Le colline dell'odio

With such an accomplished director (Aldrich) and author (Uris) involved, I was really surprised that this wasn't more of a success, but as previously discussed by others, this was probably over-edited and over-cut. Robert Aldrich also directed The Dirty Dozen, and TWO Bette Davis films (Baby Jane and Sweet Charlotte). Robert Uris wrote numerous books on the subjects of war and international conflict. The lead, Robert Mitchum was no slouch either, having starred in so many big films - Cape Fear, Out of the Past, Sundowners, Night of the Hunter. In Angry Hills, he is Mike Morrison, a journalist caught up in wartime Europe. He checks into his hotel, and meets someone who wants to give him a secret list that is to be delivered to British intelligence when he returns to London. He refuses, and that's when the adventures begin. Morrison escapes the clutches of the bad guys, (several times) and pops up in a village that has been conquered by the Germans. He is looked after by the beautiful "Eleftheria" and her family. (Gia Scala, who died quite young at age 38. she has an interesting write-up on wikipedia.org) He hangs around town, and then scoots off to another town. Keep an eye out for Sebastian Cabot, best known as the butler on the show "Family Affair", made a couple years after Hills. It's entertaining enough, and a believable tale, but the whole time, I got the feeling that he could have left the various villages much earlier to avoid trouble; he just seemed to dawdle around town for the sake of the script. Still, a good WW II adventure story.

There are only two hills worth seeing in this film; and you will see them early on in the film. The movie could have been titled "The Hills are Alive With the Sound of Nazis", but deferred to The Angry Hills. Mitchum tries to rescue this turkey, but the script is hopeless. The rest of the cast is uninspiring (and Mitchum, too, at times, seems uninspired. The events are convoluted and, at times, repetitive. Both Stanley Baker and Sebastian Cabot are horribly miscast, and look embarrassed to be in this production. The production values are of the lowest quality, and one gets the feeling of a home movie being made at times. Don't waste your time.

The opening developments in this picture are promising in the manner that Hitchcock so often exploited: an innocent bystander finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, and is drawn into intrigue of which he has no prior knowledge, and in which he has no interest. But he has something that the villains want - while all he wants is to get out of the situation alive. So far, so good. It is not long, however, before the complications give way to standard action fare, the emphasis now being on hiding, getting away, deciding who is trustworthy - elements used many times in many pictures, some better, some worse. Ultimately, the story disappoints. There are rewarding performances by steely-eyed Stanley Baker, and sweaty, cowardly Theodore Bikel. Robert Mitchum plays the lead role with competence, if not distinction.

Considering that this film was made from a Leon Uris novel AND stars Robert Mitchum, you might easily assume it would be a wonderful film. However, it's very ordinary and nothing more. The novel is certainly among Uris' weakest and the story simply isn't that extraordinary. It's watchable enough--but not compelling enough to make it a must-see for anyone but die-hard Mitchum fans.

The film is set in Greece during the Nazi occupation. An American reporter (Mitchum) is given a list of collaborators--a list he's entrusted to get to the British. However, the Nazis learn of him and the list and spend most of the film pursuing him across the nation. Basically, he hops from one tiny village to the next and the Nazis commit atrocities in the towns in order to try to get the folks to turn in the American. Along the way, there is a woman (naturally) who falls in love with him as well as another woman who MIGHT be in love with him. Can he make it out of the country and deliver the list? See the film if you really need to know.

Overall, the film is fair to middling. While not a bad film, there really isn't a lot to make it stand out--unless you adore Mitchum or want to see Sebastian Cabot in a VERY unusual role.

Stephen Dade's noirish black-and-white cinematography is the best thing on view in Robert Aldrich's early (1955) and all-too standard-issue tale of an American (Robert Mitchum) involved against his well-developed instincts for survival in resisting the Nazis in a periphery (Athens and the title hills of Greece). There's a conventionally cold-blooded Nazi commander (Marius Goring), Theodore Bikel in the Peter Lorre role of the cowardly collaborator, a wooden Stanley Baker as a less-cowardly one, Elisabeth Müller and Gia Scala as brave love interests, and Robert Mitchum in what might be considered the Humphrey Bogart role if Mitchum had not essayed it a number of times himself. And in a variant on the Sidney Greenstreet role, every bit as rotund but more jovial is Sebastian Cabot. The set-up is handled well, but the middle of the movie drags through reprisals and miraculous escapes by the antihero. The low point is a discussion about values between Mitchum and Müller and the final scene is a bolt from the blue of redemption. The movie is watchable, not least for the Greek locations, but inferior to earlier Aldrich westerns and his superb WWII melodrama "Attack!"