These Thousand Hills

These Thousand Hills is a melodrama dressed up as an epic Western in the tradition of The Sea Of Grass (see my review). A sprawling, handsome production with an engrossing story line, it incorporates many traditional western elements, including a cattle drive, a horse race, a nice girl-naughty girl rivalry, and a climactic showdown. Well-turned-out sets and authentic costumes compliment the scenic, on-location, wide-screen, color cinematography. These fetching production values are all wrapped around a rags-to-riches story emphasizing drama and character development rather than action. All about a dirt-poor young cowboy (Don Murray) determined "to make something of himself" no matter how much suffering he has to endure himself or how many friends he has to step on to get to the top.

This picture's best asset is the beautiful, vivacious, and talented Lee Remick, as the good-hearted saloon girl who gives Murray his start. Only third billed behind Murray and Richard Egan, she seems to be the real star of the show. It's a shame she couldn't have had a leading man of matching charisma and talent. Don Murray surely runs a good race with Richard Carlson as the blandest leading man of all time. His lack of virility must shoulder much of the blame for why this well-mounted Western ultimately lacks punch, along with the usually exciting Richard Fleischer's flabby direction, and a less than inspired adaptation of A. B. Guthrie's novel by screen writer Alfred Hayes. Fortunately the rest of the cast helps to make up for Murray's inadequacy. Egan, usually wooden in his more frequently seen heroic roles, is quite spicy here as a sneering villain. A fine cast of supporting actors, all familiar faces in the celluloid West, includes Albert Dekker, Harold J. Stone, and Royal Dano. Brawny Stuart Whitman has a major role as Murray's shady but loyal pal. It would have been a much better picture if he had had Murray's role.

As it was These Thousand Hills was not bad. It was fun to watch for the fine production values, the engaging if slow-moving story, and Lee Remick, who both looked good and acted well. Unfortunately it never lived up to the promise of the exciting bronco-busting and horse racing scenes in the opening reels. Solid, if uninspiring entertainment from an era when Holloywood was starting to forget how to make them like they used to anymore.

This relatively early exercise in applied psychology by Richard Fleischer was based on a novel by A. B. Guthrie Jr in which rising young star Don Murray played an aspiring social climber with serious childhood issues who courts working girl Lee Remick before cruelly discarding her when she becomes a social embarrassment after initially making the innocent enquiry "Is she anybody's in particular?"

Murray initially naively assumes she's a nice girl since she dresses in green, but that dress has been paid for by Richard Egan, who shows what an utter heel he is by destroying a birthday cake among sundry other misdeeds.

I noticed that some complained that "These Thousand Hills" is a slow-moving film. I would have to agree that it is slow...or, as I like to see it, deliberately paced. But I didn't mind this and liked that the film is so very different...during an era when westerns were about all Hollywood seemed to be making!

Lat Evans (Don Murray) is a very ambitious young man. He works his butt off to earn as much as he can so he can buy a ranch and make something of himself. Well, after a few setbacks, he is able to get the money...thanks to a loan from a local 'fallen woman' (Lee Remick). And, his ranch becomes a huge success...so much so that the locals want him to run for the senate. Of course, Lat wants this, as he has huge ambitions and has worked so hard to get where he has. But then something strange happens....he starts to wonder if success alone is what he wants. Something more important becomes apparent...integrity...which leads to a dandy conclusion.

This film is slow paced but again and again, it avoids the usual cliches and has a lot to say about real masculinity and honor. Well worth seeing and a finer film than it's relatively mediocre score on IMDB would indicate.

By the way, my complaints are minor. One cannot be helped and that is that the print I saw looked almost smoky in the beginning and could use some restoration. The other complaint is that some of the music (the songs sung by some young singing star) were pretty bad and didn't fit the film.

Average western with advantage of good cast. Don Murray is okay in the lead, he never really had that elusive something to be a great movie star but is a fine actor but a more magnetic actor, Robert Mitchum or Burt Lancaster for example would have raised the film up a notch. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces that all provide excellent work, the real standout is Lee Remick who offers up a delicately shaded performance of a girl whose life has been full of bad breaks and hard luck. It a shame her part is relatively small since she's the most compelling character and actor in the film. The color and cinematography are also noteworthy. Not a bad movie just not great.

I do agree with the other user's comments. While it was a treat to see the lush cinematography and beautiful landscape, two lovely redhead girls, and a behind-the-scenes look at a bygone era, this is one of those movies that leaves too much up in the air. You wonder whether Callie will be found not guilty at her trial, or whether the fistfight or Lat's seeing Callie will result in a hindrance to his professional or personal life. The film was OK as far as it went, but the filmed seemed to end halfway through.