The Angry Hills

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.

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!"

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.

Based on the Leon Uris novel 'The Angry Hills' is a disappointment. This is a long rambling film and and Mitchum has a long ramble through it, just about acting. Characters appear and disappear, the plot wavers, stops and starts. There are other interesting actors equally wasted; Sebastian Cabot, Donald Wolfit, Marius Goring, and tough guy Stanley Baker doesn't even get to face off with Mitchum. Theodore Bikel comes out better with a sad but sympathetic performance, even when being nasty.The female characters are thinly drawn.

The best things are the clear, crisp photography and the extensive use of location shooting. The hills may be angry but they sure look pretty.

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.