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Wagon off the cliff in THE DARK COMMAND (Republic, 1940).


At around the 100 minute mark in DARK COMMAND (Republic, 1940), John Wayne and others are escaping on a wagon which plummets off a cliff in to Lake Sherwood. That exciting sequence was choreographed by great stuntman Yakima Canutt, and he describes the prep work and stunt on pages 126-127 of Stunt Man, The Autobiography of Yakima Canutt (Walker and Company, New York, 1979) by Canutt with Oliver Drake.

In the wagon with Canutt were stunt men Cliff Lyons and brothers Bill Yrigoyen and Joe Yrigoyen.

Excerpts from the book:

"I had the special effects department make a double wagon, a replica of the wagon we would use in all of the runs up to the jump. The trick wagon was made mostly of light balsa wood and only enough heavy timber was used to carry the weight. Then I had the work crew build a chute at a forty-five degree angle, reaching from the top of the bluff above the river to a shelf below where the ground leveled off for a few yards. Here we built a tilting chute, strong enough and long enough to hold the wagon and team. The floor of the chute, when tripped, would line up with the floor of the long chute that ran to the edge of the bluff above the water, We then built a camera tower that straddled the lower end of the chute. The cameras could shoot straight down, holding the side of the bluff and river in the photographic field. I had breakaway snaps on the tugs and inside reins of the harness. Also, on the neck yoke straps, a small cable measured to the proper length would free each horse from the hook-up during the fall. A small float at the end of each line would give the men standing by in boats a chance to make a quick rescue if a horse got into trouble."

"The two back men had a bit harder jump to clear the wagon, so I changed wardrobe with Cliff who had hurt his hip a few days before and was a little lame. He would double Wayne, so he would have an easier jump. Joe was in the back with me, and Bill on the seat beside Cliff."

"The full length of the entire slide was seventy-five feet and it was a forty-foot drop to the water."

"Cliff, Joe and I cleared the wagon in mid-air, but Bill didn't jump quite quickly enough. Standing on the platform of the wagon bed, he rode it into the the water."

The Internet Archive has the April, 1940 International Photographer magazine with an article on the stunt ... including a full page photo. Mentions a seventy-five foot drop in to the water. But Canutt's book says forty feet.

Link below will open in a separate tab / window.

Article and photo - click on the + 🔍 magnifier icon in the bottom right corner to increase article and photo size: https://archive.org/details/internationalpho12holl/page/n105/mode/2up?view=theater

The photo: https://ia600607.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?id=internationalpho12holl&itemPath=%2F4%2Fitems%2Finternationalpho12holl&server=ia600607.us.archive.org&page=leaf000107


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