History Film / ThePaintedHills

* CrazySurvivalist: Pilot Pete

* NuclearCandle: When Taylor and Tommy enter the darkened cabin where Jonathan is laid up with a fever, Taylor strikes a match that illuminates the entire room. This does not pass unremarked on the ''Series/MST3K'' version.

* PragmaticVillainy: The reason for Taylor's sparing of Tommy when the boy is injured and at his mercy -- besides InfantImmortality, that is -- is because a single death (Jonathan's) can be construed as an accident, and Shep was supposed to die alone in the woods and never be found; but adding in Tommy's sudden death/disappearance would be much harder to explain.

* InfantImmortality: Taylor had Tommy at his mercy... and spared him.

* LiteralCliffhanger: When Tyler pushes Jonathan off the cliff, he manages to grab hold of a small bush jutting out of the cliff partway down. Jonathan manages to gasp few curses at Tyler before the bush breaks and he plunges to his death.

* LiteralCliffhanger: When Tyler pushes Jonathan off the cliff, he manages to grab hold of a small bush jutting out of the cliff partway down. Jonathan manages to gasp few curse at Tyler before the bush breaks and he plunges to his death.

* RuleOfDrama: When Tommy is running from Taylor after discovering Jonathan's body, he hops on his horse which is waiting in the log cabin's coral. A coral that hadn't been there up to that point in the film, and which disappears immediately after providing a temporary obstacle to Tommy's flight.

* InformedAttribute: At the start of the film, Tommy's mother worries that he "hasn't cried once" over the death of his father; but once Tommy appears on screen, the very first thing he does is burst into tears. Completely unmotivated, at that.

* StartOfDarkness: Taylor almost seems like an okay guy, genuinely looking out for his clients' interests, but he sees that there really is gold in them thar hills and becomes ObviouslyEvil.

* TontoTalk: The Native Americans in the film, naturally.

-->--'''Skenderberg''', ''[[http://mst3kfanguide.blogspot.com/ War of the Colossal MST3K Fan Guide]]'', Review of ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]'' episode 510:''The Painted Hills''.

* StartOfDarkness: Taylor almost seems like an okay guy, genuinely looking out for his clients' interests; but he sees that there really is gold in them thar hills and becomes ObviouslyEvil.

Shep is the companion of a grizzled old prospector named Jonathan, who returns from the wilderness to find his partner in his current venture died, leaving behind a particularly whiny kid (Tommy), and an ObviouslyEvil lawyer (Taylor) in charge of the partnership. Jonathan leaves Shep behind to help Tommy before returning to the mountains; but Shep soon goes on a hunger strike to bring Tommy and Taylor to Jonathan's cabin just in time to save the prospector from dying of fever, thanks to the strange bond between dog and man. While the duo is there, they join Jonathan in panning for gold -- and the prospector shows them where he'd been stashing the dust he's collected so far. Inevitably, Taylor catches GoldFever, and murders the grizzled old guy before Shep's eyes.

-->--'''Skenderberg''', ''[[http://mst3kfanguide.blogspot.com/ War of the Colossal MST3K Fan Guide]]'', Review of ''{{MST3K}}'' episode 510:''The Painted Hills''.

* YouNoTakeCandle: The Native Americans. Natch.

For the ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' version, please go to the [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S05E10ThePaintedHills episode recap page]].

!!''The Painted Hills'' has examples of the following tropes:

** InfantImmortality: Taylor had Tommy at his mercy... and spared him.

Shep is the companion of a grizzled old prospector named Johnathan, who returns from the wilderness to find his partner in his current venture died, leaving behind a particularly whiny kid (Tommy), and an ObviouslyEvil lawyer (Taylor) in charge of the partnership. Johnathan leaves Shep behind to help Tommy before returning to the mountains; but Shep soon goes on a hunger strike to bring Tommy and Taylor to Johnathan's cabin just in time to save the prospector from dying of fever, thanks to the strange bond between dog and man. While the duo is there, they join Johnathan in panning for gold -- and the prospector shows them where he'd been stashing the dust he's collected so far. Inevitably, Taylor catches GoldFever, and murders the grizzled old guy before Shep's eyes.

** Taylor even lampshades this trope at the moment Jonathan is offed. It also really bites Johnathan in the butt as he claimed Taylor didn't have the guts to ''shoot'' him.

'''''The Painted Hills''''' is a movie starring canine star {{Lassie}} as Shep.