Das Wespennest

Following the massacre of a village for collaborating with the resistance in northern Italy, the remaining children remain in hiding causing as much trouble as they can. When a commando group helped by the resistance are themselves all killed, the only surviving soldier Turner (Rock Hudson) decides to use the children to help him blow up a nearby dam. The area is of course swarming with Germans, lead by a fanatical Captain Von Hecht (Sergio Fantoni).

Odd war film with tough guy Rock Hudson determined to blow the dam but partly hampered by the boys, who, whilst willing to help are more interested in revenge for the massacre, particularly their leader Aldo who is waging his only private little war - give and take then becoming a necessity. As a story that just about hangs together, in large part because of a strong convincing turn by Hudson who is tough, even cruel and far from a father figure other films might have gone for.

The main difficulty here is whether the idea is convincingly portrayed and whether you even buy into such a thing. Overall I'd say it just about makes it over the line, just, although in the minus column the film is prone to melodrama / overacting, it looks like it's filmed on a backlot and the Germans here are portrayed as entirely incompetent..

The Hornet's Nest of the title refers to the gang of Italian urchins who find Rock Hudson and a fascist female doctor played by Sylva Koscina to patch him up.

Hudson has parachuted ahead of the advancing Fifth Army during the Italian campaign. His mission was to blow up a dam, presumably to trap retreating Nazis. But these kids have a mission of their own in mind. Their village was massacred by the S.S. looking for partisans and they want some payback.

Rock has to recover first so the kids kidnap a female doctor to treat him for concussion and bruised ribs. She's also quite an eyeful and in one scene, the older kids kind of forget the purpose of their mission.

It's a routine action adventure story that probably Burt Lancaster or Kirk Douglas would have been better suited for than Rock Hudson. Still Hudson turns in a decent performance, given what he has to work with.

The sad thing about Hornet's Nest is that with the revelation of Rock's homosexuality the film became something of a joke, what with Rock and a gang of teenage boys. Had any other actor done it, no one would have thought anything of it.

Or maybe Burt and Kirk had insights.

I was flipping channels and came upon Hornet's Nest. I thought I was watching Force 10 From Navarone (no digital cable) until the hospital scene. The movie had elapsed 20 minutes but for some reason I was drawn into the story. There was quite a lot of carnage in the movie and I hope I had to assume that Rock raped the doctor lady. The real character that you have to clap for is the German Captain that was dissed by all his superiors pretty much for the whole movie when he was just doing his job in the best interest of the Fatherland.

I went through all possible emotions during the flick and was overall happy with the movie having never seen it before. I had to log onto the database to know it's title which brings me to making my comments. I give it a 7.

A weary and bland army captain weaponizes a bunch of kids into fighting the Nazis and blowing up bridges. Rock Hudson seems bored, devoid of charisma and downright irritable as he anger sleepwalks through this film. The female lead is powered by dubbing and also has little to showcase on screen. The Nazi captain clearly played by an Italian is good and has stage presence and the kids are done well especially Aldo. It's the type of movie you'll see on the history channel mid afternoon on a Sunday.

It has been argued the Germans during World War Two made a number of mistakes with the various countries they conquered. In some cases, those mistakes were colossal. Take this film for instance. It's called " Hornets Nest " and takes place in 1944, near Reanoto, Italy. The small village is suspected of aiding the Partisans. These guerrilla, groups have become so annoying to the Germans, the local military Italian governor is replaced by a brutal SS Officer. Upon reaching the town, he rounds up the villagers and order them to reveal the Partisans upon pain of death. Bad mistake, but one which the Germans inflict with Nazi efficiency. Their children, learn the US military is sending a team of Commandos to destroy the dam near the town. The SS discover the drop zone and massacre all the airborne troops except one. The single survivor called Turner (Rock Hudson) awakens from his wounds and discovers he owes his life to a group of Teenage boys. Informed the SS is searching for him, Turner also learns an experience German Officer name Von Hecht (Sergio Fantoni) is also closing in on his whereabouts. Realizing, he has little choice, Turner decides to use his hate-filled and revenge seeking youths to continue his mission to destroy the dam. Accompanying him is a kidnapped female doctor (Sylva Koscina) who reluctantly joins the group. The movie itself is interesting in that instead of battle hard soldiers, Hudson has to first teach the kids to kill and then later must reverse his lessons. To the credit of the young cast, the teens lead by vengeance seeking Aldo (Mark Colleano) do a remarkable job of acting. From deep sorrow to hate spewing machine-gun scenes, they add to the over the top drama. In all, this action film does an honest job of creating a military Classic. However, much as I enjoy Hudson the actor, I can't help feel Charles Bronson or Burt Lancaster would have been a better choice as Husdon is not convincing as a rapist of women or abuser of children. ****