Anyone familiar with the Academy Award nominated film, Anatomy of a Murder, knows that it was filmed in the U.P. The movie is based on a true story that was turned into a novel written by former Michigan Supreme Court justice, John Voelker. Courtroom scenes for the movie were filmed in the Marquette courthouse and the other scenes in the movie were shot on location around the Marquette area of the U.P.

The movie starred Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O’Connell, Eve Arden, and a young looking George C. Scott. Anyway, the postal service is honoring Jimmy Stewart with a stamp and some of the locals who were extras in the film gathered at the Marquette courthouse for a stamp dedication ceremony last Friday.

© 2007 USPS

Joan Hanson was one of the extras in the film and wrote of her experiences in a book titled, “Anatomy of “Anatomy” The Making of a Movie.” Numerous photographs of the filming sites, notes from the actors, and her personal accounts of her view of the actors and the filming process in Michigan’s U.P. are quite charming and interesting. I read her book while staying at the Big Bay Point Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast.

Incidentally, Big Bay is the setting for where the actual murder took place. Scenes for the movie were filmed at the Thunder Bay Inn (once owned by Henry Ford) which is still open as well as the scene of the actual murder, the Lumberjack Tavern.

Here is a clip of the film’s premiere in Detroit at the United Artists theater -

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