The Painted Hills
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| The Painted Hills | |
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 Original theatrical poster for The Painted Hills |
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| Directed by | Harold F. Kress |
| Produced by | Kenneth Bennett Chester M. Franklin |
| Written by | Alexander Hull (original novel) True Boardman (script adaptation) |
| Starring | Lassie Paul Kelly Bruce Cowling Gary Gray |
| Music by | Daniele Amfitheatrof |
| Cinematography | Alfred Gilks Harold Lipstein |
| Editing by | Newell B. Willis |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | April 26,1951 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Painted Hills, also known as Lassie's Adventures in the Goldrush, is a 1951 action film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and directed by Harold F. Kress. The movie stars Lassie in the role of Shep, a collie whose master is murdered by his greedy partner, leaving Shep seeking revenge. Adapted from the Alexander Hull's novel Shep of the Painted Hills by True Boardman, the film also features Paul Kelly, Gary Gray, Ann Doran, and Bruce Cowling. This was the seventh, and final, MGM Lassie film released. Mitchell Lewis also stars in this movie, but uncredited. His character's name was Mark Miller.
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[edit] Synopsis
A prospector named Jonathan Harvey (Paul Kelly), whose faithful companion is a Rough Collie named Shep, looks after the family of his late partner, Martha Blake (Ann Doran) and her son Tommy (Gary Gray). After years of digging in the hills of California (where the movie was shot), he finally strikes gold. However, before he can share it with the Blakes, his greedy partner Lin Taylor (Bruce Cowling) kills Jonathan and attempts to lay claim on the gold. He poisons Shep, who nearly dies, and nearly kills Tommy, but ultimately Shep recovers and leads Lin into the mountains, where he falls off a cliff to his death.
[edit] Availability
Along with seven other MGM films released the first half of 1951, the copyright on The Painted Hills lapsed after MGM neglected to file the necessary renewal applications. As such, the film is now part of the public domain and has been released to VHS and DVD by a variety of companies.[1] These releases tend to be of widely varying quality. It was featured in the fifth season of movie-mocking TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000.
[edit] References
- ^ David, Pierce (06 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:. ISSN 0892-2160. OCLC 15122313. “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. Impe-rium, 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.”
