Ella Raines in The Walking Hills





In 1949, Ella Raines shared top billing with Randolph Scott in a movie called The Walking Hills. This was a re-teaming of these two Hollywood personalities...they had previous appeared together in Ella Raines' first film, Corvette K-225.

The Walking Hills is a fun movie, ostensibly a Western (but not set in the Old West) and presumably something made in the wake of the popular Treasure of the Sierra Madre. It's quite a feat that the filmmakers were able to so seamlessly insert a female character into a macho adventure like this. Ella Raines does quite well with her character in The Walking Hills and, of course, she looks wonderful. 

This was made about 5 years after the lovely actress had appeared in another classic Western movie, Tall in the Saddle. She is able to match the beauty she brought to the screen in that picture and, with the benefit of the wisdom gained from several years in front of the cameras, she is able to give an engaging and nuanced performance.

Any fan of Ella Raines would be most likely be well served by viewing The Walking Hills. Regardless of the presence of Ella Raines, it's a fine film..but her participation perhaps lifts it up to the next level. Had they used a less beautiful or less talented actress, the end result would have suffered immensely.



















Ella Raines random photo gallery

One thing that is safe to say about Ella Raines is that she was an extremely well photographed woman. Like many other popular actresses from 1940s, there are perhaps thousands of images of Ella Raines in existence. The following is a grab bag of pictures of the actress/model, presented in a random fashion for the enjoyment of all!















Ella Raines in glorious color

A lot of people are used to seeing Ella Raines in black & white, but here's a chance to view some very nice color photographs of the lovely actress.






Another Ella Raines vintage print ad

"Avon Colognes are so refreshingly fragrant!" says spokesperson Ella Raines in this circa 1952 advertisement. The smiling face of lovely actress Ella Raines graced many magazines and magazines ads back in the 1940 and 1950s.



Ella Raines vintage print ad

Here is a fantastic classic lipstick ad (circa 1945) featuring the lovely face and lips of actress Ella Raines.



The Web in the newspapers



In 1947, Ella Raines was top-billed in the murder-mystery-drama The Web. It wasn't always called The Web, though. The original title for the project was "Jeopardy," which was then changed to "The Dark Web" before becoming simply "The Web." When the film began playing during the summer of 1947, at many theaters it was shown as the first feature with another Ella Raines movie (Time Out of Mind) as the second feature.





Here's a pair of original newspaper advertisements for The Web which feature two taglines for the movie: "Kisses can't stop murder baby!" and "Hang on baby...when you're kissing murder it's hard to let go...!"






Here is a selection of newspaper articles, reviews and summaries concerning The Web. For the most part, they are quite positive about the film. Ella Raines also gets some of the press here and some comments are made on her performance. One reviewer notes that "Ella Raines is tantalizing in her capable performance" while another less enthusiastic reviewer writes that "Ella Raines gives a rather listless depiction." I tend to agree more with the first comment!







Ella Raines in The Web




In 1947, Ella Raines co-starred with Edmond O'Brien, Vincent Price and William Bendix in The Web. The actress got top billing above her male counterparts. The Web is a tight little thriller about a naive lawyer (O'Brien) who gets framed for murder by a wealthy industrialist (Price). Ella Raines plays the somewhat improbably named Noel Faraday, the secretary of Vincent Price's character. She eventually gets implicated in a second murder frame-up, part of a complex web of deception perpetrated by Vincent Price.

Ella Raines looks simply fantastic in The Web. In fact, she plays a character who is supposed to be beautiful, who everyone refers to as beautiful and who also thinks of herself as beautiful. Not only does she look the part, the actress also brings her requisite charm to the film. she has great chemistry with the somewhat bland Edmond O'Brien and she also has several nice scenes with the hammy Vincent Price. Overall, The Web was an excellent project for Ella Raines and she also gets to model a series of great gowns by costume designer Yvonne Wood.





Here are some images of Ella Raines in The Web:


Ella Raines and her trademark smirk

Vincent Price lights up a smoke for Ella Raines




Ella Raines and a cloud of smoke



Edmond O'Brien lights a cigarette for Ella Raines