The Walking Hills (1949) User Reviews

A different type role for Randy Scott

[krorie · 6/10 · 29 December 2005]

In 1948 the blockbuster movie John Huston's "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" hit the big screen. This cinematic masterpiece took the entertainment world by storm and spawned several copies and variations including this early John Sturges flick. The same year 1949 saw a much better version on the same theme "Lust for Gold" starring Ida Lupino, Glenn Ford, and Gig Young, though neither reached the lofty peaks of Huston's classic. Coincidentally stalwart character actor Edgar Buchanan was in both films. Though "Lust for Gold" is better, "The Walking Hills" has its own merits. This thirst for hidden treasure is a recurring theme throughout mankind's existence on earth going all the way back to Soloman and before. During the post-World War II period when this film was released there was even a mad rush to find uranium because of the arms race involving the Cold War and the specter of the atomic bomb. Geiger counters became the rage. Hollywood hoped to cash in on this craze.

One facet of "The Walking Hills" that caught my attention was the role played by Randolph Scott(Would you believe Jim Carey?). Apparently a fairly well-to-do horse breeder who talks about the races, his energy and time centers more on his mare who is about to foal than on the gold or the attractive Chris Jackson, played with sexual magnetism by the lady with the hypnotic eyes Ella Raines. He comes across as somewhat selfish and even pushy when he assumes leadership of the group of fortune seekers who did not ask his assistance. Only Frazee (John Ireland), the apparent private dick, attempts to stand up to him to no avail. Naturally, his reason is as selfish as Carey's. Actually, this is one of the most complicated roles Scott ever played and he shines as the brilliant actor that he was.

Of the gold seekers, Arthur Kennedy is virtually wasted in a nondescript part. A face you seldom see on the big screen Jerome Courtland does a fine job in his part which is also somewhat mysterious. Willaim Bishop who tragically made too few films before his untimely death from cancer does well as the fugitive member of the gold seekers (Is he the only fugitive present?). Wily Edgar Buchanan as Old Willy talked the well-worn philosophy that he did so well. It's good to see the pop blues singer Josh White in a rare film appearance. One wonders why he didn't make more movies. His acting is almost as good as his singing and guitar playing. This is one of the few westerns (maybe the only one) that features the blues rather than country and western or Hollywood music. White was never quite the legend that Leadbelly was but some of his music was influential on the later folk revival in America.

The script by Alan LeMay who wrote the novel from which "The Searchers" was adapted, leaves a lot to the viewer's imagination. There is much that is hidden and esoteric. Some of it is revealed by director Sturges in flashbacks but much goes unanswered. This is a ploy used by Hitchcock in many of his films. Hitchcock believed that certain parts of a story should be left to the imagination. Apparently LeMay felt the same way.

There is much talk and conflict among the seekers that eventually leads to death for some of them. Nature intervenes in the form of a sandstorm, the highlight of this movie and not to be missed. Sturges shines as a director throughout with his innovative use of the camera, but the sandstorm is a treat to behold. The storm is also metaphorical. It washes away much and reveals much about human nature and the souls of the seekers. The Death Valley locale is appropriate for both story and character development.

The title "The Walking Hills" refers to the shifting sands that form dunes that seem to walk like humans. The sand dunes may also hide items mankind values and then suddenly make them reappear.

Is there gold in those hills?

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 23 April 2012]

Since 1945 when Randolph Scott decided to concentrate almost exclusively on westerns only one of his westerns was set in the modern west and that is this one, The Walking Hills. Shot on location the film holds it own with such gold hunting classics as The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre and Lust For Gold.

Sitting around a poker table one night Edgar Buchanan starts recounting a tale in which a wagon train loaded with sacks of gold dust got lost in the desert in the great Southwest. They're quite an assortment of characters in the place, they include at least one private detective in John Ireland and he's after one of the people in the room. But more than one of them has a reason to fear the law.

So all that were in that small barroom set out to the desert fueled by another story that Jerome Courtland tells about coming across an old wagon wheel that would have been contemporary with that gold train. Quite an assortment go besides those in the cast I've already mentioned the guys include William Bishop, Arthur Kennedy, Joe White, Russell Collins and Charles Stevens. Bishop adds an additional plot component, not only is he a suspect, but he's wooing Ella Raines who used to go out with Scott. As for Scott he's concerned with a mare in foal and he brings her along as well. Later on Ella Raines declares herself in on the gold hunt.

Although with a lot more cast members out in the desert some people's true nature starts to surface. Quite a few of the cast meets their doom. As for the gold, just about the same ironical ending as in The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre.

In a book on the Films of Randolph Scott there's a story told about Ella Raines's husband Ransom Olds who was an air ace from the recent war and would be one again in Korea and Vietnam. It seems as though for a joke he buzzed the company on location. He thought it was funny, but the roaring jet passing over frightened all the horses and the wranglers spent the rest of the day rounding them up. Ella was not amused either, nor I'm sure was Harry Cohn.

Not as good as Lust For Gold or The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, The Walking Hills still holds its own with the others and holds up well for today's audience. Greed is a timeless and universal theme.

"You messed up a pretty good hand, Kid".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 26 April 2015]

Shifting desert sand dunes lend their character to the title of the picture, otherwise "The Walking Hills" might not make much sense. The picture draws heavily from the Bogart classic "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", but instead of three intrepid prospectors hooking up with a fourth, here we have nine members of an expedition joined by a female traveler (Emma Raines) with a score to settle, or at least find closure if that be her fate.

Randolph Scott portrays the nominal leader of the rag-tag desert bunch; funny how in retrospect his character's name (Jim Carey) conjures up a rather different image if you choose to dwell on it. Other members of the gold hunting party include William Bishop, Arthur Kennedy, John Ireland and the always reliable Edgar Buchanan. Considering that Scott's character is the one supposed to have the most common sense and leadership ability, I was consistently distracted by the idea that he would bring a favored mare about to foal into a scorching desert where the threat of a sand storm was ever imminent.

A rather stunning casting decision for the film involved the presence of blues guitarist and singer Josh White. He's on hand it seems, primarily to lend his voice to a handful of bluesy numbers that emotionally affect his fellow travelers to varying degrees, though his presence has no additional impact on the story line. Among White's career accomplishments was his being the first black singer to give a White House command performance in 1941 for then President Roosevelt.

For a rather short film clocking in at around seventy eight minutes, the story manages it's fair share of character development among the principles while a trio of players (Bishop, Jerome Courtland and Arthur Kennedy) each harbor an innate fear of their questionable past being discovered. The ride off into the sunset so to speak, by Ella Raines' Christy and Bishop's Davey Wilson character may leave one somewhat baffled considering what went before, but no more so than the shifting sand dunes that render their verdict for the remaining wanderers.

White shifting sands.

[michaelRokeefe · 13 January 2004]

A nice little western drama from the early part of director John Sturges' career. Simple and straight to the point screenplay from Alan Le May. Randolph Scott leads a group of treasure hunters into the whispering, shifting sands of Death Valley's "walking hills". There's a wagon load of gold waiting to be found in the desert. Top notch camera work and a very good cast that also features: Edgar Buchanan, Arthur Kennedy, John Ireland and Ella Raines. Scott as usual is stoic and commanding. Seventy-eight minute escape.

Like shovelling sand into the wind.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 10 September 2017]

The Walking Hills is directed by John Sturges and written by Alan LeMay. It stars Randolph Scott, Ella Raines, Arthur Kennedy, Edgar Buchanan, John Ireland, William Bishop, Josh White and Jerome Courtland. Music is by Arthur Morton and cinematography by Charles Lawton Jr.

Upon hearing a chance statement about lost gold, a disparate group of people head out in search of it to the desert plains of The Walking Hills...

Whipping up a sandstorm.

A sort of contemporary Western film noir fusion, The Walking Hills is a darn fine drama that is acted accordingly. Though blessed with action, tension and passion, it's as a character study where the picture excels. True enough to say it's not overly complex stuff, the greed is bad motif a standard narrative strand, as is the tricky love triangle that resides within the sandy tale, but with the wily Sturges and the shrewd LeMay pulling the strings this plays out always as compelling. With the great Lawton Jr. adding his considerable skills as a photographer - ensuring the Alabama Hills and Death Valley locations are key characters themselves - the production shines.

Often mentioned in reference to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, it of course is not as good as that superb picture. That it earns its right to be considered a baby brother to it, though, is testament to its worth in itself. 7/10

As B-Movie homages go, this one is a cut above.

[MOscarbradley · 7/10 · 12 March 2021]

This little known John Sturges movie boasts a fine cast, (Randolph Scott, John Ireland, Arthur Kennedy, Ella Raines, William Bishop), and a screenplay by Alan Le May, (he of "The Searchers" fame), and while it's no classic is certainly worth seeing. Scott is the leader of a group of gold hunters in Death Valley and "The Walking Hills" has been described as a Western Film-Noir. At times it resembles a B-Movie version of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" which came out the year before but as B-Movie homages go this is definitely a cut above and Sturges makes the most of the material. A little more action wouldn't go amiss but the film-noir credentials are all there with Raines making an excellent, hard-boiled leading lady and Scott playing nicely against type at times. It even manages to incorporate flashbacks into its neat 78 minute running time and almost enough songs by Josh White to turn it into a folk-musical-film-noir-western.

More macho than "Sierra Madre"

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 29 July 2021]

Another macho western with Randolph Scott! In this one, he slaps Arthur Kennedy so powerfully, Arthur falls to the ground. "That's one way to end a conversation," Scottie quips. He also gets into a shovel fight in the middle of a sandstorm, opting to throw his shovel to the ground because his fists will be stronger weapons. With all that, why does Ella Raines fall for William Bishop instead?

We'll never know, but at least we can be entertained while we try to figure it out. The plot of The Walking Hills involves a search for buried treasure. Legend has it that long ago a wagon carrying tons of gold got stuck in the desert and was never found again. Many people have gone out to search for the gold, but they've never found it. Together, John Ireland, Scottie, Arthur, Ella, William, Jerome Courtland, Josh White, and Edgar Buchanan band together to hunt for it. But the sandstorms and endless holes to dig are the least of their worries. Squabbles turn into fights, and secrets turn into stabs in the back. If you liked The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, give this one a shot.

HYBRID TREASURE HUNT-WESTERN-CRIME-NOIR.....ALMOST WORKS BUT NOT QUITE

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 27 August 2021]

Combining Elements and Genres is a Tricky Thing.

Usually Resulting in the Watering-Down and Weakening the Best of its Ingredients.

While this isn't a Bad Try, the Result is a somewhat Boring Desert-Bound Melodrama of Characters Interacting Attempting to Dig-Up a Wagon-Train supposedly Carrying $20 Million in Gold.

There are Criminal Types, On-the-Run Types, Private Detectives, Cowboys, Young Lovers, a Horse about to Give Birth, and Old Codger that Spins Tales, and a Black Blues Singer (Josh White) that Performs a Tune or Two.

Randolph Scott is on hand but there are so Many Characters that He Hardly Stands Out and those Looking for a Randy Scott Western will be Disappointed.

Early Directorial Effort from the Overrated John Sturges.

Before He became Cornball with Big-Name Star Vehicles like "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) and "The Great Escape" (1963), both Highly Overrated and don't Hold Up at all.

His Late Career Movies are just Awful like "Ice Station Zebra" (1968) and "Marooned" (1969).

This one isn't Bad it just seems like a Wild-Shot at something Different that didn't quite Pan Out to anything other than Slightly Above Average.

The Third-Act Sand-Storm does its Loud and Windy Best to End the Film with Bluster and Gravitas.

But it's too Little too Late.

A treasure hunt that's a gem itself

[clore_2 · 8/10 · 23 November 2006]

A very rewarding "lust for gold" adventure that tells its story in a brief 78 minutes and is all the better for it. Director John Sturges would later in his career allow some of his films to run overlong (THE GREAT ESCAPE) or blow up what should have been more simply told (GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL - the depicted gunfight itself is but one example), but earlier in his career made a number of lean, taut treasures, this is one of them.

A group of people are bound together in the search for some wagons believed to have been lost in the desert a century earlier, and the legend has it that gold was on them. When the youngest of them happens to mention something spotted in the desert, the need for secrecy binds the group together lest someone reveal the "golden opportunity." Several in the group have pasts that they are trying to hide and potential futures they are trying to escape if caught. One of them is a detective hot on a fugitive's trail, but willing to set aside duty for his share of the loot.

Randolph Scott headlines as the more or less moral center of the group, even if his intentions and actions seem to defy that description. For a slightly less than "A" feature, the film boasts an admirable cast of characters, among them Ella Raines, John Ireland, Arthur Kennedy, Edgar Buchanan (scene stealing as usual) and blues/folk revivalist singer Josh White whose musical contributions to the film capture a legendary performer for posterity. William Bishop, a young man whom Columbia was grooming for stardom (but who failed to click and would soon "descend" to mostly TV work) is the least familiar perhaps of the major actors, but he's impressive enough here for one to wish he had done better within the ten years that he had left before cancer took him at 41.

An interesting subplot has Scott's mare about to foal - a metaphor for new life or spiritual rebirth being created among the desert ruins. It gives nothing away to reveal that the fugitive surrenders or that some characters realize that gold fever can cause one to suspend principles - the latter is expected in such melodramas. But with its stunning black-and-white cinematography, especially in night scenes and the climatic desert storm, this film is as much of a treasure as that which its protagonists seek. Camera ace Charles Lawton must have impressed Scott and producer Harry Joe Brown as he would do five more films with the pair in the next decade. Highly recommended.

Sand Doom

[ashew · 4/10 · 1 December 2006]

This is John Sturges' movie. It is beautifully directed, with some shots that are truly stylistic, artsy, and beautiful...all the more so since this is in black & white and one can enjoy the symmetry of the shots instead of running the risk of being distracted by vibrant colors.

The cast is loaded with big name B stars and is more of an ensemble piece than a traditional Randolph Scott film. Scott has some of his nicest on-screen moments in this film, along with the always fantastic Edgar Buchanan. Two actors I had never seen before, Jerome Courtland and William Bishop, both give very good performances...especially Courtland. John Ireland, and even moreso Arthur Kennedy, are completely wasted in roles that are one-dimensional and truly go nowhere. The worst of the entire group is Ella Raines. She is not a strong actress, had no chemistry with either Scott or Bishop, and there was really no reason for her to be in the film at all.

This leads me to the script, which is where the movie falls down...it is a collection of missed opportunities. The plot is simple, the motivations extremely flimsy, the tension non-existent, and the ending unsatisfying. A similar "group stuck in the desert" film, James Stewart's version of "Flight of the Phoenix", had some real uncomfortable moments, surprises that worked, deaths that we felt, characters we were interested in, plot twists that pulled us to the edge of our seat...and their group was all focused on a common goal! In "The Walking Hills", the group is ostensibly working toward the same goal (uncovering the gold), but there is the added plot element that they are actually competing against each other at the same time. That element is never fleshed out in a satisfying way. The relationships don't go anywhere, the conflicts never reach a crescendo, the plot twists fizzle out, the promise of double-crosses and triple-crosses never materialize, everyone's hidden agendas don't pay off as they should, and out of the entire group only one character has any kind of arc where something is learned, personal growth takes place, and he is a different person by the end of the film. It's just a boring trek through the desert, with lots of digging, and not a lot of much else going on.

Actually, one other thing does go on: a lot of singing. Fortunately, it's good singing. Josh White sings a few original songs and accompanies himself on the guitar. They are pleasant songs, but do not move the plot along, reveal character elements, or underscore on-screen action, so they are strictly time-killers meant to draw out the running time. As musical numbers, they are fine, but they certainly do nothing to advance the film.

"The Walking Hills" is not what I would necessarily call a bad film...it's just an uneventful so-so experience. As stated, several of the actors do have a moment or two where they shine, and the directing is beautifully done, but the film on the whole is a bit of a dud. Randolph Scott, Edgar Buchanan, and John Sturges fans will enjoy this, others will fall fast asleep.

Terrific little treasure hunt movie

[JimB-4 · 9/10 · 12 September 2002]

John Sturges, later to direct The Magnificent Seven and Bad Day at Black Rock, does extremely well with this little sleeper about modern day westerners hunting for a lost gold caravan in the California desert. William Bishop isn't bad as the honest murder fugitive, and John Ireland and Arthur Kennedy are strong as usual as a couple of not-very-ethical types. Randolph Scott gets to play some interesting notes here as a horse rancher caught up in the hunt, and the supporting parts are all well played. The sandstorm in the last act is really terrifically exciting, and speaking as one who's filmed during a sandstorm, it's hard to believe the stars put up with filming such a long sequence in those conditions. My hat's off to them and to Sturges for a fine little movie, written by Alan Le May (of The Searchers and The Unforgiven fame).

The Walking Hills review

[JoeytheBrit · 5/10 · 16 May 2020]

Ultimately disappointing thriller that holds echoes of the previous year's Treasure of the Sierra Madre in its tale of a disparate group of back-room gamblers who venture together into the desert in search of a mythical hoard of gold. There are plenty of conflicts within the group, but none of them are particularly compelling. The size of the group also means that no individual gets to shine, although John Ireland probably gives the strongest performance as a morally ambiguous detective. Randolph Scott is largely wasted.

These hills have eyes.

[dbdumonteil · 8/10 · 4 April 2009]

Excellent western ,where what is apparently the main subject (the search for gold) is actually of secondary importance in the end.The director is much more interested in his characters and the relationships that are formed between them.He superbly films the desert ,which has got something lunar ,disturbing ;the signals in the distance increases this feeling of mystery.Even the flashbacks are strange ,they seem completely out of place (Ella Raines could have told her story ) and they add to the threatening atmosphere.Most of the time,the viewer does not know who is searching who and almost all the action takes place in the same place (apart from the beginning) ,which is very rare in a western.Impressive sand-storm scene.

Clever Title

[dougdoepke · 9 May 2015]

Despite presence of cowboy vet Randy Scott, this is not really a western. Instead it's a modern adventure tale of gold fever. A bunch of disparate saloon characters goes hunting for buried treasure amid treacherous sand dunes of the Southwest. Each has his own reason for going and his own past, so naturally conflicts develop. And, oh yes, lovely Ella Raines shows up on horseback as relief from the ugly guys. Scott's the most level-headed of the bunch, but he's no paragon— is his willingness to abandon the wounded Johnny because of hard-headed realism or selfish greed.

It's an unusual collection of distinctive Hollywood players, including a shifty Kennedy, a nasty Ireland, a sneaky Collins, and, of course, a jovial Buchanan. Too bad the star-crossed William Bishop died too young to establish a screen persona. And how unexpected for blues singer Josh White to turn up as one of the fortune hunters. His musical interludes may seem artificially inserted but are pleasantly entertaining.

For me there are two highlights. The sandstorm, of course, is really well done-- on a set I would assume, but still a marvelously staged effect. The other is that battle of shovels atop a swirling dune, (move over Japanese martial arts). It's like nothing I've seen. Then too, the location staging in Death Valley may send you out for water, so bring a canteen.

Including flashbacks, the narrative itself is pretty crowded for a 78-minute runtime. So don't expect a tight format. Action and characters tend to be sketched through the proverbial glass darkly. Nonetheless, the movie's an unusual production that's remained oddly memorable since my first viewing, lo, so many years ago.

Someone shut up that guy with the guitar!!!!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 2 January 2016]

I was not particularly impressed with "The Walking Hills". Apart from the fact that hills do not walk, the film was rather dull and the same sort of material was handled MUCH better in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre".

The film is about a motley group of folks in the modern west who go searching for lost gold. For some inexplicable reason, they brought along a guy who LOVES to sing folk music. By the time he began singing "I Gave My Love a Cherry", I was about to kill myself because I hated the music so much. Plus, he was a MAJOR distraction and this only would have worked if everyone else beat the guy to death to shut him up. Instead, there's some plot about folks hiding from the law and perhaps a lawman among them. But the film was drawn out so long and was so uneventful, I simply didn't care.

All in all, a rather grim and boring film. One of the few Randolph Scott pictures I've seen that really didn't entertain in the least due to a dull script.

By the way, at one point, a guy claims to have found a finger from a skeleton. The bones were completely articulated even though they'd been there for years and all the flesh had been eaten away for most of this time. For your information, after the flesh disintegrates from a body, the individual bones soon fall apart and do NOT stay magically connected to each other in much of the body.

Film Noir - Way Out West

[howdymax · 8/10 · 2 April 2006]

This is a really interesting picture. In almost all respects it represents a transition from 1940's film noir to 1950's new age angst - in buckskin and boots.

It stars a diverse group of slightly shady characters who accidentally meet up in a Mexican border town and stumble across a possible fortune out in the desert. The supporting cast is first rate with John Ireland, Edgar Buchanan (as the grizzled old prospector), William Bishop, and Arthur Kennedy. The lead is Randolph Scott with the luscious Ella Raines as the love interest. Too many people underestimate Randolph Scott. They describe his acting as robotic or wooden. His range as microscopic. I even have a brother who questions his sexual orientation. I think he is underrated. He represents, to me, an all American hero in the mold of John Wayne. Whether he's in fatigues or in the saddle, his steely eyed, square jawed performance always adds something to the production. Ella Raines likewise managed to create a smoldering, sexy presence in way too many second rate movies.

This is a contemporary Western (1949) with a clearly modern twist. Not just a falling out between thieves, but an intricate, complicated plot with lots of flashbacks and character development. Most of the principal players spend valuable time beating themselves up for mistakes they made. For a bunch of coyoots, they seem to be mighty introspective. Yet, it doesn't seem to detract from the overall tension built in to the story.

I won't go into the finale, but if you liked Treasure of the Sierra Madre and you're fascinated by the legend of The Lost Dutchman Mine, tune in. You won't be disappointed.

A good cast and camera work highlight this tale of a group seaching for treasure.

[bux · 5/10 · 22 October 1998]

A motley group searches for a wagon load of gold buried in Death Valley. Scott, the escaped convict seems to be the only honest one. If this sounds like the plot used in "Tall Texan"(1953), they are very similar, with the later being the superior effort.

Modern-Day (1949) Western Worth a 3rd Viewing

[vitaleralphlouis · 9/10 · 5 July 2007]

It doesn't take $175 million to make a good movie. Hollywood just squandered $175 million on a stupid comedy called Evan Almighty, which garnered scant public attention. I doubt that John Sturges and Columbia Pictures spend as much as $175 THOUSAND making The Walking Hills; but people are still searching for it on eBay some 60 years later.

Sand dunes are "walking hills" as my family found out in North Carolina when I was 8 years old and we found our motel room at Nags Head 90% buried under the sand, following a gentle storm.

Eight men playing poker in a bar's back room meet a young guy who accidentally blurts out a king sized clue on the whereabouts of a gold carrying wagon train that legend says disappeared in the desert a hundred years earlier. Eight men and one woman (Ella Raines) band together and quietly head out into the desert --- just 8 miles from town --- looking for the gold. The men will battle Mother Nature and each other seeking the gold --- in a story which is relentlessly compelling. Find this movie and watch it.

A Small Delight

[phadrs · 8/10 · 29 January 2003]

We have been seeing this on the TV Westerns channel. It's a very film noir western. Beside the always sturdy and moral Randolph Scott, there were two special delights. Ella Raines is my long favorite among the older actresses, with her bright eyes and rather sarcastic manner always seeming to be laughing at some private joke. I feel a personal connection to her in that she was born a month after my father and followed him by a month in death. She first captured my fascination in "The Suspect" with Charles Laughton and then in "The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry" with George Sanders. Josh White is the really special feature here. How often do you find such wonderfully played Delta Blues inexplicably inserted into the plot of a 1949 western? It's not a truly great movie but still a must-see because it is so ahead of it's time. "Bad Day at Black Rock" meets "O Brother Where Art Thou."

"I ran out of words"

[Reedmalloy · 8/10 · 14 October 2015]

The reviews that have thus far been written here about "The Walking Hills" (except for a few clunkers) do it justice. It is a compact piece of good film-making and quality entertainment. The quality of the acting makes the subsequent plot twists believable without hitting you over the head in their revelations.

Not much is said about Alan Le May's script, however. He is little remembered today except possibly as the writer whose novel ''The Searchers" was turned into John Ford's great western. I grew up reading everything he wrote and found Le May a skilled story-teller who always remembered that the story was the whole point of it all.

Le May crafted subtly complex stories about frontier Texas (despite being from Indiana) before Larry McMurtry was even born. His westerns are an easy-reading blend of his own knowledge of human nature, Louis L'Amour's (whom he preceded) formula romance, and a Hemingway style prose. His characters were given names and personalities that ring absolutely true, and he treats readers as adults capable of putting two-and-two together themselves. The only writer I ever found to rival him in creating an elusive combination of complexity and subtlety in a sagebrush saga is Frank X. Tolbert, much of whose work reads like Le May's.

Such is the case with "The Walking Hills". Le May fleshes out his plot with details, but just enough to elucidate motivations while keeping the story moving. He never goes too far or too often, and as others noted, some of the character "back-stories" (such as Johnny's and Cleve's) tell just enough to give them a purpose while others (those of Chalk, Old Willy, and Josh) are left to the imagination of the viewer. Le May didn't throw a detail into the plot that wasn't wrapped up by the end, and in the natural course of events. Pretty good stuff.

As a side-note to reviewer "bkoganbing", Ella Raines' husband was ROBIN Olds, a legendary character himself, and he never flew jets in Korea, much less became an ace there. In fact Ella went behind his back and used her friendship with people of influence to keep him out of that war, which may have played a part in their eventual separation when he went on to become an icon in the Vietnam War.

Ella 24/7

[wayjl-91327 · 16 June 2017]

Anything with Ella Raines is always worth watching. Totally captivating, beautiful and so talented. The ideal American girl. When you die, if you wake up in Heaven, Ella will be who you will see first. She just blows away all the other actresses of her generation, not to mention present day. I think she smokes in every picture she made. No wonder throat cancer got her in the end.

Mother of all sandstorms in Western with 1940 cars

[adrianovasconcelos · 8/10 · 30 June 2023]

Director John Sturges makes good use of a weird screenplay which reveals to you in drips and drabs that Jim (Scott), Old Willy (Buchanan) and others are forming a group to hunt for gold at the site of a century-old train wreck smack bang in the middle of the "walking hills" that have a life of their own in the windy desert.

And so they leave a city brimming with 1930s and 40s Chevrolets, Oldsmobiles, Dodges and other cars to plunge into a horse expedition. That premise of an archeological gold-seeking foray soon falls to the back burner, letting instead the conflicts among the characters take pride of place. Scott loves his horses, in particular the pregnant mare that will soon deliver a pony; Bishop is on the run from the law after accidentally killing a man in a poker game ; beautiful Ella Raines loves him enough to trek after him in the desert and among men who think nothing of killing; and Ireland is detective Frazee hunting Bishop down while sending mirror signals to the rest of his force hiding behind rocks in the distance, all the while keeping an eye on a possible gold find - Ireland does not seem to be the beacon of honesty, so if he is to hit gold he will likely keep it. If that means bumping off everyone else, so be it. Meanwhile, the unrelenting Buchanan keeps digging, reminding all of the trip's goal: gold.

And then Nature, blowing in with a sandstorm that separates the men from the boys and uncovers the train wreck...

Great B&W cinematography, excellent acting from Scott, Buchanan, Raines and Kennedy. I found Ireland very good initially, then lost oomph, especially after he showed the complex signal-sending gadget that made enough noise to alert a city neighborhood, let alone that handful of humans in the silent desert.

Good singing from a black guitar man whose name I do not know.

78 minutes well worth watching. 8/10.

Trans-genre cross-dressing

[rmax304823 · 11 June 2003]

What a strange flick. Terrific cast here: the morally upright wooden Indian played by Randolph Scott in all his Westerns (except "Ride the High Country."). The ex-dentist from Portland, Edgar Buchanan. Arthur Kennedy with a permanent sneer. John Ireland as a greedy sinister Private Eye. Josh White, who plays a nice guitar, and who seems to be in the picture for that reason alone. Ella Raines with her classic features. A young whiney kid who dies. A noble savage as Scott's sidekick.

The plot? Well, if you can image a typical film noir (maybe one about a bunch of seedy treacherous crooks), one of those Ranown Westerns involving a trek across the desert, and a touch of maybe "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" thrown in, maybe that will do it.

It's a modern-day Western, though it might as well be a period flick. It's 1949 and a lot of disparate characters get together and search for a legendary wagon train carrying a fortune in gold supposed to be buried somewhere under the moving sand dune, the eponymous "walking hills".

The photography is in black and white, with stark black shadows and brilliant whites, adding to the noir atmosphere. The plot rambles here and there. Two of the guys have pasts, as they say, with Ella Raines. If you must have a past with someone it might as well be Ella Raines. Whatever happened to her? A beautiful woman who made one movie, "Phantom Lady," and then appeared in el cheapos like this.

John Sturges needed a bit more seasoning before he could produce glossy colorful pictures like "Shootout at the O.K. Corral." Of course the script doesn't give him much to work with. A couple of flashback explain certain character traits that aren't too interesting to begin with. The movie is nothing to be ashamed of. It's not so bad that it's funny, but it's not so good as to be worth going out of your way to watch.

one of the best Sturges

[loydmooney-1 · 10/10 · 28 October 2006]

After a while Sturges got very overblown and flashy. This one kept him earlily reined in, even though earlily was not a word until now. The first and last of it is very good indeed. The poker game that starts things off is about as compact a character study, in its own way even nearly equal to the first bits of Bad Day At Black Rock, and in some ways even better because it is so understated. Randolph Scott at the table is supremely realistic here. The game is even played for penny ante stakes, almost nakedly drawing any and all in for the game, very late 40ish kind of device to gather everybody for the hunt. Too much so, in fact. This film could easily have dispensed with the Arthur Kennedy character and two or three others. The whole bunch is just too large and ridiculous, practically needing a parade permit. And the middle of the chase is way too long and marred by flashbacks. However the poker game and sandstorm are, well, just great. This is one of those films that is so flawed and so good in parts that it deserves a remake, though it would be hard to find the likes of somebody like Scott: you would have to search high and low for an unknown since there is nobody around in LA remotely with his western power. That done, even make it a period piece, cut out the absurdities and slackness, and it could make a very tight piece of business, shot in good ole Black and White.

Shovelling sand in the desert

[clanciai · 9/10 · 10 February 2024]

This must be called a noir western although it happens long after the Wild West died out and even in the middle of the 20th century, and it begins in a modern border city to Mexico to then break loose on a pony trail with horses out into the desert to dig for gold in a very old orderly manner. But this bunch of golddiggers are a rather wild bunch, where each member has an agenda of his own, one being a fugitive from justice wanted for murder, another a policeman hunting for the wrong man, an old Indian as a catcher in the rye saving some awkward situations, Josh White entertaining with his guitar and ballads, and even a woman, and not just any woman, but Ella Raines herself, a supreme jewel in any film of hers. They are digging for gold in a lost caravan that was buried in a sandstorm in 1852, and they will have to do a lot of digging, under the constant threat of sand storms, and there will be one indeed. Randolph Scott is a horse lover and a kind of backbone of the expedition, as one after another of the members get into trouble with each other and soon enough fight it out unto death. Ultimately the film is not at all about the gold but about the characters and the development of their fates in both unwanted and unexpected directions. It is John Sturges' first western but definitely already one of the best ever, despite the fact that it is all way beyond the horizons of the wild golden west.