Since You Asked: 1960s western 'Mackenna's Gold' was filmed on the Rogue

Oct. 16—In the late 1960s there was a western movie that filmed some of their scenes along the Rogue River. I've been trying to remember the name of the movie but keep coming up blank. I don't even remember who the star was. I thought it was "Ulee's Gold," but I see that is a 1997 movie that is completely different. I was nearly cast in the film as a Native American extra. Can you tell me the name of the movie?

— Lee M., via email

Two westerns were filmed in Southern Oregon in the 1960s, Lee — the 1962 film "How the West was Won" and the 1969 western "Mackenna's Gold."

We're thinking it's the latter film in part because the word "gold" is in the title, but also because we found some really cool info about the $14 million film that starred Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas, Keenan Wynn and Julie Newmar.

It also included cinematography in picturesque parts of Utah, Arizona and Southern Oregon — not that any of those stars made it to the Rogue Valley for this movie.

More than 40 Columbia Pictures employees flew a chartered Boeing 727 to the Medford airport May 15, 1967, to film two action scenes for the movie west of Grants Pass, according to Mail Tribune archives.

A Rogue River man named Mel Norrick recounted his stories of being a river guide for Hollywood in a July 2003 Mail Tribune story shortly after Peck's death. Norrick remembered the second crew filming near Robertson Bridge, and the frustrations getting the raft shots.

"The raft wouldn't drift fast enough," Norrick said at the time. "So they put a Caterpillar tractor out there with a long rope, and it would pull the raft down the river."

You'll find some local sights in the movie such as a raft falling over Rainie Falls. Fun fact: The falling raft actually was a scale model. "Mackenna's Gold" is available for streaming with a Starz subscription or for rent via Amazon, Apple TV and YouTube.

Be warned: A reason the movie's hard to remember is because, well, it wasn't very good.

According to a 2010 Turner Classic Movies write-up about the picture, the director shot the film attempting to make a three-hour epic. Columbia Pictures had a different idea and hastily trimmed the run time by a third.

Beyond the pacing, critics couldn't ignore some bizarre elements in the movie, such as footage from the very different states that clearly did not mesh with each other. Nor did the natural splendor mesh with hand-painted studio sets. More problematic were white actors, including Julie Newmar, cast as Indigenous people.

A New York Times reviewer called it, "A western of truly stunning absurdity." Variety used adjectives "standard," "good" and "adequate." Audiences stayed home.

The Rogue River has made its mark on more memorable films throughout the decades.

Norrick, for instance, worked with Katharine Hepburn and John Wayne making the 1975 movie "Rooster Cogburn." The 1975 movie involves several weeks of shooting at Oregon locations that included Hellgate Canyon near Indian Mary Park downstream of Grants Pass.

Hepburn loved being on the river between takes in September 1974, and Norrick remembered strict orders to keep the star out of trouble.

"She loved those little inflatable Tahitis," Norrick remembered in 2003. "Anytime she wasn't being photographed, she'd be out paddling around. They told me, 'Don't you let anything happen to her. We've got a million-dollar insurance policy on her.'"

There's the 1954 western "The Battle of Rogue River," starring George Montgomery, Martha Hyer and Richard Denning, that was supposedly set during the Rogue River Indian Wars of 1855 and '56. Watch out for anachronisms such as post-Civil War era western garb.

A stronger movie filmed on the Rogue was the 1994 movie "The River Wild," starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon, which was filmed at Hellgate Canyon 10 miles west of Merlin.

Streep reportedly celebrated a birthday in the Rogue Valley, according to a 2009 Mail Tribune column by local historian Bill Miller, and Bacon helped with a birthday cake.

Send questions to "Since You Asked," Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; or by email to youasked@rosebudmedia.com.