The Angry Hills is a 1959 film directed by Robert Aldrich, based on the novel by Leon Uris, and starring Robert Mitchum and Stanley Baker.
Plot
Set in Athens in 1941, before and after the German invasion, the film follows an American journalist who possesses a list of Greek resistance leaders. Having memorised the list he destroys it and is then pursued by various groups of people keen to have it: Communist resistance fighters, the Gestapo and Greek collaborators.
Cast
Robert Mitchum as Mike Morrison
Stanley Baker as Conrad Heisler
Elisabeth Müller as Lisa Kyriakides
Gia Scala as Eleftheria
Theodore Bikel as Dimitrios Tassos
Sebastian Cabot as Chesney
Peter Illing as Leonides
Leslie Phillips as Ray Taylor
Donald Wolfit as Dr. Stergion
Marius Goring as Colonel Elrick Oberg
Jocelyn Lane as Maria Tassos
Kieron Moore as Andreas
George Pastell as Papa Panos
Patrick Jordan as Bluey
Marita Constantinou as Cleopatra
Stanley Van Beers as Tavern Proprietor
Alec Mango as Phillibos
Production
Uris' novel was published in 1955. Its Greek setting meant Uris was hired to write a script of Boy on a Dolphin.
Film rights were bought by Raymond Stross in England, who said he wanted Clarke Gable for the lead. Stross eventually set up the film with MGM and New York's Cine World Productions, and announced Robert Mitchum would star.
Pier Angeli was wanted for the female lead. Elizabeth Mueller was cast instead.
Leon Uris did the first draft of the screenplay. However Aldrich had it rewritten by A.I. Bezzerides, who had written Kiss Me Deadly for Aldrich.
The film was shot from June to December 1958.
Box office
According to MGM records the film earned $510,000 in the US and Canada and $775,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $497,000.
It had admissions of 588,260 in France.
Legacy
Robert Aldrich later said the film was "disappointing not because it's not a good picture but because it could have been good. It had a potential that was never remotely realised... you feel sad about The Angry Hills... I'd know how to make The Angry Hills better in a thousand ways."
Plot
Set in Athens in 1941, before and after the German invasion, the film follows an American journalist who possesses a list of Greek resistance leaders. Having memorised the list he destroys it and is then pursued by various groups of people keen to have it: Communist resistance fighters, the Gestapo and Greek collaborators.
Cast
Robert Mitchum as Mike Morrison
Stanley Baker as Conrad Heisler
Elisabeth Müller as Lisa Kyriakides
Gia Scala as Eleftheria
Theodore Bikel as Dimitrios Tassos
Sebastian Cabot as Chesney
Peter Illing as Leonides
Leslie Phillips as Ray Taylor
Donald Wolfit as Dr. Stergion
Marius Goring as Colonel Elrick Oberg
Jocelyn Lane as Maria Tassos
Kieron Moore as Andreas
George Pastell as Papa Panos
Patrick Jordan as Bluey
Marita Constantinou as Cleopatra
Stanley Van Beers as Tavern Proprietor
Alec Mango as Phillibos
Production
Uris' novel was published in 1955. Its Greek setting meant Uris was hired to write a script of Boy on a Dolphin.
Film rights were bought by Raymond Stross in England, who said he wanted Clarke Gable for the lead. Stross eventually set up the film with MGM and New York's Cine World Productions, and announced Robert Mitchum would star.
Pier Angeli was wanted for the female lead. Elizabeth Mueller was cast instead.
Leon Uris did the first draft of the screenplay. However Aldrich had it rewritten by A.I. Bezzerides, who had written Kiss Me Deadly for Aldrich.
The film was shot from June to December 1958.
Box office
According to MGM records the film earned $510,000 in the US and Canada and $775,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $497,000.
It had admissions of 588,260 in France.
Legacy
Robert Aldrich later said the film was "disappointing not because it's not a good picture but because it could have been good. It had a potential that was never remotely realised... you feel sad about The Angry Hills... I'd know how to make The Angry Hills better in a thousand ways."
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