Mary Graham. Bringing you all the magic in Alberta films.
@maryegraham.bsky.social
Author, A STUNNING BACKDROP: ALBERTA IN THE MOVIES, 1917-1960
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/944161
Next up: Alberta in film, post 1960: Days of Heaven, Dr. Strangelove, Superman, Inception, The Revenant, Unforgiven…
Dust off your smile.
📚 🎥
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/944161
Next up: Alberta in film, post 1960: Days of Heaven, Dr. Strangelove, Superman, Inception, The Revenant, Unforgiven…
Dust off your smile.
📚 🎥
Chasing varmints across the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, "Chip of the Flying U", 1926. Dir. Lynn Reynolds.
Universal cameramen were thrilled with the natural light:
"They told us there was good camera light in Alberta, wow, boy! They didn’t tell half of it."
📚 🎥
#albertafilminglocations
Universal cameramen were thrilled with the natural light:
"They told us there was good camera light in Alberta, wow, boy! They didn’t tell half of it."
📚 🎥
#albertafilminglocations
November 19, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Chasing varmints across the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, "Chip of the Flying U", 1926. Dir. Lynn Reynolds.
Universal cameramen were thrilled with the natural light:
"They told us there was good camera light in Alberta, wow, boy! They didn’t tell half of it."
📚 🎥
#albertafilminglocations
Universal cameramen were thrilled with the natural light:
"They told us there was good camera light in Alberta, wow, boy! They didn’t tell half of it."
📚 🎥
#albertafilminglocations
All hail the renegades!
October 26, 2025 at 12:30 PM
All hail the renegades!
Olive Borden did her own stunts for plane crash scenes in the 1927 movie Pajamas: Long Island heiress flies across the continent with a whim and no pilot training. In pajamas.
Photo taken by summer student hanging around set.
Filmed at #lakelouise #filmedinAlberta📽️ 📚 #astunningbackdrop
Photo taken by summer student hanging around set.
Filmed at #lakelouise #filmedinAlberta📽️ 📚 #astunningbackdrop
October 18, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Olive Borden did her own stunts for plane crash scenes in the 1927 movie Pajamas: Long Island heiress flies across the continent with a whim and no pilot training. In pajamas.
Photo taken by summer student hanging around set.
Filmed at #lakelouise #filmedinAlberta📽️ 📚 #astunningbackdrop
Photo taken by summer student hanging around set.
Filmed at #lakelouise #filmedinAlberta📽️ 📚 #astunningbackdrop
Hey #Biebers! Classic! Many movies #filmedinAlberta before 1960 end with big love scene at Lake Louise! Here #HootGibson & #VirginiaBrownFaire retreat to mountain wilderness in #TheCalgaryStampede 1925, dir. #HerbertBlache PS - they kiss in the next & final scene! 📽️ 📚
October 14, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Hey #Biebers! Classic! Many movies #filmedinAlberta before 1960 end with big love scene at Lake Louise! Here #HootGibson & #VirginiaBrownFaire retreat to mountain wilderness in #TheCalgaryStampede 1925, dir. #HerbertBlache PS - they kiss in the next & final scene! 📽️ 📚
here we go!
Turn up the volume!
Turn up the volume!
October 10, 2025 at 2:59 PM
here we go!
Turn up the volume!
Turn up the volume!
#FrankBorzage r, and crew of #TheValleyoftheSilentMen 1922 pose in tank suits before ducking into underground hot springs on Sulphur Mountain #Banff after a long day filming. The caves were lit with hundreds of candles for them every day for six weeks. #filmedinAlberta #astunningbackdrop 📚📽️
October 5, 2025 at 1:23 PM
#FrankBorzage r, and crew of #TheValleyoftheSilentMen 1922 pose in tank suits before ducking into underground hot springs on Sulphur Mountain #Banff after a long day filming. The caves were lit with hundreds of candles for them every day for six weeks. #filmedinAlberta #astunningbackdrop 📚📽️
Barley field, Longview, Alberta. Oct 1.
The Assassination of Jesse James field. #BradPitt #AndrewDominik #RogerDeakins #filmedinAlberta
Combines came today to cut it all down for harvest.
#moviesky #booksky #astunningbackdrop
The Assassination of Jesse James field. #BradPitt #AndrewDominik #RogerDeakins #filmedinAlberta
Combines came today to cut it all down for harvest.
#moviesky #booksky #astunningbackdrop
October 2, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Barley field, Longview, Alberta. Oct 1.
The Assassination of Jesse James field. #BradPitt #AndrewDominik #RogerDeakins #filmedinAlberta
Combines came today to cut it all down for harvest.
#moviesky #booksky #astunningbackdrop
The Assassination of Jesse James field. #BradPitt #AndrewDominik #RogerDeakins #filmedinAlberta
Combines came today to cut it all down for harvest.
#moviesky #booksky #astunningbackdrop
“What are we gonna do now?” motel. #BrokebackMountain.
Beiseker, Alberta. 25 years later.
#booksky #moviesky
#loveisaforceofnature
Beiseker, Alberta. 25 years later.
#booksky #moviesky
#loveisaforceofnature
September 30, 2025 at 1:26 PM
“What are we gonna do now?” motel. #BrokebackMountain.
Beiseker, Alberta. 25 years later.
#booksky #moviesky
#loveisaforceofnature
Beiseker, Alberta. 25 years later.
#booksky #moviesky
#loveisaforceofnature
Elk Island Park, Alberta
#JohnFord shot buffalo massacre scenes here for #TheSearchers. Part of a cull. Local wranglers stampeded herd toward #JohnWayne stand-in.
But Ford passed on filming winter scenes in #Banff after his scout was snowed-in for 3 days atop Sunshine Mountain.
#booksky #moviesky
#JohnFord shot buffalo massacre scenes here for #TheSearchers. Part of a cull. Local wranglers stampeded herd toward #JohnWayne stand-in.
But Ford passed on filming winter scenes in #Banff after his scout was snowed-in for 3 days atop Sunshine Mountain.
#booksky #moviesky
September 27, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Elk Island Park, Alberta
#JohnFord shot buffalo massacre scenes here for #TheSearchers. Part of a cull. Local wranglers stampeded herd toward #JohnWayne stand-in.
But Ford passed on filming winter scenes in #Banff after his scout was snowed-in for 3 days atop Sunshine Mountain.
#booksky #moviesky
#JohnFord shot buffalo massacre scenes here for #TheSearchers. Part of a cull. Local wranglers stampeded herd toward #JohnWayne stand-in.
But Ford passed on filming winter scenes in #Banff after his scout was snowed-in for 3 days atop Sunshine Mountain.
#booksky #moviesky
#RaoulWalsh loved working with the Stoney Nakoda in #Saskatchewan 1953. Filmed in #Alberta. They speak their language. Chief George McLean (left of Walsh) says in tipi camp scene:"Don't laugh, the cameras are rolling." #AlanLadd says "Stop! Stop!" in Stoney. #moviesky #booksky #stoneyfilmproject
September 25, 2025 at 12:08 PM
#RaoulWalsh loved working with the Stoney Nakoda in #Saskatchewan 1953. Filmed in #Alberta. They speak their language. Chief George McLean (left of Walsh) says in tipi camp scene:"Don't laugh, the cameras are rolling." #AlanLadd says "Stop! Stop!" in Stoney. #moviesky #booksky #stoneyfilmproject
Robert Mitchum was a good buddy to Marilyn Monroe when filming #RiveOfNoReturn in Banff & Jasper in 1953. Wouldn't let Preminger bully her, snickered with her when sex symbol hype got out of hand & lambasted a journalist claiming she wasn't a perfect woman 'after all' because she had heavy periods.
September 18, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Robert Mitchum was a good buddy to Marilyn Monroe when filming #RiveOfNoReturn in Banff & Jasper in 1953. Wouldn't let Preminger bully her, snickered with her when sex symbol hype got out of hand & lambasted a journalist claiming she wasn't a perfect woman 'after all' because she had heavy periods.
Marilyn Monroe was sewn into a new pair of skin-tight jeans for almost every scene in #RiverOfNoReturn in 1953. Here, #OttoPreminger stands over her on Bow River near where #TheRevenant was shot 60 years later. It was her first summer as a sex symbol. She was 27. #booksky #stunningbackdrop #moviesky
September 11, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Marilyn Monroe was sewn into a new pair of skin-tight jeans for almost every scene in #RiverOfNoReturn in 1953. Here, #OttoPreminger stands over her on Bow River near where #TheRevenant was shot 60 years later. It was her first summer as a sex symbol. She was 27. #booksky #stunningbackdrop #moviesky
#ErnstLubitsch loved filming #EternalLove atop Victoria Glacier at #LakeLouise in Sept 1928. Up at 5 am every day to ride donkeys & horses to set. Like #TerrenceMalick did for #DaysofHeaven 50 years later, Lubitsch waited hours for legendary Alberta Magic Light. #moviesky #stunningbackdrop #booksky
September 11, 2025 at 1:01 PM
#ErnstLubitsch loved filming #EternalLove atop Victoria Glacier at #LakeLouise in Sept 1928. Up at 5 am every day to ride donkeys & horses to set. Like #TerrenceMalick did for #DaysofHeaven 50 years later, Lubitsch waited hours for legendary Alberta Magic Light. #moviesky #stunningbackdrop #booksky
The Stoney Nakoda are the only Indigenous people with a lasting cinematic record of their traditional way of life & culture as it changed over the last century. They've worked with giants: Arthur Penn, Frank Borzage, Robert Altman, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Edward Zwick, Raoul Walsh, Walt Disney...
September 5, 2025 at 8:34 AM
The Stoney Nakoda are the only Indigenous people with a lasting cinematic record of their traditional way of life & culture as it changed over the last century. They've worked with giants: Arthur Penn, Frank Borzage, Robert Altman, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Edward Zwick, Raoul Walsh, Walt Disney...
Winter is coming. Banff, Alberta. September 2023
August 28, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Winter is coming. Banff, Alberta. September 2023
#CarmenMiranda and her #BandoDaLua burst into song throughout the gonzo gaiety of the Hollywood war propaganda extravaganza #SpringtimeInTheRockies 1942, partially filmed at Lake Louise in Alberta.
“Carmen Miranda is not a bowl of fruit,” says
Theodore Strauss in his NYTimes review.
#MovieSky
“Carmen Miranda is not a bowl of fruit,” says
Theodore Strauss in his NYTimes review.
#MovieSky
August 18, 2025 at 10:09 PM
#CarmenMiranda and her #BandoDaLua burst into song throughout the gonzo gaiety of the Hollywood war propaganda extravaganza #SpringtimeInTheRockies 1942, partially filmed at Lake Louise in Alberta.
“Carmen Miranda is not a bowl of fruit,” says
Theodore Strauss in his NYTimes review.
#MovieSky
“Carmen Miranda is not a bowl of fruit,” says
Theodore Strauss in his NYTimes review.
#MovieSky
Who let the dogs direct?
#BillyWilder
Jasper, Alberta. Summer 1946.
Making #EmperorWaltz - his first colour film.
An "unWilder" Viennese trifle" that "yaps at everything in sight" but ultimately "lightens the weariness of life" as the world came out of a coma after WW2. #stunningbackdrop 🎥
#BillyWilder
Jasper, Alberta. Summer 1946.
Making #EmperorWaltz - his first colour film.
An "unWilder" Viennese trifle" that "yaps at everything in sight" but ultimately "lightens the weariness of life" as the world came out of a coma after WW2. #stunningbackdrop 🎥
August 14, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Who let the dogs direct?
#BillyWilder
Jasper, Alberta. Summer 1946.
Making #EmperorWaltz - his first colour film.
An "unWilder" Viennese trifle" that "yaps at everything in sight" but ultimately "lightens the weariness of life" as the world came out of a coma after WW2. #stunningbackdrop 🎥
#BillyWilder
Jasper, Alberta. Summer 1946.
Making #EmperorWaltz - his first colour film.
An "unWilder" Viennese trifle" that "yaps at everything in sight" but ultimately "lightens the weariness of life" as the world came out of a coma after WW2. #stunningbackdrop 🎥
Ennis Del Mar & Alma Beers wedding scene shot in a 1906 Anglican church on the prairies in Dinton, Alberta, summer of 2004.
Got spruced up after filming.
#AngLee #heathledger #MichelleWilliams #JakeGyllenhaal #filmedinAlberta #stunningbackdrop 🎥
#BrokebackMountain
Love is a force of nature.
Got spruced up after filming.
#AngLee #heathledger #MichelleWilliams #JakeGyllenhaal #filmedinAlberta #stunningbackdrop 🎥
#BrokebackMountain
Love is a force of nature.
August 8, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Ennis Del Mar & Alma Beers wedding scene shot in a 1906 Anglican church on the prairies in Dinton, Alberta, summer of 2004.
Got spruced up after filming.
#AngLee #heathledger #MichelleWilliams #JakeGyllenhaal #filmedinAlberta #stunningbackdrop 🎥
#BrokebackMountain
Love is a force of nature.
Got spruced up after filming.
#AngLee #heathledger #MichelleWilliams #JakeGyllenhaal #filmedinAlberta #stunningbackdrop 🎥
#BrokebackMountain
Love is a force of nature.
This is photographer Nick Morant.
He staged the runaway train scene in #SilverStreak.
Strange little drawings in his notebook show the villain's head being decapitated: first touch point, head going off & blurry mess. A terse orchestration of movie magic. Horrifying to watch in the movie.
He staged the runaway train scene in #SilverStreak.
Strange little drawings in his notebook show the villain's head being decapitated: first touch point, head going off & blurry mess. A terse orchestration of movie magic. Horrifying to watch in the movie.
July 26, 2025 at 2:00 AM
This is photographer Nick Morant.
He staged the runaway train scene in #SilverStreak.
Strange little drawings in his notebook show the villain's head being decapitated: first touch point, head going off & blurry mess. A terse orchestration of movie magic. Horrifying to watch in the movie.
He staged the runaway train scene in #SilverStreak.
Strange little drawings in his notebook show the villain's head being decapitated: first touch point, head going off & blurry mess. A terse orchestration of movie magic. Horrifying to watch in the movie.
Wild Aegean Sea April 2019 #photosky #photography
July 18, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Wild Aegean Sea April 2019 #photosky #photography
Sun spot. Calgary 8 am. #photosky #photography
July 18, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Sun spot. Calgary 8 am. #photosky #photography
The superman we needed in 1978.
And.
The superman we needed in 2025.
And.
The superman we needed in 2025.
July 16, 2025 at 9:48 PM
The superman we needed in 1978.
And.
The superman we needed in 2025.
And.
The superman we needed in 2025.
Southern Alberta 5am
July 13, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Southern Alberta 5am
This bad boy was on the river path at 7am.
July 13, 2025 at 2:40 PM
This bad boy was on the river path at 7am.
July 10, 2025 at 3:07 PM