I remember seeing the Trailer to this in the Cinema at the time, and what stood out for me was, again the fabulous Technicolor and I have even viewed the trailer again recently and I can see why – it just looked so good.

As I have remarked so often on this Blog, the Technicolor of that era has never been bettered – that time to me represented the pinnacle of Colour photography in films.

The Painted Hills 1951

The Painted Hills 1951

The Painted Hills 1951

Shep looks frightening

The plot of the film – an aging prospector living in the California hills during the gold rush days. Paul Kelly’s character has spent a long time in the hills eking out a meagre existence, following his gut instinct that there must be a rich vein of gold nearby.

While continuing to dig for treasure, he is joined by his faithful companion Shep. They are like two peas in a pod and go everywhere together. One place they visit at Christmas is the home of his godson (Gray) whose father recently died. Gray forms an attachment to the dog, and he joins Kelly and the animal in their digs.

Meanwhile, a lawyer has learned that Kelly found some small nuggets and may be close to striking more. The role of the lawyer is played by MGM contract player Bruce Cowling, who usually specialised in villainous characters. This is no exception. The lawyer is a crook and while befriending Kelly, the boy and the dog, he plans to take all the gold for himself.

Kelly suspects the lawyer plans to file a claim with an assayer behind his back. He also worries that the lawyer may do something dangerous, so he sends the boy away.

In the next sequence, the lawyer leads him to a hilltop where he insists he found the gold. But there is no gold there, just a confrontation between the two men. Shep watches as the lawyer pushes the old prospector off the cliff in a horrifying scene. The lawyer then decides to get rid of the dog, and he poisons Shep’s food. Shep survives because some concerned Indians find him dying along the road and nurse him back to health.

Gray learns the dog nearly died, and he returns to the cabin. He does not find his godfather, only the lawyer. Shep shows the boy where Kelly’s body was buried. The lawyer insists the old man died because of an accidental fall. The boy spends the night at the cabin, but this is not a safe environment. The lawyer still wants to get rid of Shep.

A pastor stops by the cabin the next day but doesn’t believe the boy’s story about a possible murder. Also, the boy is at the mercy of the lawyer, but is somehow spared. When the boy leaves with the pastor, to return to his mother, it is up to Shep to carry out justice. There is a climactic finale, where Shep is chased up the hill by our gun-toting villain who intends to blast him to smithereens. However, Shep is too smart and lures the big bad man to the edge of a snowy peak, so he will fall off the cliff the same way the old man did.

A good Technicolor Film