High Noon secret movie filming locations of Tuolumne & Stanislaus counties

High Noon remains one of the greatest Western movies of cinematic history much of the 1952 movie was filmed at a Warner Brothers Studio background but many scenes were shot in obscure locations in central California join Jeff the see takes this episode of history hunters two locations never-before-seen on YouTube [Music] onion Tuolumne city california Tuolumne County and that church behind me is the one that was used in the filming of High Noon in the movie Gary Cooper is seen walking back there from that direction towards the church and he goes up to the church and of course he surprised that the pastor and he tries to recruit some help [Music] I'm sorry parson I don't want to disturb the services already have he meets with some resistance with the pastor they're torn should they help them should they not help them maybe some of you already know it but if you don't it looks like Frank Miller's coming back on the noon train the pastor doesn't want to weigh in because he doesn't want to condone violence but yet he also doesn't like what's going to happen to the town when the bad guys come in in the movie you will see a shot of the back of Gary Cooper walking in this direction towards this church and I cannot say with any certainty actually shot the movie inside this church or if they shot it in a studio but what we'll try to do is go in and see if we can find out a little more about it this is st. Joseph's Catholic Church looks like it was built in 1908 so if Gary Cooper actually did walk up these steps which she probably did and would have gone right here as I was walking up to the door that lady came out there having mass here it's a Catholic Church but when I stuck my head in the door I can tell you that it's not the same church that was featured in the movie there's stained glass which is not in the movie at all so as you can see there's stained glass of course Becca been put in later I'm not gonna go in and interrupt Mass just to take a look at the church so I'm gonna assume the inside of the church the church scenes were actually shot on a soundstage in Hollywood not in this church [Music] nestled in the Sierra Nevada foothills call me city is a sleepy town dating back to the gold rush days but primarily known for its logging industry Michael Landon and Victor French came here in 1984 to film an episode of the TV show highway heaven I took advantage of a trip to Columbia State Historic Park with Sara and a grandmother to visit several buildings used at high noon including the Wilson McConnell house which Gary Cooper visited in the film I was just told by a gentleman that performs here on the street regularly that Grace Kelly used the upstairs of that house behind me during the filming of High Noon maybe she slept there maybe she just hit her for makeup dirty stuff while in Columbia during October 1951 Grace Kelly post for these publicity shots for the film in the movie you can see Gary Cooper grabbing this lat in this gate to open it [Music] [Applause] well in front of the Wilson McConnell house I explained his role in the film to serve his grandmother Lily in High Noon he's got some bad guys that he arrested becoming out of state prison and they're gonna come to seek revenge on Gary Cooper and then so he tries to find some help to help me you know get a posse well he goes up to this house here and he knocks on the door and harry morgan's was the answer and his what he has he has his wife answer that because he knows he's gonna get killed by these guys so he's hiding behind that door and she says he's not here and Gary Cooper knows that he's in there and he's just not wanting to answer the call so is it calorie high and then he goes out of that gate and he goes walking up to the firehouse [Music] company had fire protection from this vehicle it's an original antique vehicle called Papeete and it was also in the movie high noon this is where Clint Eastwood comes to send a telegram in the movie tail riders [Music] Carrie Cooper is running behind this building here so as he comes around this way the camera actually catches a glimpse of this building behind me right here it has an air conditioning unit which is a blooper because there were no such thing as air conditioning units in the night 1870s so in the movie High Noon Grace Kelly hears the gunshots because when will Kane has just been involved in the gun battle she's racing to find out he's okay she races down this street to where the shooting took place and too much to relieve the bad guys been shot right now we're gonna take a drive down to where they felt most of idea of the road scenes the bad guy Frank Miller is coming back into a delay building to take care of the sheriff will Kane and Grace Kelly also came out to this filming location because she had to board the train to leave Hadley though she wasn't gonna stick around and watch her new husband it killed my Frank Miller KT Toronto the actress and Grace Kelly both came out here to this location as well as all three bad guys [Music] so if you had come out here in 1951 when they were something hi doing there would not have been any of these almond trees because almonds weren't demand back there we are coming up on Headley bill or what Hollywood wanted you to think this hadleyville North East this is the intersection of Waterville and Crabtree roads on this spot right here was a Depot that was used for the filming of the movie khaidi Jurado and Grace Kelly stepped off the train approximately where I'm standing they got off the train right here the depot was right here it was just built as a set Hollywood set that they later removed photograph the train depot bad guys who were here filming the scene were Ian McDonald Robert J Wilk and Lee Van Cleef they all were in this particular spot here well the train depot was there was a little patio off to the back that shaded the people who are waiting for trains and that's where most of the action takes place but there's one scene that I thought it's pretty cool where they're all looking down the track that way they're looking very sinister and Lee Van Cleef in particular to get his little squinty bad guy eyes on and it's just an awesome scene and then you hear the wail of that train whistle and you see the puff of smoke arising off in the distance there on the horizon signaling that something bad is going to take place Gary Cooper is sensing that he's gonna die in this picture and he starts writing his last will and testament he likes the envelope and then he goes out and he faces his mortality but of course it turns out that the good guy won on this one [Music] one of the bad guys smashed a whiskey bottle or a beer bottle right there we're sitting yes in the movie one of the bad guys the train tracks as you look back here what we're that you see in the movie where you see that hill way up in the distance and then later at the end of the film you will see the smoke rising you will see the train arriving which brings the bad guy Frank Miller there is one thing that's still here as an artifact from that movie and there's Sarah tolerating another history hunt from a movie she has never seen are you gonna see the movie after this that's just like Sarah I have to show you the last remaining thing my movie there was a water tower right in here and it has since fallen but this pump house right here is in the movie you will see it off to the left side of the picture so this is the only part of the movie that is still here hill in the background has also changed from the time that they filmed because at one time it is just solid brown not developed right now they have a grape vineyard growing out part of it so that's a major difference you will see in the background the other side here Nickelodeon was shot here in the 1970s that it was about 1974-75 they built a town out here and they used the train tracks and did a little car chase scene out here Burt Reynolds came out here James best came out here John Ritter was involved in the shooting and they spent about a week out there Tatum O'Neal I can't forget her she said she hated this place it was hot and was summertime and she absolutely hated Modesto although this isn't Modesto they stayed in Modesto you can't blame her for what Austria born fried cinnamon seen here coaching Grace Kelly at the Depot filming site was one of the first directors to use authentic locations and mix stars with civilians to give films more realism mrs. Crouch she wrote one of her road goes back though go this way this way goes back of course Waterford the camera crews set up here to take shots at Grace Kelly running off the train when she heard the gunshots she was concerned about her husband [Applause] one of the gentlemen that I know at my church in Waterford said that he came out here as a boy and he thought Grace Kelly was dressed so nicely that she looked like a princess Grace Kelly quit acting at age 26 to marry Prince Rainier of Monaco at age 52 she suffered a brain hemorrhage while driving her car and crashed down an embankment the trauma caused her to suffer a second hemorrhage and she died at the hospital and the background you can see an apple orchard and for many years those apple trees stood here and they've all fallen it's kind of sad to see them all go just like all the actors and actresses they've all passed away [Music] so I found out that the opening scenes of high noon with the bad guy standing on the rocks were actually shot a couple miles from here it's on the Brooks quarter horse ranch and I would love to see if we can gain access to go into that property and see if they'll show us where that those scenes were shot so or I could or I could fly my drone over it okay so I'm going to call them now and see if we can reach them well I guess we're gonna have to go up there and see if anybody's home you wanted to go check out that old Corral a barn right and see if there's some cows out there Oh at that a little oil tanker thing Robert Blake filmed an episode of Joe dancer out here and I remember seeing that Sarah is really an animal-free as you can tell from our past episodes come on [Music] nothing doing [Music] [Music] that need some grease that windmill over there is reaching like crazy this is now what do you call it extra ghost hunter no it's not extraterrestrial hunters that's it's now oh no what the heck you call it [Music] [Music] I'm hitting a dead end I've tried to gain access to this ranch it's the Leonard Brooks quarter horse ranch but this is the property where the bad guys I know Lee Van Cleef was here they were hanging out and there's an opening scene where they're sitting on rocks and the bad guys are racing their horses along this stretch of ground the ranch is also where Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly are seen riding in a buggy away from town and back to it the reason that I knew that it was shot here is because there's some distinctive jagged rocks that are pictured in this scene and I knew that it had to be this area and we confirmed through some internet research that this is where they film because I can't get in and because there's a sign that says private road no trespassing I'm gonna fly my drone over it when they shot it here in October of 51 of course it was dry and so all the grasses here were yellow everything's kind of green here because it's still spring [Music] [Music] in my drone footage I saw a number of possible film locations but could not positively identify them I like questions because the good ones are real you feel real when you make annamund but you don't feel accurate [Music] High Noon may be the ultimate Western because one man pushed past his fear and display that rare courage to stand for what was right in the end he prevailed as the hero maybe we'd all like to see ourselves in Marshall we'll gain [Music]

Channel: History Hunters

Views: 95,034

Keywords: High Noon movie, Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Tuolumne City, western films, movie locations, jbenziggy, History Hunters, Jamestown CA, Lee Van Cleef

Id: ZmNcUx3wCOw

Length: 20min 34sec (1234 seconds)

Published: Sun May 19 2019