Ed-Shullivan This is another starring role for David Wayne who plays a prospector named Tracy Powell who has a one track mind. Tracy Powell wants to find that huge gold strike that has eluded him for decades. In spite of the physical and mental hardhsips he faces, regardless of the other lives that he leaves behind while he works feverishly 365 days a year digging, scrubbing, mining, hiking in the naked hills of California alongside tens of thousands of other gold seekers, Tracy keeps digging and no one or nothing will stop him from someday striking it rich.There are always greedy men who will take the law and courts into their own hands to get rich quick and in this film Jim Backus who plays financier Willis Haver and his bruising crony Keenan Wynn who plays Sam Wilkins will take full advantage of Tracy Powell and his mining partners hard work.A strong and beautiful woman named Julie (Marcia Henderson) falls in love with gold miner Tracy Powell and all she wants out of their marriage is to have a stay at home man to rear her children with her as they work a small farm. Initially Tracy abides by his wife's wishes, but those naked hills keep calling out Tracy's name and so he sets forth again and again to no avail.Tracy's stubborness to keep mining into his old age may be his death but in the lyrics of the 1970 Cat Stevens hit song Father and Son the father proclaims "But take your time, think a lot...Why, think of everything you've got...For you will still be here tomorrow...But your dreams may not" and the son responds "How can I try to explain...Cause when I do he turns away again...It's always been the same, same old story"I will not spoil the films end but if you do know the lyrics of Cat Stevens 1970 hit song Father and Son this film has a similarity that provides an alternative ending to the song.I give the film a decent 6 out of 10 rating for the strong performance of David Wayne

Spikeopath The Naked Hills is directed by Josef Shaftel, who also co-writes the screenplay with Helen S. Bilkie. It stars David Wayne, Keenan Wynn, James Barton, Marcia Henderson and Denver Pyle. Music is by Herschel Burke Gilbert and Pathecolor cinematography is by Frederick Gately.1800s California and Tracy Powell (Wayne) is gripped by gold fever and deserts his friends and family to search the hills for the precious metal.Very routine gold fever Oater that plays like a poor man's Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It spans decades as Powell lets the search for gold take over his life, while the background threads involving his partners, both romantically and gold seeking, make up the drama as he heads towards his day of destiny. An opportunity is wasted to really produce a psychologically strong film about an obsessive man who keeps failing, but Shaftel constantly resorts to formula fodder to tell his story and it hurts the piece. Cast are fine, especially Wayne, who gets a chance to be the lead man and delivers a performance of note in spite of the insipid screenplay. 4/10

classicsoncall I selected Denver Pyle's quote for my summary line from the film because it best describes the theme of the picture. However there's a more colorful one by Keenan Wynn when he invites David Wayne to have a drink in the mining camp for the first time - "Here's to the lice crawling up your back...". Man, I'm still itching from that one.The picture relies somewhat on the way the seasons of the year are reflected in a person's life, focusing on the principal character Tracy Powell (Wayne). Powell and Bert Killian (Pyle) start out as prospecting partners, but soon part ways when Powell attempts to short cut his way to the mountain top and the riches in gold that are soon to follow. Con man Willis Haver (Jim Backus) knows better, as his henchman Sam Wilkins (Wynn) initially takes Powell under his wing, only to turn on him after a quick, early strike. It was unusual seeing Backus in a heel role after all those seasons as the wealthy Thurston Howell on 'Gilligan's Island'. As his partner, Wynn looked a little out of character too.I think I would have found the picture a little better if Tracy Powell hadn't gone to the well with his obsession so many times. After an out of nowhere romance that led to marriage, Powell kept beating a path to the next big gold strike that was always just one more away. Wife Julie (Marcia Henderson), instead of patiently waiting out her man, probably should have called it quits well before the twenty year mark over which the story takes place. When finally persuaded by his grown son who he never really knew to come home, it felt like Powell was returning in defeat rather than having learned a valuable life lesson about the importance of family and friends.The other main character I haven't mentioned yet was the old prospector Jimmo McCann, neatly played by James Barton. Like his partner Powell, he 'almost' made it as a millionaire until fate stepped in. I found it curious that when he, Powell and Wilkins started celebrating their strike, they started talking about all the money they would have. What I found puzzling was how in the world he would have come up with the number quadrillion.If you're an avid Western fan, you'll recognize the early hints of the 'Yancy Derringer' TV show theme music, and by the end of the picture it's prominent in almost every scene. I know I've heard it in another Western film as well, but with Yancy, you got it in every show. Always upbeat, it seemed to fit that show's personality just right, while here it was effective only about half the time.

JoeytheBrit The Naked Hills follows the four seasons of one man's life from youth to old age without bothering to worry too much about ageing the character who plays the lead role. David Wayne is our hero, and the only thing that occasionally saves him from blandness is the fact that he is so badly miscast. Hearing other characters call him 'son' and 'boy' when they are quite clearly the same age – or possibly even younger – than him just makes everyone look faintly ridiculous. The fact that Wayne isn't a particularly good or charismatic actor doesn't help either. Watching him struggle through the role you can't help thinking what a better job someone like Alan Ladd would have made of the role.Wayne plays a young man seduced by the lure of easy riches when gold is struck in the wild and woolly west. He heads there with his best friend, but they soon go their separate ways when, blinded by his desire for wealth, Wayne falls in with bad guy Keenan Wynn. Together they steal a claim from a couple of Mexicans and work it for themselves, only for Wynn to double-cross him when it comes to payday.Wayne finds himself a good woman and tries to settle down to a life of domesticity, but the call of the gold in them thar hills proves too much for him and it's not long before he's abandoning wife and young son for another attempt with his new best friend Jimmo (a great performance from James Barton). For a while it looks like he has struck lucky, but things soon take a turn for the worse… The film's main theme – the overriding and destructive desire for wealth portrayed as an addiction – is fairly timeless, I suppose, and it's doubtful that, human nature being what it is, we will ever learn much from cautionary tales such as this. To hammer home the destructive qualities of Wayne's obsession his greed for gold is paralleled with his appetite for booze. To be fair to Wayne he makes a pretty good drunk: he allows his eyes to cross ever so slightly and adopts a vaguely quizzical expression. And while the theme is a righteous one, it's diluted by the fact that the film skips over the early scenes so that we know nothing about Wayne's character before gold fever grips him.Considering the film is quite clearly made on the cheap, it's entertaining enough, but you won't remember much about it after a week or two.