The Walking Hills
| The Walking Hills | |
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| Directed by | John Sturges |
| Produced by | Harry Joe Brown |
| Written by | Alan Le May |
| Starring |
Randolph Scott Ella Raines |
| Music by | Arthur Morton |
| Cinematography | Charles Lawton Jr. |
| Edited by | William Lyon |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures (USA) |
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Release date
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Running time
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78 mins. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Walking Hills is a 1949 contemporary western film directed by John Sturges and starring Randolph Scott and Ella Raines. The film's plot has film noir elements in its story of a search for an old treasure by nine men including a detective tracking a fugitive, several others who have things to hide, and a love triangle involving the two leads and the fugitive.
Sturges filmed the movie in the Alabama Hills of California and Death Valley National Monument, locations he returned to a few years later in filming his classic Bad Day at Black Rock.
One day in contemporary Mexicali, a poker game in the back room of a cantina includes horse breeder Jim Carey, cowboys Shep and Johnny, a prospector called Old Willy, a stranger in town named Frazee and a drifter, Chalk. Guitar player Josh and bartender Bibbs are kibbitzing. Conversation turns to a legendary wagon train carrying gold bars worth $5 million lost 100 years ago in the Walking Hills, a huge area of shifting dunes across the border in the United States. Johnny, not paying attention, casually mentions how his horse recently tripped over an old wagon wheel in the hills. To keep the discovery a secret, they agree that all of them including Jim's man Cleve must join the search for the wagon train.
The nine reach the apparent site but all the dunes have shifted since Johnny was there. Bibbs discovers an ox skull and Old Willy an oxen yoke and they begin digging. The group is joined by Chris Jackson, a woman who followed them from Calexico, where she works in a diner. Shep is really former rodeo rider Dave Wilson with whom Chris, herself a rodeo performer, fell in love at a rodeo in Denver, breaking off her engagement to Jim. Dave abruptly disappeared and Chris saw him again in Calexico after he showed up there as Shep, heading for the border.
It turns out that Dave Wilson had fled because he accidentally killed a gambler who accused him of cheating at cards. The man's father, King, hired a detective who turns out to be Frazee, and who has been sending signals to King and a posse with a heliograph. Johnny, Chalk and Cleve are also on the run and each believes Frazee is after him. Frazee shoots Johnny during a fight. Jim, told by Johnny that he would rather die than go to prison, has Cleve hide the horses to keep Johnny from being found out if someone goes for help.
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