Tall in the Saddle

What do you think of when you think of John Wayne? The pigeontoed swagger? The squinty gaze? The slow vocal delivery? All were born in Tall in the Saddle, a film that put Wayne in Sedona -- even if he never set foot here on the shoot.

John Wayne, the man, was born in Winterset, Iowa, in 1907, but you might make a case that "John Wayne," the cultural icon, was born in Sedona in 1944.

While "the Duke" cemented his stardom in John Ford's classic 1939 western Stagecoach, it wasn't until Tall in the Saddle, shot partially on location here, that many of the character traits and mannerisms we now commonly associate with the actor -- the deliberate, pigeontoed gait; the squinty-eyed gaze; the measured speech -- were seen by movie audiences for the first time, all against a backdrop of Sedona's landmarks.

Oddly enough, Wayne himself may not have seen Sedona's red rocks until he watched the movie. Tall in the Saddle pioneered a technique that allowed editors to realistically splice scenes Wayne shot in a Hollywood studio with exteriors filmed in Sedona. Moviegoers might have sworn the actor was standing in the Southwestern sun, but in truth he never crossed the California border.
The realistic effect, developed by Oscar-winning special-effects wiz Vernon L. Walker, was assembled from various film elements into one shot.

Text © 2006 Sedona Monthly

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