Movies Made in Missouri

Movies Made in Missouri

While it’s not Hollywood, there have been nearly one hundred movies made in Missouri from the earliest times in the industry to the present day.
The first movies filmed in Missouri featured Tom Mix and were shot at Flemington in Polk County—why there? Another early movie was “The Crisis” (about the Civil War) based on a popular novel by Winston Churchill (no, not THAT Winston Churchill). Walt Disney started by making a cartoon about teeth for a dentist.
Later movies included “Jesse James,” the third highest grossing film of 1939 after “Gone with the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz.” St. Louis stood in for the Big Apple in “Escape from New York,” and the city provided the setting for much of “Up in the Air.” Smaller towns such as Cape Girardeau and Boonville were used as locations as well. And then there are the independent, quirky, and obscure films shot all over the state.
Using film clips, movie stills, publicity posters, behind-the-scenes shots, and present-day photos of filming locations, Jim Erwin tells the stories of the hits, the flops, the famous and the obscure productions made in the Show Me State.