RSS
Home
Kansas City cinema: A brief history of movies shot in or about the metro area
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
The Kansas City area has a long, storied relationship with Hollywood productions—particularly with cowboy movies. Nevertheless, over the years, many movies and TV shows purporting to portray the Old West of Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma actually were filmed closer to the “new west” of Hollywood.
For instance, the long-running TV western “Gunsmoke,” set in Dodge City, Kan., was actually shot mostly in Studio City, California. “True Grit,” the 1969 cowboy film classic, retains its Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma script references (from Charles Portis’ novel), even though the dialog is in stark contrast to the backdrop of the actual filming locations in the mountains of Colorado.
More recently, the trend has been to shoot Kansas City westerns somewhere in Canada, where old-time cow towns are easier to recreate. Such was the case for the 2007 “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” a movie that depicted the most famous Kansas City area outlaw and murderer, Jesse James—this time around played by Brad Pitt. The film mostly takes place in Kearney, Kansas City and Liberty, Mo., but was actually filmed in Alberta, Canada.
One exception to this rule is the 1999 Ang Lee film “Ride with the Devil,” which reenacts the historic Quantrill guerrilla border wars between union and confederate sympathizers in and around Lawrence, Kan., just prior to the Civil War. “Ride” was filmed in Pattonsburg, Mo., a small town located east of Kansas City on the Missouri River. Pattonsburg, which served as a “stand-in” for 1863 Lawrence, Kan., was flooded out during the Great Flood of 1993, and the town was relocated, leaving the empty buildings and homes available.
Kansas City also has a long history of fostering filmmakers, most notably Walt Disney, who opened his first animation studio in downtown KC, and Kansas City native Robert Altman, who got his start directing movies downtown at the Calvin Company, an education and industrial film producer. Altman’s experience led him to making his first feature film “The Delinquents” in Kansas City, using many local actors.
Following is a top-10 list of major motion pictures associated with Kansas City:
1. “Kansas City” (1996). Directed by Robert Altman; starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, Harry Belafonte, and Steve Buscemi; filmed in Kansas City.
2. “Ride with the Devil,” (1999). Directed by Ang Lee; starring Tobey Macguire and Skeet Ulrich; filmed in Pattonsburg, Mo.
3. “Jesse James” (1939). Directed by Henry King; starring Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda; filmed in Pineville, Mo., a small town in the extreme southwest corner of the state.
4. “Truman” (1995). Directed by Frank Pierson; starring Gary Sinise as Harry S Truman; filmed in various parts of Kansas City.
5. “Article 99” (1992). Directed by Howard Deutch; starring Ray Liotta and Keifer Sutherland; filmed in Kansas City, with scenes featuring many local landmarks, including the Liberty Memorial.
6. “Mr. & Mrs. Bridge” (1990). Directed by James Ivory, starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. The film tells the story of a traditional family living in the Country Club Plaza District during the 1930s and 1940s.
7. “Paper Moon” (1973). Directed by Peter Bogdanovich; starring Ryan O’Neal and Tatum O’Neal; filmed in various Missouri and Kansas locations, including St. Joseph, Mo., and Hays, Kan.
8. “Kansas City Bomber” (1972). Directed by Jerrold Freedman; starring Raquel Welch, as roller-derby skater K.C. Carr, the “hottest thing on wheels”; exterior shots were filmed in Kansas City, Kan.
9. “In Cold Blood” (1967). Directed by Richard Brooks; starring Robert Blake and Scott Wilson; filmed in various western, central, and eastern Kansas towns, including Olathe, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo.
10. “Casino” (1995). Directed by Martin Scorsese; starring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, and Joe Pesci; filmed in and around Las Vegas, Nev. According to the Wikipedia entry for “Casino”: “The majority of the actual events took place in Kansas City, even more so than Las Vegas. In the 1970s, the Kansas City mob was involved in a gangland war over control of the River Quay entertainment district, in which three buildings were bombed and several gangsters were killed. Police investigations into the mob took hold after Kansas City Boss Nick Civella was recorded discussing gambling bets on Super Bowl IV (in which the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings). The gang war and investigation would lead to the end of mob control of the Stardust Casino, which was the basis for the film (although the Kansas City connections are minimized in the movie).”
