Home from the Hill

Rafe is not an employee. He is Wade's son by a relationship before he married Hannah. He works along side Wade because he is the son Wade admires. A real man in his eyes. Unlike Theron, who seems sissy and a mama's boy to Wade. Although most of the performances are excellent, it is still a trashy movie. Certainly,TV has caught up with the trash and then some!!! George Hamilton doesn't do a very good job. In fact, some of his line readings are almost funny. He does get better and tanner!!! Robert Mitchum gives us a fine portrayal of a man who cares very little about anything other than his pleasures. Eleanor Parker gives you a sense of how she wants a normal life, but withholds her affections because he never told her about Rafe and continues to live as he pleases.

Cause this one gets the crown. Add bad acting and even uglier direction by acknowledged talent and you've got a real keeper here. Let's see, Robert Mitchum plays the classic southern rich guy sportsman with a reputation for the ladies, estranged from his live in wife for the past 18 years, we assume cause she was a bad girl, with a resourceful and illegitimate son, Peppard, and another not so resourceful son, Hamilton, that all seem to have some sort of relationship with the appliance store owner's daughter. Still with me? And like all southern towns, rumor and innuendo finally lead to bad things, very bad things as depicted here. The final chase scene is not to be believed. Pure camp-one of the funniest I've ever had the pleasure to witness. I just sat in stunned grinning silence, shocked that Vincent Minneli could turn out such garbage. But the interesting thing is, now that I get the joke I can't wait to see this thing again. My bet is George Hamilton gets a migraine anytime someone mentions this film. 7/10

This is a well made typical genre movie that features some solid emotions and characters and offers some well written plot elements. It's a coming of age movie but it also is a (melodramatic) family drama. These type of movies really had been popular in the past and most of them also are really great ones to watch. Too bad they just don't make movies such as these anymore. This movie might not be the best in its genre but it has more than anything other elements in it to compensate for this. One of them most definitely is the cast. Robert Mitchum once again gives away one fine performance. The movie also features a great and still young looking George Hamilton and George Peppard, though Mitchum on the other hand still looks the way he did 20 years before this movie. The movie handles all of the genre elements really well and know to bring it in a good and original way. Definitely a surprising movie from Vincente Minnelli, who got his fame for directing other type of- and less serious movies. I especially like the way George Hamilton's character gets developed and changes throughout the movie, from a mothers-child to a real adult. It was also great how they handled the Robert Mitchum character. They make him not-likable but at the same time also intriguing and interesting enough to not hate him. It's sort of too bad that they made the mistake to let his character slowly disappear out of the movie for most of the last third of the movie, while he starts off as the main character. The movie does a good job at portraying the relationships between the characters, which is an essential part for movies such as these. Despite the fact that the movie its story definitely has soap-opera like dramatic developments in it, you still get drawn in to it, which is I think due to the interesting characters and actors that portray them. It keeps the movie real. The movie is set in the South of the United States, which gives the movie that special kind of- and warm atmosphere. Its sets, costumes and props all add to this. The time period the movie is set in also definitely benefits the movie. The movie also has a surprising good and likable musical score, by Bronislau Kaper. Worth seeing if you get the chance to. 8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Over the years I did not see this film and enjoyed the great acting of Robert Mitchum,(Capt. Wade Hunnicutt),"Dead Man",'95, who was a wealthy man and had many dark secrets and simply could not leave woman alone and gave them babies besides. Capt. Wade had the idea about Loving Them and Leaving Them! Eleanor Parker,(Hannah Hunnicutt),"Panic Button",'64, kept her bedroom door locked to her husband Capt. Wade. Hannah also tried to keep her son, George Hamilton,(Theron Hunnicutt),"Double Dragon",'94, away from his father and did not want him to follow in his fathers footsteps. George Peppard,(Raphael),"Disorganized Crime",'89, had a deep secret he kept to himself concerning who his real parents in life were. Robert Mitchum gave a great acting performance along with Eleanor Parker and George Hamilton. A very entertaining film from the 1960's!

Spoiler. This has to be one of Minnelli's worst films. First of all its way too long and not very compelling. The performances are OK, Mitchum was always good, but Eleanor Parker was a very limited, if lovely actress. The plot is silly and unbelievable even for 1960 (which was still really the 50's)and full of stereotypes i.e the town tramp,(played by the very fine character actress Constance Ford, the loyal "negro" servants etc. For an outdoor type of film its very claustrophobic with fake studio sets representing the woods, and is especially glaring in the opening shot. Also the film was so implausible like why the hell did Eleanor Parker stay around if she was so miserable being married to Mitchum, and can you really go along with Preppard agreeing to marry the poor dumb pregnant girlfriend of George Hamilton who walks into the sunset after killing Everett Sloan.

This is a great unsung movie. Robert Mitchum plays the perfect strong macho father of the fifties. If you're a bleeding heart or one of those politically correct people, and an animal lover. Stay away from this movie! When Dr. Phil was going to school, this was required reading on how not to be a father, mother, son or family for that matter. Mitchum has two sons in this movie. One is by his wife's played by Eleanor Parker, who is cold as ice to Mitchum affections, and the other from a woman on the wrong side of town. But she is long dead and we never get to see her. A young George Peppard plays that son. I think this is one of Peppard greatest acting jobs. This is a great must see movie if you like hunting and watching a son being brought up by a strong father and over loving mother. But I'm afraid you will have to catch it on cable if you're lucky. This film like many of Mitchum's films are not available on DVD

First, my regards and condolences to those actors, actresses, and the people involved with the making of this movie, who are still living and those that are no longer living. Though it portrayed a family in East Texas experiencing many family issues and situations that were real occurrences of the South, in the 1950's. It was actually made in Oxford, Mississippi. The home of William Faulkner and was where, John Grishom, graduated from Law School. I am not a big critic of movies, yet considering the times (the middle to late 1950's), the audience, and man and woman's role during those years, certainly, the movie portrayed many aspects that society was confronted with, especially in the South. It may have been true of the North as well, yet I have limited knowledge of that area of the country, during the 1950's. As previously mentioned, I have watched this movie many times, and more than most, and the reason is, because I was the infant (the baby in the wedding near the end of the movie). I was only 2-4 months old at the time of the wedding ceremony. I'm glad they got married!!! I have just turned 48 years of age and find people are still watching the movie. There must be something about the movie that keeps people in their seats. I consider it an 8 out of 10 on the movie scale. It is a movie to watch, take note of the past, and the interesting changes that have occurred with man, woman, and family, over the past 50+ years. In addition to what has not changed, over the past 50+ years. Actually, I think it is a 10 out of 10 on the movie scale, because I was in the movie, and because they got married, I had parents!

A rich and powerful landowner tries to make a man out of his tenderfoot son while dealing with an illegitimate son and an estranged wife. This is perhaps the finest drama Minnelli ever made, as he elicits terrific performances from his stars. Mitchum is perfectly cast as the hard-drinking womanizer who has some regrets. Parker occasionally goes overboard but is otherwise fine as his estranged wife. Peppard turns in arguably his best performance as Mitchum's son from a dalliance with a maid. Even Hamilton does well in a role that seems to be tailor-made for Anthony Perkins. This long and absorbing drama is marked by good cinematography and score.

I understand a number of people enjoyed this but I found it long and a little boring. It's a story of family intrigue, a kind of interactional drama, in northeast Texas. Robert Mitchum is the head honcho in this small town, given to such manly pursuits as shooting animals and bedding the wives of other men. He's highly respected. Except by the men whose trust he's betrayed, one of whom offs him appropriately. His wife is Eleanor Parker, who dislikes him, has kept her bedroom door locked, and taken over the raising of their child, George Hamilton, as tan as ever and sounding like Tony Perkins. Hamilton's bedroom is "a boy's room", with rocks, a butterfly collection, and books. BOOKS! When Hamilton is seventeen, Mitchum decides it's time to make a man out of him. He takes the young man to HIS room, filled with the apparatus of killing and adorned with the heads of dead animals he's killed. Mitchum also has an good-natured illegitimate son, George Peppard, with whom he hangs around but doesn't treat especially kindly. Peppard lives in a hut with dogs. I can believe that this is the way life was led by a wealthy family in northeastern Texas in the 1950s, but the production values are cheap and the story sprawls and sprawls. If I wanted to see another sprawling story about a rich family in Texas, I'd watch "Giant" again. If I wanted to watch a superbly done story of a moderately wealthy Texas family, I'd go back to "Hud." The characters' conflicts are realistically portrayed. They teeter on the edge of stereotypy without quite falling into the trap. But it's hard to like much about Mitchum. His idea of being manly, aside from the hunting and fishing, is to shout his lines. He's best when he holds it back and only allows it to peep out once in a while.

If you want lampooning small towns with big rich families with tons of troubles; then you need to be watching "The Long Hot Summer" or "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". If you want a good enthralling movie with strong character acting and a believable story line then this is the one for you. Having grown up in the South, especially in a small rural town I completely understand and can relate to this movie. It centers around what most of my generation had in our small towns, that one rich family who owned everything. Naturally this movie ratchets up the drama, so if you are not from this region you may think it unrealistic. Robert Mitchum is in one of his bests roles as the Cap'n. The troubles and trials of their marriage spill over into their son's life. Theron's youthful care free teenage life finally gives way to his budding adult manhood but somehow is related to the problems of his parents with a little of his own to throw in. I would recommend this movie to anyone, its a past gone era of life that I remember so well and well acted.