Rock And His Gang of Juveniles
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.
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.
- bkoganbing
- Jun 22, 2007