No, this sure as hell wouldn’t happen today, and with good reason!
Before watching the clip, read the background on this crazy stunt from Raoul Walsh’s 1940 western, Dark Command (shot by Jack Marta). It’s drawn from the April 1940 edition of International Photographer, which was the long-time house organ of the cinematographers’ union, IATSE Local 659 (forerunner of today’s Local 600). Now published as ICG Magazine, it does a good job of covering our side of things, but you’ll never see anything like this grace its pages again!
It’s interesting to note that the stunt was covered by only two cameras, with just one angle used in the film. Nowadays, we’d be cleaning out the rental house to provide a shot from every possible perspective.
And while this might not get much of a reaction when compared to some of the insane action we now see on screen, you must remember: these were real people, real horses and a real wagon going over a real cliff. Hats off to legendary stuntman\coordinator Yakima Canutt for engineering and pulling it off safely. Stunt performers have been lobbying for Oscar recognition for years. If any of them ever deserved one, it certainly must be him!
Amazing how this was done…and supposedly no horses injured. Wow!