The Naked Hills

Overview

Tracy Powell, an Indiana farmer, gets the gold fever and heads for Stockton, California in 1849. There, he abandons his first partner, Bert Killian, and teams up with Sam Wilkins, a claim jumper employed by Willis Haver. Six years later, Powell returns to Indiana and his sweetheart, Julie. They marry and he tries farming again but, on the night their son is born, he takes off again searching for gold. This time he heads for the hills with an inveterate prospector, Jimmo McCann. A decade later, the two are still hunting for their big strike when McCann is killed in an accident. Powell returns home with news of a big strike but the deserted Julie will have nothing to do with him. His friend Killian will not believe him but Haver, now a banker gives him a small loan and then beats him out of his claim. Many years pass before he comes home, now sixty-years-old, and this time, his wife and son open their home to him. But he vows to go prospecting come next spring.

Cast

David Wayne

Tracy Powell

Keenan Wynn

Sam Wilkins

James Barton

Jimmo McCann

Marcia Henderson

Julie

Jim Backus

Willis Haver

Denver Pyle

Bert Killian / Narrator

Myrna Dell

Aggie

Lewis L. Russell

Baxter

Frank Fenton

Harold

Fuzzy Knight

Pitch Man

N/A

Jim Hayward

Counter Man

Christopher Olsen

Billy as a Boy