THE PAINTED HILLS was MGM's seventh and final installment in the popular Lassie series. It does not feature Elizabeth Taylor, Roddy McDowall or Claude Jarman like the previous films did. But it has Gary Gray who had been at the studio for ten years...he has a winning smile and good screen presence. More importantly, he works well with Pal, the canine performer who plays the main character.
Pal is billed as Lassie in the opening credits, and while he played "Lassie" in the previous films, he is playing a different character named Shep in this picture. That's because the script is based on Alexander Hull's bestselling novel from 1930, which audiences would have been familiar with, and it was probably a condition in obtaining the literary rights to the story that the dog be called Shep, not Lassie.
As you can see with the book's cover art, the dog looks more like a wolf...and while Hull was supposedly writing about a rough collie not a docile border collie, my guess is that Hull's mind was really thinking along the lines of a German Shepherd when he was creating the character. It would explain the dog's aggressive behavior at key points in the narrative, as well as the name Shep itself, which seems derivative of Shepherd as in German Shepherd.
Since Pal was under contract at the studio, and was the one that had a huge fanbase, we can accept him in the role. If nothing else, chalk it up to dramatic license. I do have to say that the dog's training is exceptional. When the script calls for him to behave gently, he's easily up to the task, but he can also switch into ferocious mode when needed.
And there are a lot of ferocious elements in the plot. It involves an aging prospector living in the California hills during the gold rush days. Paul Kelly has been assigned the role of the old man, despite being much younger than the part he's playing. Kelly's character has spent a long time in the hills eking out a meager existence, following his gut instinct that there must be a rich vein of gold ore 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 Christmastime 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 on their digs.
Meanwhile, a lawyer has been sniffing around Gray's mother (Ann Doran) and he learns Kelly found some small nuggets and may be close to striking a mother lode. The role of the lawyer is played by MGM contract player Bruce Cowling, who usually specialized 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.
There is a wonderful montage where the characters are digging and panning gold, filmed on location in the California hills. Lassie/Shep is directly involved, and it's fun to watch. But after these feel-good moments, the story turns dark. 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 mother lode. 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 natives find him dying along the road and nurse him back to health.
At the same time 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.
Some tropes occur. 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. It's karmic fate. The dog is then reunited with the boy, and that's how it should be.
Pal is billed as Lassie in the opening credits, and while he played "Lassie" in the previous films, he is playing a different character named Shep in this picture. That's because the script is based on Alexander Hull's bestselling novel from 1930, which audiences would have been familiar with, and it was probably a condition in obtaining the literary rights to the story that the dog be called Shep, not Lassie.
As you can see with the book's cover art, the dog looks more like a wolf...and while Hull was supposedly writing about a rough collie not a docile border collie, my guess is that Hull's mind was really thinking along the lines of a German Shepherd when he was creating the character. It would explain the dog's aggressive behavior at key points in the narrative, as well as the name Shep itself, which seems derivative of Shepherd as in German Shepherd.
Since Pal was under contract at the studio, and was the one that had a huge fanbase, we can accept him in the role. If nothing else, chalk it up to dramatic license. I do have to say that the dog's training is exceptional. When the script calls for him to behave gently, he's easily up to the task, but he can also switch into ferocious mode when needed.
And there are a lot of ferocious elements in the plot. It involves an aging prospector living in the California hills during the gold rush days. Paul Kelly has been assigned the role of the old man, despite being much younger than the part he's playing. Kelly's character has spent a long time in the hills eking out a meager existence, following his gut instinct that there must be a rich vein of gold ore 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 Christmastime 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 on their digs.
Meanwhile, a lawyer has been sniffing around Gray's mother (Ann Doran) and he learns Kelly found some small nuggets and may be close to striking a mother lode. The role of the lawyer is played by MGM contract player Bruce Cowling, who usually specialized 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.
There is a wonderful montage where the characters are digging and panning gold, filmed on location in the California hills. Lassie/Shep is directly involved, and it's fun to watch. But after these feel-good moments, the story turns dark. 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 mother lode. 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 natives find him dying along the road and nurse him back to health.
At the same time 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.
Some tropes occur. 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. It's karmic fate. The dog is then reunited with the boy, and that's how it should be.