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.

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.

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.

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.