This must be called a noir western although it happens long after the Wild West died out and even in the middle of the 20th century, and it begins in a modern border city to Mexico to then break loose on a pony trail with horses out into the desert to dig for gold in a very old orderly manner. But this bunch of golddiggers are a rather wild bunch, where each member has an agenda of his own, one being a fugitive from justice wanted for murder, another a policeman hunting for the wrong man, an old Indian as a catcher in the rye saving some awkward situations, Josh White entertaining with his guitar and ballads, and even a woman, and not just any woman, but Ella Raines herself, a supreme jewel in any film of hers. They are digging for gold in a lost caravan that was buried in a sandstorm in 1852, and they will have to do a lot of digging, under the constant threat of sand storms, and there will be one indeed. Randolph Scott is a horse lover and a kind of backbone of the expedition, as one after another of the members get into trouble with each other and soon enough fight it out unto death. Ultimately the film is not at all about the gold but about the characters and the development of their fates in both unwanted and unexpected directions. It is John Sturges' first western but definitely already one of the best ever, despite the fact that it is all way beyond the horizons of the wild golden west.
Review of The Walking Hills
