Flaming Canyons (1929)

Flaming Canyons was released by Castle Films in 1929 as part of a series called “Castle Color Novelties.” The film is a feast for the eyes, featuring a stunning palette of stencil colors in red, orange, pink, green, yellow, pale blue, and light brown. These colors are overlaid onto images of the famous canyons of the American Southwest: Zion, Bryce, and the Grand Canyon. As is common with travel films, Flaming Canyons ranges across multiple scenic highlights, condensing a trip that would take several days in person into a running time of just over 13 minutes on screen. The purpose of such films was two-fold: to promote actual tourism to the region, and more broadly, to provide a vicarious tourist experience for the audience in the movie theater. The film alternates between images of natural landscapes (rock formations, cliffs, canyons) and images of recreation (touring cars, the Zion Hotel, the Grand Canyon Hotel).