I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

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.

These Thousand Hills casts Don Murray as a young cowboy who arrives in Montana broke but with an idea. Rather than have cattle feed on the open range in winter left to the elements, he wants to grow and store hay for winter feed. In order to do this he romances two women, banker's niece Patricia Owens and saloon girl Lee Remick. Murray's both a hard worker and a fast worker.This film highlights a growing trend in the Fifties toward adult westerns. They wouldn't yet show it on television, but that Lee Remick is a prostitute is not left to any imagination. In fact even though Remick gave Murray the seed money for his ranch, Murray then objects to pal Stuart Whitman marrying one in Remick's friend Jean Willes.And Murray's attentions to Remick among other things have made him a bad enemy in saloon owner Richard Egan. Basically you have all the ingredients of the story of These Thousand Hills.The film really belongs to both Murray and Lee Remick who gives quite a portrayal of a battered woman, again most unusual for any picture in the Fifties let alone a western.As entertainment the film still holds up well today, but I'd keep it from the littlest ones.

"All the beasts in the forest are mine and the cattle on these thousandhills". THESE THOUSAND HILLS was a Fox western made in 1959! But calling it a western in the true sense is something of a misnomer! For although it is set in the west in the 1880's it contains little or no familier "western" action to speak of. In fact you could count on one hand the number of shots fired in the entire picture! That said, and despite all of its western trappings, it is still a reasonably good drama well played by a good cast. Based on the best selling novel by A.B.Guthrie Jr. a decent screenplay was fashioned from it by Alfred Hayes and it also had some beautiful Cinemascope location Cinematography by Charles G. Clarke. The solid direction was by the gifted Richard Fleischer for Davis Weisbert's glossy Eastmancolor production.An ambitious cowboy (Don Murray) longs to make something of himself and his dream is to have his very own ranch. A dance hall girl Callie (Lee Remick giving the film its best performance) who falls for him gives him the money to get started. This together with some help from the bank sees him becoming one of the biggest cattle ranchers in the territory. But he wants to become more. He begins to avoid Callie. He is elected to the school board and woos and marries the banker's niece (Patricia Owens) and now he is well on his way to becoming a senator. But when his good friend (Sturt Whitman) is lynched and Callie is beaten up by her boyfriend Jehu (Richard Egan) he realises his ambitions now mean little. In the picture's climactic set piece near the end he confronts Jehu for a well executed fist fight.Don Murray is fine in the lead! Although he didn't make a lot of them Murray was an acceptable western hero! His best one was "From Hell To Texas" (1958)! His shy reticent persona could be likened to a young Glenn Ford but the actor never really distinguished himself in film. His senator Brigham Anderson in Otto Preminger's brilliant political drama "Advise & Consent" (1962) is probably the best thing he did! Hard to believe he celebrated his eightieth birthday in 2009.Despite a couple of appalling indoor exteriors for night camp scenes and stock footage of cattle drive sequences from the studio's earlier "The Tall Men" (1955) THESE THOUSAND HILLS is an absorbing enough tale well told and well played. The film is also well buoyed by a marvellous score by the underrated Leigh Harline. A haunting title song by Harry Warren and Ned Washington is sung over the opening and end credits by Randy Sparks. Harline interpolated the song into his score which orchestrally is quite beautiful...............THE MOON WHEN IT'S PALE LIGHTING THE TRAILTUGS AT HIS HEARTSTRINGSHE LEARNED TO LIVEAND LEARNED TO LOVETHESE THOUSAND HILLS.

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.