The Wild Country (1970)

So much average

Powerful

From my favorite movies..

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

A family moves from Pittsburgh to Wyoming to become farmers in the late 1800s. They face the expected amount of hardships, including a tornado and a murderous rancher. Wilderness family adventure movies are usually fun to watch. This one doesn't break any new ground, even for 1970, but it'll keep your attention. It's enjoyable even if it's stuff you've seen before. Steve Forrest and Vera Miles are the parents. He's for the pioneer life but she wants to move back to civilization. Ron Howard is the teenage son anxious to be a man. Clint Howard is the annoying little brother who likes to make pets of all the animals. Jack Elam is lots of fun as a goofy mountain man and Frank DeKova has another of his Indian roles he was known for. Dan Haggerty has a blink-and-you'll-miss-him background part. Surprisingly violent for a Disney movie. Tornado scene was very well done. Beautiful scenery is a plus. Worth checking out if you're a fan of such movies.

All Cast and crew members were exceptional. Making a film takes team work. The crew on this film were the best of the best. Location Manager Austin Jewell & Auditor Nick Humphrey provided support and financial know how that made this an easy film to work on. Bob Totten, Director was a genius. Jack Elam was so good that you could almost smell him . Steve Forrest & Vera Miles turned in great acting performances. The Jackson Hole location with the Grand Teton mountains were a big hit with all, made the movie real. Rate this movie a 10 plus. Bob Clatworthy, Art director provided a artistic touch that rates at the top of the list. When we arrived in Jackson Hole in August 1969 and the Grand Teton mountains still had snow on them that lasted until we left. The town people of Jackson Hole were very nice and would help were ever they could. Many were hired as extras and rented vehicles and equipment to the production.

I worked on The Wild Country as an electrician. The entire cast and crew was flown on a Boeing 737 non-stop from Burbank CA. We arrived about noon, and the elevation was high at Jackson Hole, but hot. It required a high speed landing and the plane went the full length of the runway and off the runway's end! EXCITING! Within 4 hours it rained, snowed with high winds, but by 5 PM it was clear! There was an airline strike while filming, and film as flown into Denver instead of Salt Lake City before going to L.A. for processing. It was unfamiliar territory for the plane crew, and several days of unexposed film were left on the runway. A plane ran over the film cans and exposed it, so we had to film it over...very expensive. During the summer, a garden was planted at the genuine 1800's log cabin (disassembled, and then reassembled at the movie location) and the vegetables looked beautiful. The fence around the garden was removed the night before filming the garden and the deer immediately ate the garden! Plastic radishes, carrots, etc. were flown in from L.A! I believe the Publicity Department (Ben Hartigan) said each vegetable cost $400! It was hot, and every fair haired person had sunburned lips. Two Dog (Frank DeKova supposedly had a wolf (real) and when we were filming his wolf, the wolf waded into the small pond near the cabin to cool off. The animal trainer waded in and got the wolf, and returned him to Two Dog. The camera rolled again, and again the wolf waded to the middle of the pond to cool down. (We were all hot). Again the animal wrangler waded into the pond so the wolf kept moving away from his trainer. The trainer ended up chasing him, and after an hour or so they were just dots on the horizon. It took the trainer 7 or 8 HOURS to chase the wolf to exhaustion and catch him, but he did...I don't remember if the wolf was used any more. Vera Miles attended church every Sunday (I think she was a Morman). 9 of the existing 21 Whooping Cranes were near where we were filming and about 10 AM every morning they got very noisy and took-off. It took them 100 yards or more the take off, first running and flapping their wings, then lifting their legs while their bodies stayed at the same elevation, and then slowly rising in flight...BEAUTIFUL! It interrupted our filming daily, but we were not allowed to disturb them in any way. It was said there were lots of fatalities of cranes because they ran into power lines and broke their necks. This was about as low as the whooping crane population ever got. They have since made somewhat of a recovery. Ron and Clint Howard were accompanied by their parents. Rance and his wife were among the NICEST people I have ever met...very quiet, but true friends. In Burbank they lived about 2 blocks from the Warner Brother's main gate. Rance had a study above his garage where he wrote. I urged him to give up writing (too unpredictable) and do something on production. I'm glad he didn't! He is a wonderful writer, and his son's have made great successes of themselves in show business. I continued working on movies and TV(started on My Fair Lady at Warner's in Crafts Service, worked on Mary Poppins etc. at Disney (yes, Walt knew many people by name and saw to it if you were in college, to provide employment so you could afford college). After Walt passed away, Disney changed dramatically, and became more like an uncaring factory. I got my degrees in Industrial Engineering and after 10 years at Lever Brothers, returned to the movie studios to do Crafts Service and Sound for 5 years on the A-Team (yes, I knew Mr. T and George Peppard),and the rest of the time in Crafts Service (2 years on Beverly Hills 90210, 7 years on NYPD Blue, 4 years on ER) (John Wells is a wonderful boss and a genius of a story teller), and am now working on a TV pilot, LAWMAN, as of November, 2009. Anyone wishing to get into movie and TV production may Email me for advice (I currently hold union cards in Crafts Service, Lighting, Sound, and SAG (Screen Actors Guild). The Wild Country was a wonderful experience and I hope your memories of the movie are as pleasant as mine were while working on it! David Collier [email protected]

This movie is a good family movie with the exception of the tornado which having lived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming where this movie was filmed, tornadoes just do not happen at 6,800 feet above sea level. I remember Frank DeKova as chief Wild Eagle from "F Troop". I lived in Jackson at the time of this film being shot and all the cast was very gracious. Ron Howard at the time was a young man still looking to get his post Andy Griffith career started before discovering his talent as a director. The movie really never went anywhere on the big screen. It was shot over the summer in Jackson and the cast rode in Teton County Fair parade. Frank DeKova would hang out at the local steak house and visit with people. He was a most gracious man. The movie was shot between The Triangle X Ranch in Grand Teton National Park and another Ranch which I do not recall. Also shot on Antelope Flats in the Park.