The Naked Hills

1956
5.5| 1h12m| en
Details

Tracy Powell, an Indiana farmer, gets the gold fever and heads for Stockton, California in 1849. There, he abandons his first partner, Bert Killian, and teams up with Sam Wilkins, a claim jumper employed by Willis Haver. Six years later, Powell returns to Indiana and his sweetheart, Julie. They marry and he tries farming again but, on the night their son is born, he takes off again searching for gold. This time he heads for the hills with an inveterate prospector, Jimmo McCann. A decade later, the two are still hunting for their big strike when McCann is killed in an accident. Powell returns home with news of a big strike but the deserted Julie will have nothing to do with him. His friend Killian will not believe him but Haver, now a banker gives him a small loan and then beats him out of his claim. Many years pass before he comes home, now sixty-years-old, and this time, his wife and son open their home to him. But he vows to go prospecting come next spring.

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Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Portia Hilton Blistering performances.
Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Richie-67-485852 Here is a nice little gem of a story that was out there all this time until I discovered it on TCM. Most excellent story-telling that uses 'gold" to capture and awaken the viewers emotions and wonder what it was like to mine for gold and start from scratch. There are many riches in the world and gold continues to have the allure especially when it was discovered and then mined for the first time. The idea of working hard to strike it rich is not far-fetched. People liked to work and wanted to work so why not work at finding gold? The thing is there were many working to take your hard work and claim it for themselves. Good movie to study human nature by. Greed! That's what does it to all! Here a man stays focused which is a good thing but then it turns into an obsession forsaking what is a true riches for the promise of earthly riches. The main character paid a steep price as did others to find out what the true riches are and were and will always be. This lesson goes on to this day and people still don't get it. It all stays here. Naked you come and naked you go so there must be a reason to be here. If it was just for gold etc., we would have known that deep reason by now. The movie brings the point home really nice. Some good moving scenes too. Reminds me of all the billionaires that have more money then they could ever possibly spend turning a blind eye and ear to those around them that could use a helping hand. What is the point of accumulating billions if not to spend it on worthy causes? Good movie to eat a snack and have a tasty drink while one reflects on it all. This is true story-telling as it is told by one man about another that went through life together. That be all of us...yes?
Spikeopath The Naked Hills is directed by Josef Shaftel, who also co-writes the screenplay with Helen S. Bilkie. It stars David Wayne, Keenan Wynn, James Barton, Marcia Henderson and Denver Pyle. Music is by Herschel Burke Gilbert and Pathecolor cinematography is by Frederick Gately.1800s California and Tracy Powell (Wayne) is gripped by gold fever and deserts his friends and family to search the hills for the precious metal.Very routine gold fever Oater that plays like a poor man's Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It spans decades as Powell lets the search for gold take over his life, while the background threads involving his partners, both romantically and gold seeking, make up the drama as he heads towards his day of destiny. An opportunity is wasted to really produce a psychologically strong film about an obsessive man who keeps failing, but Shaftel constantly resorts to formula fodder to tell his story and it hurts the piece. Cast are fine, especially Wayne, who gets a chance to be the lead man and delivers a performance of note in spite of the insipid screenplay. 4/10
classicsoncall I selected Denver Pyle's quote for my summary line from the film because it best describes the theme of the picture. However there's a more colorful one by Keenan Wynn when he invites David Wayne to have a drink in the mining camp for the first time - "Here's to the lice crawling up your back...". Man, I'm still itching from that one.The picture relies somewhat on the way the seasons of the year are reflected in a person's life, focusing on the principal character Tracy Powell (Wayne). Powell and Bert Killian (Pyle) start out as prospecting partners, but soon part ways when Powell attempts to short cut his way to the mountain top and the riches in gold that are soon to follow. Con man Willis Haver (Jim Backus) knows better, as his henchman Sam Wilkins (Wynn) initially takes Powell under his wing, only to turn on him after a quick, early strike. It was unusual seeing Backus in a heel role after all those seasons as the wealthy Thurston Howell on 'Gilligan's Island'. As his partner, Wynn looked a little out of character too.I think I would have found the picture a little better if Tracy Powell hadn't gone to the well with his obsession so many times. After an out of nowhere romance that led to marriage, Powell kept beating a path to the next big gold strike that was always just one more away. Wife Julie (Marcia Henderson), instead of patiently waiting out her man, probably should have called it quits well before the twenty year mark over which the story takes place. When finally persuaded by his grown son who he never really knew to come home, it felt like Powell was returning in defeat rather than having learned a valuable life lesson about the importance of family and friends.The other main character I haven't mentioned yet was the old prospector Jimmo McCann, neatly played by James Barton. Like his partner Powell, he 'almost' made it as a millionaire until fate stepped in. I found it curious that when he, Powell and Wilkins started celebrating their strike, they started talking about all the money they would have. What I found puzzling was how in the world he would have come up with the number quadrillion.If you're an avid Western fan, you'll recognize the early hints of the 'Yancy Derringer' TV show theme music, and by the end of the picture it's prominent in almost every scene. I know I've heard it in another Western film as well, but with Yancy, you got it in every show. Always upbeat, it seemed to fit that show's personality just right, while here it was effective only about half the time.
JoeytheBrit The Naked Hills follows the four seasons of one man's life from youth to old age without bothering to worry too much about ageing the character who plays the lead role. David Wayne is our hero, and the only thing that occasionally saves him from blandness is the fact that he is so badly miscast. Hearing other characters call him 'son' and 'boy' when they are quite clearly the same age – or possibly even younger – than him just makes everyone look faintly ridiculous. The fact that Wayne isn't a particularly good or charismatic actor doesn't help either. Watching him struggle through the role you can't help thinking what a better job someone like Alan Ladd would have made of the role.Wayne plays a young man seduced by the lure of easy riches when gold is struck in the wild and woolly west. He heads there with his best friend, but they soon go their separate ways when, blinded by his desire for wealth, Wayne falls in with bad guy Keenan Wynn. Together they steal a claim from a couple of Mexicans and work it for themselves, only for Wynn to double-cross him when it comes to payday.Wayne finds himself a good woman and tries to settle down to a life of domesticity, but the call of the gold in them thar hills proves too much for him and it's not long before he's abandoning wife and young son for another attempt with his new best friend Jimmo (a great performance from James Barton). For a while it looks like he has struck lucky, but things soon take a turn for the worse… The film's main theme – the overriding and destructive desire for wealth portrayed as an addiction – is fairly timeless, I suppose, and it's doubtful that, human nature being what it is, we will ever learn much from cautionary tales such as this. To hammer home the destructive qualities of Wayne's obsession his greed for gold is paralleled with his appetite for booze. To be fair to Wayne he makes a pretty good drunk: he allows his eyes to cross ever so slightly and adopts a vaguely quizzical expression. And while the theme is a righteous one, it's diluted by the fact that the film skips over the early scenes so that we know nothing about Wayne's character before gold fever grips him.Considering the film is quite clearly made on the cheap, it's entertaining enough, but you won't remember much about it after a week or two.