100 Years of Movies Filmed on the Mendocino Coast

The first movie filmed in Mendocino was a documentary about the mighty redwood trees in the area. Beginning in 1916, there were 17 silent movies filmed in the area. There have been 43 movies with sound filmed here, as well as the famous TV series, “Murder She Wrote” and other TV programs and commercials.

If you’d like to know more about filming in the area, contact the Mendocino County Film Office, located in Fort Bragg at the Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce.

This list is extracted from Bruce Levene’s wonderful book, “Mendocino and the Movies”.

Silent Movies

1904 : “The Sequoia Sempervirens” – filmed at Caspar Lumber Co.
1916 : “The Promise” – Harold Lockwood
1919 : “King Spruce” – Mitchell Lewis
1920 : “The Man Who Dared” – William Russell
1921 : “Kindred of the Dust” – Miriam Cooper
1922 : “Soul of the Beast” – Noah Beery
1922 : “Timberland Tales” – Roy Stewart
1923 : “The Signal Tower” – Wallace Beery and Rockcliff Fellows
1925 : “In Search of a Hero” – last silent movie filmed here

Modern Movies

1943 : “Frenchman’s Creek” – Paramount – Joan Fontaine – Oscar
1943 : “The Uninvited” – Ray Milland (background shots only)
1947 : “Johnny Belinda” – Warner Brothers – Jane Wyman – Oscar
1954 : “East of Eden” – Warner Brothers – James Dean – Oscar
1963 : “Island of the Blue Dolphins” – Universal Pictures
1965 : “The Russians Are Coming…” – Mirisch Brothers – Alan Arkin – Oscar
1969 : “The Dunwich Horror” – Sandra Dee, Dean Stockwell, and Ralph Bellamy
1970 : “The Summer of ’42” – Warner Brothers – Jennifer O’Neil – Oscar
1972 : “Slither” – MGM – James Caan, Sally Kellerman
1978 : “Same Time, Next Year” – Mirisch Brothers – Alan Alda, Ellen Burstyn – Oscar
1978 : “Strangers” (TV) – Universal – Bette Davis, Gena Rowlands – Emmy
1979 : “Humanoids from the Deep” – Doug McClure
1980 : “Dead and Buried” – Aspen Productions – James Farrentino
1980 : “Cujo” – Sunn classic Films – Dee Wallace
1983 : “Racing with the Moon” – Paramount – Sean Penn, Nicholas Cage
1984-89 : “Murder She Wrote” (TV)
1986 : “The Killing Time” – Levy/Abrams Productions – Kiefer Sutherland
1987 : “Overboard” – MGM – Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell
1988 : “Wired” – (The John Belushi Story) Michael Chiklis, Ray Sharkey
1988 : “Karate Kid III” – Columbia Pictures – Pat Morita
1990 : “Dying Young” – 20th Century Fox – Julia Roberts, Campbell Scott
1992 : “Forever Young” – Warner Brothers – Mel Gibson
1993 : “Pontiac Moon” – Paramount – Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen
1994 : “The Haunting of Seacliff Inn” (TV) – Ally Sheedy and Louise Fletcher
2001 : “The Majestic” – Dream Works – Jim Carrey
2007 : “Shark Swarm” (working title) — a Hallmark Channel TV movie with Darryl Hannah, John Schneider, and Armand Assante, was filmed in Mendocino and Fort Bragg in 2007, and the movie was aired in early 2008 on the Hallmark Channel.