Over the years I've noticed a few films that have geyser appearances. If you ever want to see what Hot Creek looked like during the 1960s, be sure to watch the John Wayne film, "North to Alaska". There are a number of erupting features right next to the cabin which is supposed to be near Nome. There's "The Mountain Men", featuring Charlton Heston which contains scenes of him climbing on Castle Geyser. The "Planet Vulcan" of the first Star Trek film including views of the terraces at Mammoth. Then there was Beavis and Butt-Head's roadtrip that took them to Old Faithful, but the giggling idiots were more interested in the automatic flush urinals. (Does the new Cathedral have these? Not that I'd know...)
Grover Schrayer passed along a discover he made recently-- a still photo from a silent movie in which geyser play a role: "I found this photo in the April 6 1935 issue of the Saturday Evening Post. I know nothing much about the movie, except that it was released in 1923, and it was a silent film
of course." There's a bit more in the caption to the photo:
Lew Cody and George Walsh Fighting on the Brink of the Giant Geyser in Yellowstone Park, Just After One of its Rare Eruptions. From the Picture "Reno," Written and Directed by Rupert Hughes.
We were both impressed by how dry the platform was for just after an eruption. Does the film include footage of an actual eruption? Or did they substitute stock footage of Old Faithful or some fountain? Stock footage of Ol' Filthy from back then would still be a nice find. But does the film even exist any more? Most of the films made back then have deteriorated to where they are no longer viewable. What has survived got copied over to better stock, and since there wasn't much commercial interest in silent films, a lot of them never got that treatment.