Simply A Masterpiece

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A western about a cowboy who rises up the social ladder to become a respected rancher and later a Montana politician, who seems to become more of a hypocrite with each step up. Don Murray, who plays the lead role, dumps Lee Remick as a saloon girl for Patricia Owens who plays the wholesome daughter of one of the town's prominent leaders. Dumping Remick for Owens seems to signify Murray's embrace of and acceptance into the town's Christian and social establishment, and his abandonment of his cowboy social outcast pal played by Stuart Whitman. Richard Egan occupies the film's bad guy role as Remick's abusive ex-boyfriend, and unscrupulous rancher. A classic example of a 1950s western with modern themes set amongst the beauty of the old West.

On the cheesy, moralistic front, there's Richard Fleischer's These Thousand Hills, an almost-grown up oater with Don Murray, Lee Remick, Richard Egan, and Stuart Whitman. Murray is a young cowpuncher who wants to hit it big ranching in Montana. Unfortunately he's too damned handsome and Wonder Bready for my tastes and he gets started growing awfully big for his britches, especially after he borrows stake money from the only prostitute in town who doesn't look like a 50s movie tramp (that's the always luminescent Remick we're talking about here). Murray proceeds to torque off or become a political pawn to just about everyone in town.Except the reptilian Egan, an actor I love to watch because he oozes a sort of John Huston in Chinatown vibe. I guess he doesn't like Murray because he sees a shred of good in him.Anyway, you'll notice just how nearly raunchy the plot is. Murray and Remick have s-x, and it's really obvious because he looks happy, gazing off at the wallpaper and she brushes her hair, staring off at how many brushes she's up to. There's talk of tramps, political chicanery, somebody getting a bullet through his face, and after Murray grows a pair but before he settles a score with Egan, we dopes in the audience are reminded--using reverse-psychology--that the establishment's morality is pretty-well fubar. Almost, almost edgy stuff there. Remember, 1959 wasn't that long before the end of the Production Code, and Hoary-wood was experimenting with heroes that weren't squeaky-clean. It was interesting watching how immoral our hero becomes before he pulls his head out. I can just see Joe and Jane Suburbia, going with the kiddies to the movies, and walking out in a kerfluff over how dirty These Thousand Hills was. I personally thought it was quaint, cheesy, and morality-wins-uber-alles, which, believe it or not, made this reject from the Lifetime Movie Network actually satisfying.Plus, the scenery was pretty and Remick, with a split lip and blackened eyes (guess who did that to her, folks!) is still breathtaking.

When I picked it out of the sale bin, "These Thousand Hills" looked like a routine, unselfconscious western of the 1950's. I bought it because it had a good cast including two actors I really like, Lee Remick and Richard Egan.However after a fairly standard start, the big surprise was that the story took a left-hand turn at the midpoint, exposing darkness within the good guys, and giving the drama psychological shadings that may even have had William Shakespeare shouting, "Author! Author!".Don Murray stars as Lat Evans, an ambitious young cowboy who wants to own a ranch of his own. He partners with Tom Ping, an easy-going cowboy played by Stuart Whitman, who saves his life early in the movie. They encounter Jehu, played by Richard Egan, a ruthless rancher destined to become their enemy. They also meet a couple of saloon girls, one of them, Callie, played by Lee Remick, falls in love with Lat. She gives him her life savings to buy the ranch.With this start, Lat is successful. He begins to associate with the town's classier citizens, and leaves Callie to marry Joyce, a banker's niece played by Patricia Owens. Lat also begins to look down on people, once his friends, who he now thinks beneath him; eventually he falls out with Tom. Events unfold that lead Lat to regret his actions. He sets out to put things right with a final confrontation with Jehu.Not your average oater that's for sure, but the story, obviously condensed from the original novel, plays out over a period of time, and it was a lot to cram into 96 minutes.The opening scenes of the cattle drive are spectacular, which is just as well as the set design of the town and the interiors is uninspired, not much above the look of the studio-bound television westerns of the time.Top-billed Don Murray gives a pretty good performance for an actor who looked perennially youthful throughout his career; he was thirty when he made this but looks younger.Lee Remick is the standout. A year before, she had burst onto the screen in "A Face in the Crowd". That film was in black and white, this one is in colour. The black and white camera loved her, but the colour camera adored her. Great roles were ahead, but it's fascinating to catch her just before that happened.Then there is Richard Egan. While this was a supporting role he was a scene-stealer. He had a great voice and more teeth and muscles than just about any other actor. He had similarities to Burt Lancaster, but he never made it as big. He just didn't exude that sense of danger that gave Burt the edge as a star.I remember reading that Charles Bronson had backed down from a potential fight with Richard Egan while working on the TV series "Empire". Charlie was smart, it wouldn't have been pretty. Egan was not only bigger, but had also taught hand-to-hand combat in the army during World War 2. He may not have exuded Lancaster's sense of danger on the screen, however he really was dangerous."These Thousand Hills" gave complex motivations to its characters, as did many of the urban dramas at the time. It took a different approach than most westerns, and for the most part it succeeded.

This is the story of a cowboy Lat Evans (Don Murray) driven by blind ambition who is not fair to the woman who loves him and helped him (Lee Remick) and his best friend who saved his life (Stuart Whitman). Richard Egan has a good performance as the villain, who is also after Remick but treats her badly. Murray's attitude in relation to Remick and Whitman is so cruel and shocking that even when he tries to redeem himself you are not convinced that he has suffered enough. When the film starts you look at Murray like a standard western hero, and the fact that when the film ends it still tries to make you believe Murray is a good guy who paid for his sins, leaves the spectator with a feeling something is missing. I liked the film, but did not like the ending.