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Powerful

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

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

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 on film. 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.

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.

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.