In 1953, Hollywood packed a lot of its mountain scenes into one Alberta summer. The Alberta Historic Places blog calls it the peak year for Rockies productions, and the list it gives is hard to argue with.
The films that came to Banff and Jasper
According to the Alberta Historic Places blog, three studio pictures worked in the Rockies that year. Twentieth Century Fox shot River of No Return at Jasper and Banff, with Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum under director Otto Preminger. Universal sent The Far Country, with Jimmy Stewart and Walter Brennan. Universal also made Saskatchewan, with Alan Ladd and Shelley Winters, in Banff and Yoho.
The same post shows the habit goes back further. It lists Cameron of the Royal Mounted in Banff in 1921 and The Country Beyond near Maligne Lake in 1926, and it draws on the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives and the Provincial Archives of Alberta for its photographs.
What the archive says about Saskatchewan
The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies archives holds 139 black and white publicity continuity photographs from the 1953 Universal film, taken in Banff National Park. The scope note lists horses, boats, mountains and Hollywood filmmaking.
A separate file in the Whyte’s Lindow family photographs describes views of the set with Ladd and Winters.
A photograph in the Ingenium collection shows James Stewart greeting a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer while filming in the Rockies near Banff in 1953. The record doesn’t name the film, so enjoy it as a mood picture. It isn’t a verified production still.
Why Hollywood was coming north
Part of the answer is policy. The TIFF Canadian Film Encyclopedia describes the Canadian Cooperation Project, which ran from 1948 to 1958. Under it, the encyclopedia says, Hollywood agreed to film on Canadian locations and to include positive Canadian references in scripts.
The same entry judges the practical benefits to Canada to have been minimal, and it names Saskatchewan as one of the films it mentions. These sources don’t say the policy sent any given crew to Banff, so there’s no claiming it did.
The Alberta Historic Places blog also lists Son of Lassie at Lake Louise in 1945, The Emperor Waltz at Jasper in 1946 with Bing Crosby, and Lake Louise scenes in Dr. Zhivago in 1965. It gives later productions in the Canmore, Kananaskis and Morley areas as well, so 1953 sits inside a long run.
That list is more fun than any single title on it. A film crew in the Rockies in 1946 and another in 1965 tells you the mountains kept getting hired. The blog’s sources, including the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives, are the place to check each date yourself.
Who else was part of the story
Mary Graham’s book A Stunning Backdrop: Alberta in the Movies, 1917 to 1960 covers the period.
Our advice is to read the photographs before the star lists. The Whyte and Ingenium records show who was actually standing around a Banff set in 1953. Start with the Whyte’s archive.
Keep reading with how the Banff Mountain Film Festival began with climbers in a basement. Hoot Gibson brought a Hollywood crew that crashed Stampede 1925, and Byron Harmon and the railway films sold the Rockies.
Keep going with Legends of the Fall Borrowed Its Montana From Alberta and Calgary’s Lost Cinemas Were Local Businesses Too.
Quick answers
The Alberta Historic Places blog calls 1953 the peak year for Rockies productions. It lists River of No Return, shot at Jasper and Banff with Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum, The Far Country with Jimmy Stewart, and Saskatchewan with Alan Ladd and Shelley Winters, made in Banff and Yoho.
Otto Preminger directed River of No Return for Twentieth Century Fox. According to the Alberta Historic Places blog, it was shot at Jasper and Banff with Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum. The blog also lists earlier Rockies films, including Cameron of the Royal Mounted in Banff in 1921.
The TIFF Canadian Film Encyclopedia describes the Canadian Cooperation Project, which ran from 1948 to 1958. Under it, Hollywood agreed to film on Canadian locations and to include positive Canadian references in scripts. The same entry judges the practical benefits to Canada to have been minimal.
