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.

• David Wayne as Tracy Powell
• Keenan Wynn as Sam Wilkins
• James Barton as Jimmo McCann
• Marcia Henderson as Julie
• Jim Backus as Willis Haver
• Denver Pyle as Bert Killian / Narrator
• Myrna Dell as Aggie
• Lewis L. Russell as Baxter
• Frank Fenton as Harold
• Fuzzy Knight as Pitch Man
• Jim Hayward as Counter Man
• Christopher Olsen as Billy as a Boy
• Steven Terrell as Billy as a Young Man

• James Barton – "The Four Seasons" (Music by Herschel Burke Gilbert, lyrics by Bob Russell)

• The Naked Hills at IMDb  
• The Naked Hills at Rotten Tomatoes  
• The Naked Hills is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive