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This is a screen capture from the 1973 film "Charley Varrick", starring Walter Matthau and directed by Don Siegel. Much of the movie was filmed around the Carson City/Reno area, and much of it is recognizable. There's a geographically coherent chase scene which starts in Genoa, drives a dirt road up to Kingsbury Grade, and eventually returns into the Carson Valley heading toward Centerville. Later, there are scenes near Jack's Valley and in downtown Reno. However, this particular scene has us stumped.
The climax of Charley Varrick involves a chase scene between a car and a biplane around a junk yard. We've tried to figure out where this was filmed, but we've come up empty. The most interesting feature in this scene is a sign carved into the hillside (Visible in the upper right corner of this shot). It reads "Harvey's Wagon Wheel - Lake Tahoe". Does anyone know where this ad was located or anything more about it? Presumably, it was somewhere along I-80 heading into Reno or US-50 heading into Carson, but it's probably been entirely lost to the sagebrush in the past 30+ years.
I've uploaded a number of other pictures which show the same scene from other angles. Assuming it was all filmed in the same area, they may help you recognize the area.
Date Uploaded: October 21, 2006
Philip Hughes said:
on Friday, January 9, 2015 at 10:04 PM
Just to say what agreat film 'Charley Varrick' is, and that Walter Matthau was one heck of a talented actor; VERY sadly missed.
Gary S. said:
on Monday, July 18, 2016 at 12:26 AM
Okay, this location is along Interstate 80 near the locality of McCarran, on the south side of the highway. Wrecking yard has long since been cleared away. The Harvey's Wagon Wheel sign was on a hillside west of here, on the north side of I-80 on the way toward the locality of Lockwood. The materials that comprised the sign have been removed but you can still see unnatural traces of where it was, plus a faint remainder of the dirt road up the side of the hill. There are many other structures that have been constructed since the time the movie was made in 1973.