The Painted Hills (1951)

An intrepid dog comes to the rescue when a boy's life is put at risk by the greed inflamed by a gold strike.

Director:

Harold F. Kress

Writers:

True Boardman (screenplay), Alexander Hull (novel)

Stars:

Pal, Paul Kelly, Bruce Cowling

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Pal	...	Shep (as Lassie)
Paul Kelly	...	Jonathan Harvey
Bruce Cowling	...	Lin Taylor
Gary Gray	...	Tommy Blake
Art Smith	...	Pilot Pete
Ann Doran	...	Martha Blake
Chief Yowlachie	...	Bald Eagle
Andrea Virginia Lester	...	Mita
Don Reynolds	...	Red Wing (as Brown Jug Reynolds)

Storyline

A Lassie movie. After years of prospecting, Jonathan finally strikes gold. He returns to town only to discover that his partner has since died and left Tommy fatherless. He decides to leave Shep (played by Lassie) with Tommy to cheer him up. Meanwhile, Jonathan's new partner, Lin, isn't interested in sharing the gold, and lures Jonathan to his death. Lassie immediately deduces what's happened, so Lin poisons Lassie. Lassie barely pulls through and pursues Lin to a climactic confrontation where, due to an off-screen accident with some liquid nitrogen, Lin's gun jams.

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Plot Keywords:

lassie | dog | greed | family relationships | murder | 

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Genres:

Family | Western

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 May 1951 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lassie's Adventures in the Goldrush

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

68 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is one of a handful of MGM productions of the 1950-51 period whose original copyrights were never renewed and are now apparently in public domain; for this reason this title is now offered, often in very inferior copies, at bargain prices by numerous VHS and DVD distributors that do not normally handle copyrighted or MGM material.

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Connections

Follows Lassie Come Home (1943)

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Soundtracks

Oh My Darling, Clementine
(uncredited)
Written by Percy Montrose

User Reviews

My first Lassie movie!

This movie is mostly bad, but I probably have some bias on my opinion, seeing as how this is the first Lassie movie I've ever seen. I don't know why he was called Shep in this movie. Well, in the credits, it's said that Shep was played by Lassie. I guess Lassie is the name of the dog in real life, but maybe she used other names in movies? The boy here was called Tommy and not Timmy. Close enough? Okay, I haven't seen the other Lassie movies or the show so I can't really tell how this folds out. Maybe some characters went through name changes or something.

This film mostly suffers from being too padded. It gets really annoying towards the end when Lassie and Petey just seem to be chasing each other over and over. I am surprised the rating is so low. I thought it was at least better than 90% of the films shown on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". Lassie is what makes this movie. She's (he's?) a fine actress and it's great to see a real life dog acting so well. It's a pity the humans aren't as good. You'd think they'd be more experienced. **