L'assaut des jeunes loups

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..

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.

(1970) Hornets' Nest WAR

Although the movie is not base on fact, this movie experience is still an involving one to the same degree as other fictional war movies such as "Where Eagles Dare", "The Bridge on the River Kwai", "The Guns of Navarone" and "The Dirty Dozen" to name a few.

The opening has families of the young boys looking out hiding behind the bushes while the SS were lining them across the road, before Captain Friedrich Von Hect (Sergio Fantoni) asks them where "The Partisans" are! And when nobody would not give him an answer, they are then gunned down while the young boys look on helplessly, motivating them to seek for a little retribution. We are then introduced to Turner (Rock Hudson) and his recruits, and just as they are parachuting off from a plane and coming down, they are then met with SS men shooting at the resistance fighters as they are coming out of the bushes and killing all of the parachuter's except for one, who happens to be Turner played by Rock Hudson. And because one of the resistance fighters double crossed them, he was immediately shot and killed. And while Turner was hanging on a tree, the boys then manage to reach to him first, cut him down and hid him inside of a cave. The boys leader, Aldo (Mark Colleano) then goes back down to the village, only so he can fetch a doctor as none of them know whether he was hit or not. And it is not long before Aldo suspects he too may be double crossed as well, as he manages to escape before he was being seen. After barely escaping, he then managed to use one of the boys to convince a female doctor (Sylva Koscina) who was actually a surgeon to come with them. They hold her hostage calling Turner, Soldier and calling her Fraulein. We then find out he is heavily bruised, and she does eventually treat him. We later find out that the resistance boys kept "Soldier" alive because they want him to train them how to use a machine gun, while his objective was to blow up a particular dam. We then find out that besides showing them how to shoot, they also wanted Soldier to guide them to get back at some of the SS who gunned down their families. We also find out that this a group of about 15 boys who are taking on two tasks.

While I was watching this, I had my own assumptions how it was going to be ended, but was quite relieved that my presumptions were not the way that it happened.

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.