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Opinion

Another Local ‘Plot’ Unearthed in Sierra Madre

Pioneer Cemetery was a pivotal location for Alfred Hitchcock’s last film, Family Plot.

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Sierra Madre has been the backdrop for many films over the years, most notably Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Perhaps less well known, however, is the city's appearance in Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot, part of which was shot at the Pioneer Cemetery on Sierra Madre Boulevard in 1975. Doubling as the fictional "Barlow Creek Cemetery," the burial ground plays a key role in two scenes of the darkly comedic thriller.

Though the novel on which the film was based was set in England, Hitchcock, who had lived in California since 1940, wanted to transpose the action to his adopted homeland, and as with his films Vertigo and The Birds, tell a uniquely California story. Screenwriter Ernest Lehman, who penned Hitchcock's North by Northwest, was hired to adapt the novel and shift the action to California.

Tentatively titled Deceit, and later renamed Family Plot, the story follows the exploits of two slightly dimwitted con artists—phony psychic Madame Blanche (Barbara Harris) and her cabdriver boyfriend George Lumley (Bruce Dern)--who are hired to track down the missing nephew of an elderly millionaire. As with all Hitchcock films, a cursory synopsis does not do justice to the plot twists and turns that follow, but eventually the search leads Lumley to the "Barlow Creek Cemetery," where he happens upon evidence that the vanished heir faked his own death, after stumbling upon a suspiciously ersatz tombstone. 

The choice of Pioneer Cemetery was a careful one. Production designer Henry Bumstead, who found all the locations for the film, was known for his scrupulous eye. A native of Ontario, CA, and longtime resident of San Marino, he often used nearby locations in clever ways; as art director on the 1973 best picture winner, The Sting, Bumstead seamlessly substituted Old Town Pasadena for Depression-era Chicago and, a year later, used South Pasadena and Los Angeles to replicate the same city and time period for Billy Wilder's The Front Page.

Bumstead's familiarity with Sierra Madre probably stemmed from the work he had done on a 1968 Paul Newman WWII film called The Secret War of Harry Frigg, which was filmed partly at Alverno High School. (The campus improbably doubled as an Italian villa controlled by the Axis powers.) Whether Bumstead noted the nearby cemetery while working on the film or stumbled upon it subsequently, he later recalled it as a choice find.

"I think the cemetery was one of the most important sets [on Family Plot]," he explained in Henry Bumstead and the World of Hollywood Art Direction (University of Texas Press, 2003).

The burial ground, which saw its first interment in 1882 (a servant to Sierra Madre's founding Carter family) had an air of Old California about it, and the mix of sycamore, oak and palm trees with chaparral-covered hills visible in the background proved ideal for film's unspecified California setting. As an added detail, Bumstead talked the caretakers into letting the weeds grow for several days in advance of shooting to give a woebegone, forgotten and of course eerie look to the place.

Filming took place at the height of Southern California's perennial "June gloom" period, and cinematographer Leonard South achieved a naturalistic aura of funereal dimness by shooting exclusively with available light. He also shot from atop a 30-foot scaffold to bring to life a carefully storyboarded sequence in which two characters play a cat and mouse game among the cemetery's maze-like plots. 

Of course, not all of the cemetery's natural elements were cast in the film. As an interesting production footnote—all the headstones in the film with visible inscriptions had to be manufactured. For legal reasons, no names of actual deceased persons could be shown onscreen.

Henry Bumstead's penchant for local settings led to additional filming along Angeles Crest Highway, in South Pasadena and at various other locations around Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The film stands as a modest success in the Hitchcock canon. Upon its release in 1976, the film drew praise from critics like Roger Ebert, who lauded its "meticulous construction and attention to detail," and Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice, who called it "brilliantly designed in its movements through cemeteries and cellars and cathedrals." The cemetery scenes in particular had two other notable admirers: Hitchcock fans John Carpenter and David Lynch both used Pioneer Cemetery in later projects, including Halloween and Twin Peaks, respectively.

Author's note: For more about Henry Bumstead, an excellent documentary has just been released, which features him and other production designers talking about their craft.

In honor of Halloween, how about sharing your favorite scary movie? Tell us in the comments.

About this column:

Historian Matthew Hormann offers a weekly look at historical happenings that have contributed to the rich tapestry of the Sierra Madre story. Check back here each Thursday for the latest installment in our ongoing series!

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