Director John Sturges makes good use of a weird screenplay which reveals to you in drips and drabs that Jim (Scott), Old Willy (Buchanan) and others are forming a group to hunt for gold at the site of a century-old train wreck smack bang in the middle of the "walking hills" that have a life of their own in the windy desert.
And so they leave a city brimming with 1930s and 40s Chevrolets, Oldsmobiles, Dodges and other cars to plunge into a horse expedition. That premise of an archeological gold-seeking foray soon falls to the back burner, letting instead the conflicts among the characters take pride of place. Scott loves his horses, in particular the pregnant mare that will soon deliver a pony; Bishop is on the run from the law after accidentally killing a man in a poker game ; beautiful Ella Raines loves him enough to trek after him in the desert and among men who think nothing of killing; and Ireland is detective Frazee hunting Bishop down while sending mirror signals to the rest of his force hiding behind rocks in the distance, all the while keeping an eye on a possible gold find - Ireland does not seem to be the beacon of honesty, so if he is to hit gold he will likely keep it. If that means bumping off everyone else, so be it. Meanwhile, the unrelenting Buchanan keeps digging, reminding all of the trip's goal: gold.
And then Nature, blowing in with a sandstorm that separates the men from the boys and uncovers the train wreck...
Great B&W cinematography, excellent acting from Scott, Buchanan, Raines and Kennedy. I found Ireland very good initially, then lost oomph, especially after he showed the complex signal-sending gadget that made enough noise to alert a city neighborhood, let alone that handful of humans in the silent desert.
Good singing from a black guitar man whose name I do not know.
78 minutes well worth watching. 8/10.
And so they leave a city brimming with 1930s and 40s Chevrolets, Oldsmobiles, Dodges and other cars to plunge into a horse expedition. That premise of an archeological gold-seeking foray soon falls to the back burner, letting instead the conflicts among the characters take pride of place. Scott loves his horses, in particular the pregnant mare that will soon deliver a pony; Bishop is on the run from the law after accidentally killing a man in a poker game ; beautiful Ella Raines loves him enough to trek after him in the desert and among men who think nothing of killing; and Ireland is detective Frazee hunting Bishop down while sending mirror signals to the rest of his force hiding behind rocks in the distance, all the while keeping an eye on a possible gold find - Ireland does not seem to be the beacon of honesty, so if he is to hit gold he will likely keep it. If that means bumping off everyone else, so be it. Meanwhile, the unrelenting Buchanan keeps digging, reminding all of the trip's goal: gold.
And then Nature, blowing in with a sandstorm that separates the men from the boys and uncovers the train wreck...
Great B&W cinematography, excellent acting from Scott, Buchanan, Raines and Kennedy. I found Ireland very good initially, then lost oomph, especially after he showed the complex signal-sending gadget that made enough noise to alert a city neighborhood, let alone that handful of humans in the silent desert.
Good singing from a black guitar man whose name I do not know.
78 minutes well worth watching. 8/10.