Noticias

By Doug Oswald

Rock Hudson is an American commando sent to blow up a dam in “Hornets’ Nest,” a 1970 WWII action adventure set in 1944 Italy as the Allies advance on the German occupation force. Directed by Phil Karlson (“Hell to Eternity,” “Kid Galahad,” “The Silencers,” “The Wrecking Crew” and “Walking Tall”), the movie was an American-Italian co-production filmed in Italy with a mostly all Italian cast and crew.

The movie opens as the residents of Reanoto are massacred by German soldiers after they refuse to give up the location of Italian resistance fighters. Meanwhile, American commandos parachute in on a mission to blow up a nearby dam, but all are killed except for Capt. Turner (Hudson). A group of boys hiding in the hills when the German’s murdered their families rescue Turner and hide him from the Germans. Turner is running a fever from his wounds and the boys convince a local doctor,...

As happened for so many other genres, the 1960s/1970s saw a tremendous creative expansion in crime and cop thrillers. The old Hollywood moguls had died off or retired, most of the major studios were bleeding red ink, attendance had gone off a cliff since the end of Ww II, and a new breed of young, creatively adventurous production executives had been tasked with trying to save their business by coming up with movies which could hook a new, young, cinema-literate audience.

It also happened to be one of the most socially turbulent times in American history. Even before the American public grew restive over the growing disaster in Vietnam, the social fabric was unraveling with self-examination and doubt. The Cold War; a certain inner emptiness that went with a period of great material prosperity; once invisible fault lines on matters of race and gender discrimination beginning to crack – all...