Robert Mitchum stars in "The Angry Hills" from 1959, directed by Robert Aldrich and written by Leon Uris. The film also features Gia Scala, Theodore Bikel, Stanley Baker, and Sebastian Cabot.
Mitchum plays Mike Morrison, a journalist during World War II, who is given a list of undercover people who will seem to collaborate when the Nazis move into Greece. The battle for the list begins, as Morrison goes on the wrong and is helped to hide by the Greek resistance.
A list of secret agents, a list of double agents, a list of Nazi collaborators, a list of resistance members...this has to be the most overused plot in film history. It was recently used as the "Macguffin" in Skyfall. We've seen it in dozens upon dozens of films.
When you use a hackneyed plot, you've got to do better than this film, which is overly long and overly talky. I have no problem with "talky" scripts as long as the dialogue is good -- All About Eve comes to mind. "The Angry Hills" is not of that caliber. Rather than action scenes, it has meandering scenes and does not hold interest. The characters aren't well defined enough.
Robert Mitchum is always good, and in fact, the cast is good, doing their best with a mediocre script. It's not much of a story. Nice scenery, though, and Sebastian Cabot seems like he's doing Sydney Greenstreet.
