The Hills of Utah (1951) User Reviews

Welcome, Dr. Autry!

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 25 December 2020]

Although IMDB says the original film was made in sepia tone, the version I found was just in black & white. To me it makes no difference....but in case you want to know.

The film starts in a most unusual way. Gene Autry himself narrates and it's a long exposition about the events that led to this day. It seems that long ago, Gene's father was shot and should have recovered, but there was no doctor about and he perished. Now, Gene's a doctor and he's returning to his old home town. The problem is in the meantime, the local miners and the ranchers all hate each other and it's more like the Hatfields and McCoys! And, while they hate each other, they REALLY hate Gene because he's willing to treat anyone...regardless of affiliation. Can Gene get these knuckleheads to stop fighting and trust him and his new skills?

It's nice that despite having already made dozens of films and this being among his last films, the plot is still quite original. That being said, it's reasonably entertaining and worth seeing. Not among Gene's best..but still good.

By the way, if you do watch, watch the first fight between Gene and Jayda....it's so very obvious they are using stunt doubles...too obvious and therefore kind of funny. The fact they didn't have Gene do these scenes isn't surprising, as he wasn't exactly a spring chicken at 44.

Just what the Doctor ordered ..........

[revdrcac · 6/10 · 23 June 2006]

This is a pretty darn good sepia-tone western from Americas' Favorite Cowboy. Gene plays a Doctor who returns home after his father's death ---- smack dab into the middle of a range war !

Gene, along with his pal Pat Butram, tries to put an end to the hostilities, while tending to those injured in the fracas. I thought the story was unique and well-written. I prefer Smiley Burnette to Butram, but he does a good job here. Denver Pyle is barely recognizable as a combatant ---- in his pre-Dukes of Hazzard days. All in all, not a bad little shoot-em-up.

This one should appeal to most B-western fans .........

America's favorite cowboy turns doctor.

[michaelRokeefe · 5/10 · 7 November 2006]

Hee-haw! Gene Autry returns to Coffin Gap, where his father was murdered. Gene with his degree from Western University becomes the town's doctor...yep partner...Dr. Gene. Dusty Cosgrove(Pat Buttram)aids Gene in his search for the truth about his father's death; and along the way helps settle a war between ranchers and copper miners. Plus Gene sings "Peter Cottontail" and "Utah". Typical good guys and bad guys with gun play and flying fists. America's favorite cowboy fights 'em and heals 'em.

A better than average supporting cast features: Elaine Riley, Denver Pyle, William Fawcett, Onslow Stevens and Donna Martell.

the usual fight over land

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 8 July 2023]

Gene autry narrates this seventy minute shortie from columbia. It's a tale of trouble between the miners and the cattle men. And autry is the doctor, patching everyone up after the gunfights. Moves pretty slow. And about halfway through, someone sings peter cottontail. Weirdness. It's okay. Interesting mostly for the personalities in the cast. Keep an eye out for pat buttram... he was mister haney on green acres, always trying to swindle the locals. Also denver pyle...probably best known for dukes of hazzard. But he was in just about every western made too. According to imdb, part of this was filmed at the corrigan ranch.. check it out. Was owned by bob hope for a while, now it's a los angeles county park! Interesting history. Also the amazing alabama hills, up in lone pine. Directed by john english, known for working on many of autry's westerns. It's a good, solid story. The usual feuds over land, with the pretty girls helping out.

"Here I thought we could be eatin' our beans off the same plate again."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 25 November 2012]

Gene Autry returns to Coffin Gap, the home town of his youth, only to find that a big time feud between copper miners and cattle ranchers is still going strong. In the meantime, Gene earned his degree from Western Medical College, and finds his first duty as a doctor is to operate on a young boy with an intestinal obstruction. I was kind of curious about that because the boy's condition was brought on by a three times per day diet of meat and potatoes, and it sounded to me like it could have been a cholesterol problem, but I don't think that was high on the list of concerns back in the Fidties. Interesting though.

The copper miners are led by Jayda McQueen (Onslow Stevens), while the ranchers look to Bowie French of the Coronet as their nominal leader. A young looking Denver Pyle portrays French, and Gene has history with both parties so he tries to stay neutral while he attempts to set up a medical practice. However there's a troubling back story for Gene in that his father was murdered before he went off to school, so part of his mission is to solve that mystery as well. When Gene first arrives, a couple of McQueen's henchmen (Kenne Duncan and Sandy Sanders) give him the business, and either Gene had an awful good memory or was simply lucky, because he knew just which plank in the sidewalk was loose to trip up one of the troublemakers.

Pat Buttram appears as Dusty Cosgrove, another of Gene's friends from back in the day, this time as a U.S. mail carrier. At one point in the story, Gene's voice-over describes what may be one of the country's first uses of a parking meter, as Dusty fashions some tin cans into collection cups to fund Gene's hospital and places them on hitching posts around town. That was pretty clever actually and kind of made you think about how parking meters came about in the first place.

The main departure from a typical Autry flick for this story was the small number of musical selections. The first one was rather odd considering the picture's release date in September 1951, a lively rendition of 'Peter Cottontail'. Then there was a tune that referenced the name of the picture, but no mention of the hills of Utah, so it didn't really qualify as a title song to my mind.

By the time it's over, Gene allies himself with the McQueen faction, seeing how he discovered that Bowie French either killed or had his father killed at a time when he was buying out a bunch of local ranchers. Since most of the time Gene seemed to be skirting the law in his investigation, he kept the local sheriff (Harry Harvey) off balance with repeated concerns over the lawman's heart condition. Even Buttram's character got into the act on that one.

Old time TV Western fans may remember a single season series from the late Fifties starring Rex Allen as "Frontier Doctor". I looked it up while writing this review and found that one of the writers on that program, Gerald Geraghty, also shares a writing credit for "The Hills of Utah". You can surprise your friends with that bit of Western film trivia.

Doc Autry and Doc T

[hines-2000 · 10/10 · 30 December 2021]

The doc comes to town and it's Gene Autry caught between a rock and a hard place. He's come to save lives but knows his father's killer is lurking around town. Sidekick extraordinaire Pat Buttrum is delivering the mail and a punch now and than for the doc. Autry's in the middle of a feud between Jada (Onslow Stevens) and Bowie (Denver Pyle). Another doc, William Fawcett, AKA Doc T plays the lively hired hand Washoe and the gorgeous Elaine Riley is trying to protect her dad at all costs. My favorite of the supporting cast is Donna Martell as Nola French. She has the hardest part as the scorned wife of Bowie. The best henchmen in the business Kenne Duncan and Harry Lauter round out a great cast.

Dawdles a Bit Until the End

[dougdoepke · 5 November 2013]

Gene gets caught up in a feud between miners and ranchers, one of whom may have killed his father.

The programmer is not among Gene's best, though it is generously produced by Autry Productions. This was a time (1951) when TV was beginning to eat into theatre audiences. So it looks like Gene was looking to modify his long-successful movie mold.

Here, for example, he's not only a good guy with a gun and horse, but a doctor as well. Note too, that the humor with sidekick Buttram is played down more than usual. Also, Gene works in only one tune, Here Comes Peter Cottontail, a delightful rendition, but not exactly a good trail song. Then too, the final shootout is also unusual since Gene is not the main focus; plus the showdown takes place in an elaborate mine tunnel instead of in town or out in the open. The tunnel itself is an impressive set for a horse opera, and I'm not sure whether Gene borrowed it or built it. Either way it's an eye-catcher.

My only complaint is that the movie tends to dawdle until the final sequence. There's some hard riding, but the countryside alternates between the scrubby LA area and the scenic Alabama Hills in not very well blended fashion. Anyway, the movie should please Gene's many fans, myself included.