV history of each of the major structures making up the Iverson Movie Ranch town set, which stood from 1944 to 1957 and appeared in hundreds of productions.



To see all of the posts in the series on the Iverson Western street, please click on the following links:

Part I: Casa Grande
Part II: The Livery Stable
Part III: The Saloon
Part IV: The Hotel
Part V: The General Store 
Part VI: The Barn
Part VII: The Sheriff's Office
Part VIII: The North and South Adobes
Part IX: The Lost Dutchman
Part X: The original north end of town
Part XI: The North and South Towers
Part XII: The Harness Maker
Part XIII: Rainbow Mine Co. 
Part XIV: The Church/Schoolhouse  
Part XV: The Corral Rocks Shack
Part XVI: The decline and fall of the Western street

2 comments:

Scott, Robbins said...

Hello,
You may have figured this out?
I believe the "Odd Shaped Building" in the Western Town at the NE end of town, just North of the General store and Pond Rock, (Seems to only have pictures of the front SW corner and the rear SE corner) was in fact the same Adobe Bldg from Wee Willie Winkie promo shot showing Shirley and the young boy marching past pond rock and a small white adobe building, notice the larger rocks at lower 1/2 of wall, then smaller stone above, compare to the picture above from the "Ghost Town Renegades" 47, you can tell where a window opening has been filled in and a different smoother material used above small stones to extend the Height and sloped roof added.
Thx, A10ACN

Swami Nano said...

That's a great observation. No, I hadn't made that connection before. But I definitely see what you're talking about, and I believe you nailed it.
This is a terrific find for a number of reasons. For one thing, it connects the "Wee Willie Winkie" set from 1937 with the Western street, which was built in late 1944 and first used in the 1945 release "Along Came Jones." The connection has long been speculated about, but it has been hard to prove. For years it was thought that the buildings down at the southwest end of town were the ones that dated back to the 1937 "Wee Willie Winkie" set, but those theories didn't quite hold up.
What this also means is that the "odd-shaped building," or at least the earlier version of it, the "adobe building near Pond Rock" as seen in the famous "Wee Willie Winkie" promo shot, would have been sitting there all those years, and is likely to have been involved in other productions as well.
I'm also now taking a fresh look at the rarely seen "small adobe" that turns up in very early appearances by the Western street, also at the far north end of town but on the west side of the street. I know the 1939 classic "Stagecoach" shot in the area, and I'm starting to think the "small adobe" might have a connection to the "Dry Fork way station" in "Stagecoach."
For readers who want to see the odd-shaped building and the small adobe, you may want to click on one of the links at the end of the post, above — the one that goes to "Part X: The original north end of town."
To see the "Wee Willie Winkie" photo with Shirley Temple walking past the adobe building, you can go to this url:
http://iversonmovieranch.blogspot.com/2018/09/remembering-burt-reynolds-heres-burt.html
... Scroll down to the sixth photo.
You can see the "Dry Fork way station" from "Stagecoach" by going to the following url:
https://iversonmovieranch.blogspot.com/2011/02/revisiting-iverson-locations-in-john.html
Thanks for an important find and a great comment.
-SN