Directed by studio co-founder (and my uncle)
Simeon Manka and finished only weeks before his bizarre death on Hollywood Blvd. in 1958 (wearing only a sandwich board advertisement for
'Benny's World Of Beef'),
'The Dark Angel Of Alder Gulch' was a doomed project from the beginning.
Shot over the course of
17 years(!) on location in
Alder Gulch, Montana, the film was originally slated to star
John Wayne and be directed by
King Vidor in 1941 on the
Manka Bros. backlot. How the film fell under Uncle Simeon's control and become his only obsession is still unknown to this day.
The film featured rising star
Art Finnegan and
Morley Van Johnson (in 1941!) but their stars soon faded as the shoot dragged on and on and
Uncle Simeon wouldn't allow them to appear in any other projects until his film was finished.