The Painted Hills, also known as Lassie s Adventures in the Goldrush, is a 1951 drama 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, Bruce Cowling, 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.

Plot

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.

Main cast

• Pal (credited as Lassie ) as Shep – Hero
• Paul Kelly as Jonathan Harvey – Good Oldtime Prospector
• Bruce Cowling as Lin Taylor – Gold Fever Bad Partner
• Gary Gray as Tommy Blake – Boy
• Ann Doran as Martha Blake – Tommy s Mom
• Art Smith as Pilot Pete – Parson
• Andrea Virginia Lester as Mita
• Chief Yowlachie as Bald Eagle – Indian Vet
• Brown Jug Reynolds as Red Wing

Music

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 (1955) in the CD collection Lassie Come Home: The Canine Cinema Collection, limited to 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.

The score for The Painted Hills was composed by Daniele Amfitheatrof.

Track listing for The Painted Hills (Disc 5)

Total Time: 47:37

Release

According to MGM records, the film earned $783,000 in the US and Canada and $302,000 elsewhere, leading to a loss of $122,000.

Public domain status

Along with seven other MGM films released the first half of 1951, the copyright on The Painted Hills lapsed after MGM neglected to file the necessary renewal applications in 1979. As such, the film is now part of the public domain and has been released to VHS and DVD by a variety of companies.

In popular culture

The movie was riffed on Mystery Science Theater 3000 (episode 510)

Year	1951
ReleaseDate	1951-05-04
RuntimeMins	68
RuntimeStr	1h 8min
Plot	An intrepid dog comes to the rescue when a boy’s life is put at risk by the greed inflamed by a gold strike.
Directors	Harold F. Kress
Writers	True Boardman, Alexander Hull
Stars	Pal, Paul Kelly, Bruce Cowling
Produced by	Chester M. Franklin
Music by	Daniele Amfitheatrof
Cinematography by	Alfred Gilks,Harold Lipstein
Film Editing by	Newell P. Kimlin
Art Direction by	Cedric Gibbons,Leonid Vasian
Set Decoration by	Edwin B. Willis
Makeup Department	Sydney Guilaroff,John Truwe,William Tuttle
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Sid Sidman
Art Department	Ralph S. Hurst
Sound Department	Douglas Shearer
Special Effects by	Warren Newcombe
Music Department	Edward H. Plumb,Daniele Amfitheatrof,Gus Bivona,David Crocov,Jakob Gimpel,Edgar Lustgarten,Virginia Majewski,Lisa Minghetti,Mel Pedesky,Leonid Raab,Uan Rasey,Albert Vertchamp,Eunice Wennermark,Si Zentner
Additional Crew	James Gooch,Henri Jaffa
Genres	Drama, Family, Western
Companies	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	G
ImDbRating	4.2
ImDbRatingVotes	1144
Keywords	lassie,dog,greed,family relationships,murder