Parents' Guide to

The Painted Hills

By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 8+

Gold, greed, Old West violence, and a smart dog.

Movie G 1951 68 minutes
The Painted Hills Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

  • The Painted Hills Movie: Scene #1
  • The Painted Hills Movie: Scene #2
  • The Painted Hills Movie: Scene #3

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What's the Story?

In THE PAINTED HILLS, Jonathan (Paul Kelly) has found gold in the mountains and returns to share the good news with his partner, Frank. When he and his loyal collie, Shep, get back to town he discovers that Frank has died of pneumonia, leaving a widow and young son, Tommy (Gary Gray). He promises they'll all be rich from the gold he found. The widow explains that this will now include Lin Taylor (Bruce Cowling), a partner in the gold because he lent the family money while Frank was sick. Although assured that Taylor is a good man, Jonathan is skeptical and soon his fears are realized. The more gold they find, the greedier and more paranoid Taylor becomes. Jonathan sensibly takes Taylor's gun away for safety, but Taylor finds another way to remove Jonathan from the picture. We see Taylor deliberately shove Jonathan off a cliff and the body bounces grimly off the mountain on the way down. The dog figures out what happened and eventually Tommy understands as well, making them both targets of Taylor's malevolent plans. Hunted down by Taylor, Shep manages to turn the tables and bring justice upon the murderer.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

The best actor in this movie is the dog, and not by a little, but that may be partly explained by the fact that she doesn't have to utter any of the script's badly written dialogue. The dog is a wonder, trained to express sadness, despair, ingenuity, determination, and loyalty. The dog convincingly demonstrates the symptoms of poisoning and gunshot wound, which Meryl Streep could not have done better. The Painted Hills is an adventure story of the Old West, with harsh conditions, guns, greed, and striving, and fans of that sort of drama may enjoy this but people do fall off mountains and a kid runs for his life from a killer, which means more sensitive children may find this story disturbing.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how Tommy was able to do many things on his own in The Painted Hills that kids today might not be allowed to do. He rode to town on horseback by himself. He helped dig for and clean gold. Do you think it was common for kids back then to have more responsibility than they do now? Do you think kids who live on farms have more responsibility than kids in cities do? Why?

  • Tommy's father died of an illness. Why do you think Jonathan offered to give Tommy his dog after the boy's father's death? Do you think Jonathan thought Tommy needed someone or something to comfort him? How would a dog do that?

  • Why did so many people in the Old West carry around guns? Do you think times were more dangerous then? Why?

Movie Details

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