These Thousand Hills Comments

Don Murray stars as a humble cowboy with aspirations for
bigger things. He borrows money from his dance-hall
girlfriend Lee Remick to buy a ranch, then dumps Remick in
favor of banker's daughter Patricia Owens. Murray runs for
political office, and in so doing is compelled to join a
posse in search of his best friend Stuart Whitman, who has
turned rustler. Anxious not to compromise his climb to the
top, Murray stands by in silence as Whitman is lynched. In
the end, however, Murray regains his essential decency when
he is shot while trying to protect his ex-girlfriend Remick
from bullying land baron Richard Egan. Based on a novel by
A. B. Guthrie Jr., These Thousand Hills may look and sound
like a western, but it has "film noir" written all
over it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide