| The Painted Hills | |
| Director: | Harold F. Kress |
| Producer: | Kenneth Bennett Chester M. Franklin |
| Screenplay: | True Boardman |
| Starring: | Pal (credited as "Lassie") Paul Kelly Bruce Cowling Gary Gray |
| Music: | Daniele Amfitheatrof |
| Cinematography: | Alfred Gilks Harold Lipstein |
| Editing: | Newell P. Kimlin |
| Distributor: | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Runtime: | 68 minutes[1] |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $667,000[2] |
| Gross: | $1,085,000 |
The Painted Hills, also known as Lassie's Adventures in the Goldrush, is a 1951 drama western film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and directed by Harold F. Kress.
Adapted by True Boardman from Alexander Hull's novel Shep of the Painted Hills, the film stars Paul Kelly, Bruce Cowling, Ann Doran, and dog actor Pal (credited as "Lassie") in a story about a collie named Shep who seeks revenge after her master is murdered. Technical advisor Nipo T. Strongheart for Native American topics worked with the Miwok people for their role in the movie.[3]
The Painted Hills was the seventh, and final, MGM Lassie film released.[4]
A prospector named Jonathan Harvey (Paul Kelly), whose faithful companion is a rough collie and a descendant of Lassie 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.
In 2010, Film Score Monthly released the complete scores of the seven Lassie feature films released 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, limited to 1000 copies.https://www.discogs.com/Daniele-Amfitheatrof-Herbert-Stothart-Bronislaw-Kaper-Scott-Bradley-2-Andr%C3%A9-Previn-Elmer-Bernstein-/release/13678979 Due to the era when these scores were recorded, nearly half of the music masters have been lost so the scores had to be reconstructed and restored from the best available sources, mainly the Music and Effects tracks as well as monaural ¼″ tapes.[5]
The score for The Painted Hills was composed by Daniele Amfitheatrof.
Track listing for The Painted Hills (Disc 5)
Total Time: 47:37
According to MGM records, the film earned $783,000 in the US and Canada and $302,000 elsewhere, leading to a loss of $122,000.[2]
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 in 1979. As such, the film is now part of the public domain and has been released to VHS and DVD by a variety of companies.[6]
The movie was riffed on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (episode 510)[7]