VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

HotToastyRag Fans of Parrish, A Summer Place, and The Big Country will find a new favorite in Vincente Minnelli's lush drama Home from the Hill. With Robert Mitchum as the macho patriarch, you know the story's going to have a strong foundation and great acting. Eleanor Parker continues to show off her acting chops as Bob's wife, proving that she, too, could have been Blanche DuBois to Bob's Stanley, if Hollywood had any sense back in 1951. The family has a powerful reputation, wealth, and a beautiful house, but their only son, George Hamilton, is a little sheltered. Bob decides it's time for him to discover his masculine side and shows him the art of hunting. Eleanor hates seeing the change in her son, but that's only the beginning. Trust me, you'll want to know what happens next.Robert Mitchum is fantastic and manly, a strong screen presence, and the type of person everyone in a family or town would naturally admire. He's given many wonderful performances in his five-decade career, and Home from the Hill is one of them. Eleanor Parker, George Hamilton, and George Peppard are also wonderful, owning their characters and showcasing them beautifully for the screen. I'm sure George Hamilton was envious of Warren Beatty winning the lead in Splendor in the Grass the following year, as his part in this film could have easily been seen as an audition. Having only seen George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's, I wasn't really a fan. This movie completely changed my mind. He was kind, sensitive, tough, and extremely likable. I finally understand why my mom thought he was so cute!Home from the Hill has it all: a compelling and dramatic story, wonderfully strong performances, romance, action, tension, beautiful colors, three-dimensional characters, pretty costumes by Walter Plunkett , and a nice theme by Bronislau Kaper. If you prepare yourself to look away during the hunting scenes, you'll be in for a wonderful movie night.Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to upsetting scenes involving animals, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

Martin Bradley If, like me, you consider Vincente Minnelli one of the all-time great directors then you have to accept that his melodramas are just as good as his musicals. In the fifties and sixties he made a series of heightened melodramas, grandly operatic in tone and shot largely in Cinemascope and colour, (the 1952 "The Bad and the Beautiful, which he made in black and white, is perhaps the most famous of his non-musicals but it's a piece of Hollywood hysteria I've never actually liked). If the subject matter of most of his films gravitated towards soap-opera, the style he applied and the look of these pictures was extraordinary.Minnelli was fundamentally a designer and Cinemascope gave him the opportunity to use the screen as a vast canvas in which he could place his characters. A lot of these films are among the most visually stylish of their period. Of course, he was also blessed with very strong scripts and outstanding casts. He made "Home from the Hill" in 1960 and it's not as well-known as some of his other films. It doesn't deal with as 'controversial' a subject as homosexuality like "Tea and Sympathy", the same level of hysteria as "The Cobweb", the deep intensity of "Some Came Running" or the insider knowledge of the movie business of "Two Weeks in Another Town" but it remains a hugely exciting piece of cinema nevertheless.It's a family drama and a surprisingly intimate one considering its two and a half hour running time. Robert Mitchum is the small-town patriarch who can't keep it in his pants and is living in a loveless and sexless marriage with Eleanor Parker. Their son is George Hamilton, initially a momma's boy but taken under his father's wing when he turns 17 and George Peppard is the young rough-neck who, it turns out, is Mitchum's illegitable son.The very fine screenplay was by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr from a novel by William Humphrey that veers from small-town soap opera to faux Greek tragedy complete with a Greek Chorus of gossipy old men and like almost everything Minnelli did he handles the interplay between his characters with the same brio as he handles the widescreen and his use of colour. It's also beautifully played by the entire cast with Peppard proving to be the revelation. It may be the least revived of his films but it's still unmissable if you do get the chance to see it.

l_rawjalaurence HOME FROM THE HILL participates in a tradition of Fifties melodrama that encompasses most of the work of Douglas Sirk for Universal Pictures.Set in an unnamed Southern town, it focuses on patriarch Wade Hunnicutt (Robert Mitchum) trying to maintain his authority over wife Hannah (Eleanor Parker) and son Theron (George Hamilton). His moral authority has been undercut by his private life; he has been far from faithful and one of his affairs led to his producing an illegitimate child Rafe (George Peppard), who now works as Wade's full-time factotum. Vincente Minnelli's film centers on the conflicts within the family that inevitably lead to tragedy and reconciliation.For historians of late Fifties and early Sixties social history, the film is a fascinating text. Wade embraces the patriarchal ideology in which men are inevitably perceived as breadwinners while their spouses stay at home and bring up the children. He is supported in this belief by Theron's erstwhile girlfriend Libby (Luana Patten), whose principal ambition consists of wanting to "settle down," have children and enjoy the confines of her newly-fitted kitchen.Yet the film shows that belief being challenged by Theron, who begins by wanting to emulate his father's ideals of strength and masculinity (by hunting down a wild boar) and thereby escape what he perceives as the destructive feminizing influence of Hannah. In a traditional society any hint of feminine instincts automatically destroys a man's reputation. As the action unfolds, however, and Theron discovers the truth about his father, so his concepts of gender change; in the end he rebels and walks out of the house altogether. This kind of stand taken by the old against the young is traceable back to REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955).Yet Minnelli suggests that such rebellions are in fact futile. It is better to maintain one's belief in the power of marriage and the family as the basis of social stability. This is precisely what Rafe believes in; hence his decision to marry Libby, even though Libby has become pregnant before marriage. Rafe is identified as the film's moral center; despite the disadvantages he experienced as a child (when his father refused to acknowledge his existence), he grows up to be a firm believer in marriage and legitimate children.Shot in Cinemascope, HOME ON THE HILL makes considerable use of cinematic depth, especially in the way it photographs the characters talking to one another in over-stuffed rooms. There is a clever use of symbolism: when Wade talks about the future of his family to Hannah, Minnelli photographs Hannah next to one of Wade's hunting trophies hung on the wall, suggesting that she represents little more than another trophy to her husband. It is his self-interest and moral myopia that lie at the heart of the film's social conflicts.With an operatic score (by Bronislau Kaper) underpinning many of the film's dramatic moments, HOME ON THE HILL is the kind of overblown melodrama that simply doesn't get made any more, with emotions worn on the sleeve and the actors playing their roles for all they are worth. The film might be long, but it is great fun to watch.

pennygunter I loved this movie! I saw it originally as a teenager and am still in love with it today. If they ever do a remake of it, I'd love to play Eleanor Parkers, part! Robert Mitchum was at his all time best, as this truly lovable yet misguided man of the world. George Peppard can still make women fall in love with him, 47 years later and I don't believe George Hamilton ever gave a better performance. Luana Patton was believable as the scared teenager in love. As a whole, I'd say it was one of the best movies of 1960, if not of all time. This is southern life and love at it's best. If you play close attention, you'll see a lot of older character actors, Denver Pyle, for instance, that make the movie seem real, as though you were in Texas, living through the heartache and break with them, great performances by all!