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The Painted Hills

The Painted Hills
Lassie the Painted Hills poster.jpg
Original theatrical poster
Directed by Harold F. Kress
Produced by Kenneth Bennett
Chester M. Franklin
Screenplay by True Boardman
Story by Alexander Hull
Starring Pal (credited as "Lassie")
Paul Kelly
Bruce Cowling
Gary Gray
Music by Daniele Amfitheatrof
Cinematography Alfred Gilks
Harold Lipstein
Edited by Newell B. Willis
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • April 26, 1951 (1951-04-26)
Running time
90 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $667,000
Box office $1,085,000

The Painted Hills, also known as Lassie's Adventures in the Goldrush, is a 1951 action 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, 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.The Painted Hills was the seventh, and final, MGM Lassie film released.

A prospector named Jonathan Harvey (Paul Kelly), whose faithful companion is a rough collie 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 in a collectible package titled Lassie Come Home: The Canine Cinema Collection limited to only 1000 copies. 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.


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