The Painted Hills

The Painted Hills
Theatrical release poster
Directed byHarold F. Kress
Screenplay byTrue Boardman
Based onShep of the Painted Hills
1930 novel
by Alexander Hull
Produced byKenneth Bennett
Chester M. Franklin
StarringPal (credited as Lassie)
Paul Kelly
Bruce Cowling
Gary Gray
CinematographyAlfred Gilks
Harold Lipstein
Edited byNewell P. Kimlin
Music byDaniele Amfitheatrof
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • April 20, 1951 (1951-04-20)[1]
Running time
68 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$667,000[2]
Box office$1,085,000[2]

The Painted Hills, also known as Lassie's Adventures in the Goldrush, is a 1951 Western drama film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Harold F. Kress. The Painted Hills is the seventh and final MGM Lassie film.

Adapted by True Boardman from Alexander Hull's novel Shep of the Painted Hills, the film stars Paul Kelly, Bruce Cowling, Ann Doran and canine actor Pal (credited as Lassie) in a story about a collie named Shep who seeks retribution after her master is murdered. Technical advisor Nipo T. Strongheart worked with the Miwok people for their role in the film.[3]

Plot

Prospector Jonathan Harvey, whose faithful companion is a rough collie and a descendant of Lassie named Shep, is a friend of his deceased partner Martha Blake's family, including her son Tommy. After years of digging in the hills of California, he finally strikes gold. However, before he can share it with the Blakes, his greedy partner Lin Taylor kills him and attempts to lay claim to the gold. Lin poisons Shep, who nearly dies, and nearly kills Tommy, but Shep recovers and leads Lin into the mountains, where he falls from a cliff to his death.

Cast

Production

Bruce Cowling sustained serious injuries from a fall while on location during production. He underwent a hernia operation and was forced to withdraw from his next scheduled project, Across the Wide Missouri.[4]

Music

In 2010, Film Score Monthly released the complete scores of the seven Lassie feature films produced by MGM between 1943 and 1955, as well as Elmer Bernstein’s score for It's a Dog's Life (1955), in the CD collection Lassie Come Home: The Canine Cinema Collection, which was limited to 1,000 copies.[5] Composed by Daniele Amfitheatrof, the score for The Painted Hills is contained on Disc 5 with a running time of 47:37, and includes the following tracks:

  1. Main Title / He's a Millionaire (2:43)
  2. I Need Your Help / Christmas / Hairy Present / Shep's Longing (4:36)
  3. Back to Jonathan / Montage (1:28)
  4. Visitor / Pilot Pete (1:43)
  5. Holy Pete / Good Girl / Foul Play / Shep Follows Jonathan (9:55)
  6. Hat / He Won't Be Back (3:08)
  7. Poison / Indians Find Shep (4:09)
  8. Rescue (2:04)
  9. Incantation / Shep Lives / Shep Came Back (3:37)
  10. Tommy Finds the Grave / Taylor Pursues Tommy / Tommy Is Hurt / The Hole / Thy Heavenly Kingdom (4:55)
  11. Come Along, Son / The Chase—Revised / Freezing Up / Taylor Dies / Happy Ending & End Title (8:59)

Nearly half of the masters have been lost, so the scores were reconstructed and restored from the best available sources.[6]

Release

The Painted Hills opened in Los Angeles at the Loew's State and Grauman's Egyptian theaters on April 20, 1951 as the second feature to Soldiers Three.[1]

Reception

Critic Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "will compensate all those who have found Lassie one of the most interesting of screen acquisitions".[1]

According to MGM records, the film earned $783,000 in the U.S. and Canada, and $302,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $122,000.[2]

Legacy

Along with seven other MGM films released in the first half of 1951, the copyright on The Painted Hills lapsed after MGM neglected to file renewal applications in 1979. The film is now part of the public domain and has been released on VHS and DVD by a variety of companies.[7]

The Painted Hills was featured in episode #510 of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). The episode, which includes a short about hygiene entitled "Body Care and Grooming", premiered on Comedy Central on September 26, 1993.[8] According to series writer Mary Jo Pehl, the character Pilot Pete was one of the favorites in the writers' room because of the "Pile on Pete" misinterpretation of his name.[9]

The MST3K version of the film was included as part of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume XXXI: The Turkey Day Collection DVD set, which was released by Shout Factory on November 25, 2014.[10]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c Schallert, Edwin (April 21, 1951). "'Soldiers Three' Boisterous Show". Los Angeles Times. p. 11.
  2. ^ a b c The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  3. ^ Strongheart, Nipo T. (Autumn 1954). "History in Hollywood". The Wisconsin Magazine of History. 38 (1): 10–16, 41–46. JSTOR 4632754.
  4. ^ Schallert, Edwin (January 16, 1951). "Parks, Garrett to Star in Stage Comedy; Cabre Named for Van Upp Film". Los Angeles Times. p. 17.
  5. ^ Daniele Amfitheatrof, Herbert Stothart, Bronislaw Kaper, Scott Bradley, André Previn, Elmer Bernstein - Lassie Come Home (The Canine Cinema Collection), retrieved January 13, 2026
  6. ^ "Lassie Come Home: The Canine Cinema Collection (1943-1955)". Film Score Monthly. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  7. ^ Pierce, David (June 2007). "Forgotten Faces: Why Some of Our Cinema Heritage Is Part of the Public Domain". Film History: An International Journal. 19 (2): 125–43. doi:10.2979/FIL.2007.19.2.125. ISSN 0892-2160. OCLC 15122313. S2CID 191633078. Retrieved February 21, 2008. MGM was never known for its mystery films, but there has been a mystery as to why the studio's copyrights on eight features from the 1950/51 season fell into the public domain...Technicolor films include Mr. Imperium, a musical with Lana Turner and Ezio Pinza, The Painted Hills, the studio's final Lassie picture, and Vengeance Valley with Burt Lancaster and Robert Walker in a Cain and Abel story...These are mostly 'A' pictures, they were all in-house productions, they weren't sold to another studio, they had valid copyright notices, they were all released from January to June 1951, and MGM did file copyright renewal applications for them.
  8. ^ sampo (June 2, 2016). "Episode guide: 510- The Painted Hills (with short: 'Body Care & Grooming')". Satellite News. Retrieved November 13, 2025.
  9. ^ Beaulieu, Trace; et al. (1996). The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide (1st ed.). New York: Bantam Books. p. 95. ISBN 9780553377835.
  10. ^ Salmons, Tim (November 26, 2014). "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXXI – The Turkey Day Collection (DVD Review)". The Digital Bits. Retrieved November 13, 2025.
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