L'assaut des jeunes loups

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.

The movie emerges from a period in which World War II cinema was undergoing a crucial transition. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a growing fatigue with the glorification of war; the trauma of Vietnam had begun to influence how audiences and filmmakers alike viewed armed conflict, pushing war films into more ambiguous, morally grey territories. This film is a product of that in-between moment - still shaped by the action-adventure expectations of mid-century war cinema, yet increasingly marked by a grim, introspective undercurrent, particularly evident in its unorthodox choice of protagonists and unsettling psychological tone.

Cinematically, the film is shot with a utilitarian clarity. The cinematography opts for a functional realism that, while rarely inspired, serves the narrative's harsh thematic direction. There is a certain arid starkness to the Italian landscapes standing in for northern Italy during the German occupation, which contrasts interestingly with the narrative's descent into psychological murk. The film avoids the lush, panoramic compositions typical of war spectacles like The Guns of Navarone (1961) or Where Eagles Dare (1968). Instead, it deploys a more intimate framing that brings the viewer uncomfortably close to the tension between its characters, particularly in the scenes involving the band of orphaned boys who shift rapidly from victimhood to violent agency.

The sound design and musical score feel almost intrusive at times - not in their volume or instrumentation, but in the way they often seem to be doing narrative work that the image struggles to shoulder. There's a persistent sense that the film's score is trying to orient the viewer emotionally toward a kind of mythologized heroism, but it remains in uneasy conflict with the disturbing implications of the boys' transformation under the guidance of an American saboteur. This contrast between audio and visual tone is dissonant, though perhaps not unintentionally so, highlighting the thematic instability at the film's core. It's also worth noting that the choice of Ennio Morricone as composer, while striking on paper, might not have been entirely suitable for the demands of this film. His musical voice, so effective in stylized, psychologically expressive or operatic narratives, often overwhelms subtler textures and is less at ease in depicting the grim, ambiguous realism that this particular story might have benefited from. The score seems at times too melodically insistent, almost too poetic for the brutal, morally jagged landscape the film inhabits.

Performance-wise, the film hinges on a difficult axis: an adult lead who must project both authority and inner fracture, and a group of child actors tasked with portraying a complex moral unraveling. The former delivers a portrayal that, while occasionally veering toward the melodramatic, maintains a credible tension between military professionalism and ethical disintegration. The children, however, vary in effectiveness. The unevenness of their performances underscores the film's uneasy balance between pulp adventure and moral fable - a duality it never entirely resolves. This lack of resolution could be read as a weakness, but within the war film subgenre focusing on sabotage and resistance in occupied territories, this ambiguity can also be understood as deliberate, reflecting the ideological tensions of the era in which the film was made.

Comparatively, The Train (1964) offers a sharper, more technically precise take on sabotage operations in Nazi-occupied Europe, grounding its narrative in a more industrial, material world - rail yards, cargo, and logistical resistance - whereas this film leans toward a more psychological and symbolic framework. The Train also maintains a tighter control of tone and pacing, never allowing the action to obscure the deeper questions of value and sacrifice. In contrast, Hornets' Nest pushes its moral inquiry through a kind of allegorical brutality, sacrificing tonal coherence for thematic provocation.

There's also an evident thematic kinship with Play Dirty (1969), another WWII sabotage narrative that resists romanticism, favoring moral corrosion and ambiguous motives. Both films share an interest in how war reshapes identities and erodes any stable definition of heroism, though this film ventures further into uncomfortable territory by placing children at the moral center. Unlike Play Dirty, which presents adult cynicism and duplicity as inevitable in wartime, this film's horror lies in the corruption of innocence - a stark, unsettling deviation from the more typical soldier's journey narrative.

Technically, the editing reveals some of the production's limitations. Transitions can be abrupt, and the spatial geography of action scenes is not always clearly established. This occasionally compromises narrative tension, particularly during the more chaotic sequences. Nevertheless, these rough edges contribute to a sense of instability that mirrors the psychological disintegration at play.

Adding to this fragility is the question of historical verisimilitude. Certain period details - such as the boys' haircuts, the condition and cut of their clothing, and even their body language - undermine credibility, reminding the viewer that this is still a film of its era, made within the aesthetic and technical constraints of 1970. These anachronisms may seem minor, but in a film that already demands a large suspension of disbelief, particularly in its depiction of children effortlessly carrying out guerrilla-style attacks and the almost mythical invincibility of their American mentor, such cracks in the surface become more conspicuous. The ease with which the protagonists dismantle German positions - including a barracks and a dam checkpoint - strains credibility even within the conventions of war cinema. The American saboteur borders on the archetype of a pre-Rambo figure, a super-soldier whose capabilities dwarf any plausible military realism. This heroic exaggeration undermines the otherwise sobering psychological and moral themes the film attempts to explore.

All of this contributes to a sense that the film has something substantial at its core - an idea with real weight and moral discomfort - but lacks the cohesion and finesse to fully bring it to maturity. It is as if it falls just short of being the film it aspires to be. Still, there is something undeniably compelling about its ambition. Within the subgenre of WWII sabotage and resistance films, it stands out for its unique thematic choice: children not just as witnesses to war but as its instruments, shaped and twisted by the brutality surrounding them.

From a purely cinematographic perspective, one might lean toward giving the film 6 stars out of 10 - acknowledging its originality and daring, while also recognizing its technical and narrative shortcomings. However, when accounting for its thematic boldness, the singularity of its premise within the genre, and the lingering impact of its moral ambiguities, it can reasonably earn a 7. It may be flawed in execution, but it offers something rare: a war film that doesn't flatter the myths of heroism, and instead drags the viewer into a deeply uncomfortable confrontation with the idea of what war - even a "just" war - can do to those forced to grow up inside it. In fact, the strength of its central idea is such that one can't help but feel this is a film that deserves a serious remake - one that could preserve the disturbing moral core while refining the technical weaknesses and grounding the action in a more believable context. With the right tone and craftsmanship, the story could finally reach the full cinematic depth that the original screenplay was straining toward but never quite attained.

So-so wartime movie follows a group of children saboteurs commanded by an Allied officer whose aim is to blow up a dam vital to the Nazis in Italy. It happens during WWWII when Captain Turner (a moustachioed Rock Hudson )is lone survivor of an Army commando unit that parachuted into the Italian countryside . A small group of orphans must rescue the American captain to be hold by the Nazis. Then the wounded captain is saved , meanwhile the children kidnap a German doctor ( a sultry Sylvia Koscina but rather unlikely medic) . Turner wants the kids to help him blow up a dam and the boys want his help in getting avenge on the Nazis (Sergio Fantoni ,Jacques Sernas,Gerad Herter, Andrea Bosic) who had massacred his families and occupied their small village.

This warlike movie packs well-staged action scenes , double-crosses, thrills, blood-letting images and criticism about the futility of war but doesn't quite hang together. It contains some unsettling and disconcerting frames as when the kids attempt to rape the German medic and are suddenly interrupted by the healed captain. The nice international cast includes American , British, French and mostly Italian actors such as Sergio Fantoni, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, Andrea Bosic , among others. Good musical score by usual Ennio Morricone and adequate cinematography by Gabor Pogany filmed on location in Italian outdoors. The motion picture is professionally directed by Phil Karlson, though drags in some places with little believable situations . There were no half measures in this filmmaker. He would make adventure movies or violent and noir films . As he directed Western as ¨Gunman's walk¨ , ¨They rode west¨, ¨Texas rangers, ¨Iroquois trail¨ and Gansters genre as ¨Phenix city story¨ and ¨Scarface mob¨. Furthermore, Elvis Presley vehicles as ¨Kid Galahad¨ and Dean Martin as ¨The silencers¨and ¨Wrecking crew¨ . Failure alternated with hits through his career, though Karlson's direction was more than successful in ¨ Walking tall¨ with invaluable help of Joe Don Baker . ¨Hornest's nest¨ is an acceptable and passable film with some scenes of relentless action that keep you breathless . This stirring movie will appeal to Rock Hudson fans and WWII buffs.

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..

"Hornets' Nest" (1970) is far from a great World War II film, but I have a soft spot for it and it does contain some highlights.

THE PLOT: The lone survivor of a paratrooper mission to blow up a dam in German-held Italy is rescued by a group of orphans, who live in a cave in the woods. Their families where slaughtered by the Germans and they want to use the soldier to help them get revenge whereas he wants to train the kids so they can help him blow the dam.

This is more of an Italian film than an American one and it shows in the Italian style of direction & editing, which sometimes comes off awkward.

Everyone speaks English but the Germans and Italians are heavily accented, so I suggest using the subtitles.

The biggest highlight is the moving score by Ennio Morricone. The second is the beautiful Sylva Koscina, who plays the doctor that nurses the soldier (Rock Hudson) to health and hangs around the outcasts the entire film. Sylva is just breathtaking throughout (and fully-clothed the entire time, I might add).

Hudson is rock-solid as the taciturn soldier (sorry) and Mark Colleano is excellent as Aldo, the fanatical leader of the ragtag group of kids. He wants revenge at all costs and the young actor gets this across with passion. Sergio Fantoni is also notable as Captain Von Hecht; he's not a one-dimensional German officer and is actually a solid man who just got trapped on the wrong side of the war.

There are a couple of action sequences, one being pretty far-fetched (when the soldier & the kids mow-down an entire village of Germans while riding in an Army truck), but the action is usually swift and quiet in the order of guerilla tactics.

I like how the members of the outcast group, including the soldier and nurse, are always sweaty and dirty with messy hair and crumpled clothing. It smacks of how war really is -- dirty, sweaty and messy.

The presence of the stunning Sylva Koscina blows any theory of gay or pedophile subtext. If any other actor than Hudson played the role of the soldier, like Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson, there would be no such inane theory. It doesn't exist.

In any event, "Hornets' Nest" was likely the blueprint for John Milius' "Red Dawn" (1984). The difference being that "Hornets' Nest" takes place in Italy during WWII and involves a younger group of kids.

The Italian locations are a huge plus; the film runs 110 minutes.

GRADE: B