Carlo Lizzani's "The Hills Run Red" is a Spaghetti western courtesy of well-known, international producer Dino de Laurentiis of "Conan" and "King Kong" fame who provided some better-than-average production values for this six-shooting saga. Dino went on to do several other Spaghettis, some with American talent like Burt Reynolds in Sergio Corbucci's "Navajo Joe," James Garner in the brilliant "Man Named Sledge" and Chuck Connors in Burt Kennedy's "The Deserter."

"The Hills Run Red" opens not long after the American Civil War has ended. Two ex-Confederate soldiers now in civilian clothes are driving a covered wagon hell-bent-for-leather across rock-strewn Texas terrain with a band of Union troopers bearing down on them. Ken Seagull (Nando Gazzolo of "Django Shoots First") and Jerry Brewster (Thomas Hunter of "Battle of the Commandos") decide to split up and see if their luck improves. They draw cards to determine who stays and who bails. Unfortunately, Jerry loses the bet. Ken dives off the wagon with his saddle bags stuffed full with $600-thousand dollars in Union money. Ken manages to escape while the Union soldiers ride after Jerry. The wagon hits a rock, and Jerry is thrown off it. The horses break away from the wagon, and the careening wagon plunges over a cliff. The soldiers sift through the debris of the smashed-up covered wagon but they find no money. They rough Jerry up, and he serves five miserable, back-breaking years at hard labor in Fort Wilson. All of this happens in the first half-hour.

Freed from prison, Jerry leaves with his holsters empty because the Federals refuse to return his six-guns. No sooner has Jerry left prison than an informant sends Ken a telegram about Jerry's release. Jerry rides away to his home and finds it abandoned, dust on the furniture everywhere and nobody about the premises. He locates his wife's diary and learns that she struggled to raise his son Tim (Loris Loddi of "The Grand Silence") despite encroaching poverty and not a cent of help from Seagull. About that time, gunmen start shooting up Jerry's property. In the barn, Jerry is surprised to find another gun, Winnie Getz (Dan Duryea of "Winchester 73") tosses him a revolver, with which Jerry dispatches two gunmen. Later, after the gunfight, Jerry demands to know Getz's business. Getz suggests that if he took something back to Ken that would convince him that Jerry is dead that he might get himself a job. Jerry's eyes light up because he has something that would persuade Ken that he has perished. Jerry, it seems, has a tattoo on his left forearm engraved with his wife's name. When Getz takes the circle of skin to Ken, he believes that Jerry is dead and hires on Getz despite the admonitions of his second-in-command Garcia Mendez (Henry Silva of "Johnny Cool") decked on in black leather and chewing the scenery as an insane gunslinger.

When we see Ken next, he is a wealthy horse breeder with a large herd of horses. Meanwhile, Jerry adopts different name, Houston, and rides into Austin where he wins a bundle of money at dice and learns that Ken uses the name Milton and owns two-thirds of the land around Austin. Moreover, Ken wants to take over Austin; for example, his trigger-happy gunmen have killed the only sheriff and everybody is too afraid to stand up to him until Jerry arrives in town. The saloon owner Horner (Geoffrey Copleston of "Superargo Versus Diabolicus") explains that they need a man like Jerry to help them defend themselves from Milton. Jerry takes the idea under consideration while he rides out to meet Ken. On the along he stumbles onto a little boy who can knock rocks out of the air with his slingshot. Jerry is shocked when the child uses his good luck gesture of licking his thumb and drawing a circle in the air. About that time, Garcia intervenes and forces Jerry to fight more of Ken's gunmen. Beaten and battered and on the ground, Jerry looks up after the fight and see Garcia put a gun to his head. When he urges the Mexican cutthroat to kill him, Garcia laughs and takes him to Milton's ranch where he lets him recover in an equipment shed. The irony is that Jerry has come back to square matters with Ken, but Ken doesn't know it. Jerry overhears that Ken is moving two-thirds of his horse herd to Abilene. Jerry sneaks back into town and arranges a reception for Ken's riders. The ensuing shoot'em up in a pass and the flaming balls of brush that Jerry's men rain down on Ken's gunmen is a sight to see. Predictably, Ken attacks the town and drives everybody out. The inevitable gun battle between Ken and Jerry follows.

Lizzani never lets the grass grow under anybody's boots in this fast-moving 90 minute horse opera. He is no Sergio Leone, but he has an imaginative eye for interesting camera angles, particularly in the fight between Jerry and Garcia's gunmen. The coffin on the wagon in the big shoot-out scene in town is well photographed from a variety of angles. This is a big, sprawling revenge western with scores of tough-looking galoots getting gunned down left, right, center, and sideways. Spaghetti westerns fans will find this one is above-average. The scenarists could have done a better job with Dan Duryea's mysterious gunman and his revelation after the finale.

"The Hills Run Red" has one goof and that knocks off at least a star from my rating. During the fast opening wagon chase, the filmmakers show us the Union troops riding in hot pursuit and it the far right side of the 2:35.1 letterboxed shape you can spot a wagon identical to the one being driven hell-bent-for-leather in the distance with no horses. Presumably, the producers had a second wagon modified to handle a camera and forgot to move the real wagon out of the shot.

A River of Dollars was released in the U.S. as The Hills Run Red. It was directed by Carlo Lizzani (Crazy Joe) and shot at the Dino De Laurentiis Studios in Rome and in the newly constructed Western town set at Dinocitta.



After the Civil War, Ken Seagull (Nando Gazzolo, who narrated Black Sunday) and Jerry Brewster (Thomas Hunter*, Death Walks in Laredo) have stolen a wagon full of money before the law closes in. They cards to see who will take the fall and Jerry stays behind and gets sent to the brig for five years.

As he returns home, he learns that Seagull never helped his wife and child, which explains why his home is deserted. Even worse, when his villainous ex-partner sends a gang to kill him off. He's helped by Winnie Getz (Dan Duryea, The Burglar),who tells Seagull that he's killed Brewster, who goes along with this plan and takes the name Jim Houston.

Seagull had a very similar plan, as he's now known as Ken Milton, and has hired a crazed killer named Garcia Mendez (Henry Silva). And oh yeah - Seagull killed our hero's wife and had his son think that he was an orphan. Someone is gonna pay and that somebody is named Seagull. Or Milton.

This is a perfectly serviceable Italian western, livened up by Silva, who is always a great bad guy.

*This role was intended for Burt Reynolds.

Jerry Brewster (Thomas Hunter) and Ken Seagull (Nando Gazzolo) are two ex-Confederates who've successfully stolen some of the governments' money. Realizing that only one of them can make good his escape, they draw cards, and Ken, having drawn the higher card, is allowed to bail out with the money. Jerry is captured by Union forces and imprisoned for five years. Unfortunately, he learns after being released that his wife died poor because Ken hogged all the money for himself. And now Ken is a bigshot in the small community of Austin. It's a given that Jerry is going to be ripe for revenge...

"The Hills Run Red", as directed by former critic Carlo Lizzani, is no great shakes, but offers a decent amount of entertainment. Its pace is acceptable, its photography nicely done, and its action reasonably rousing. Using the pseudonym of "Leo Nichols", Ennio Morricone composes the score; it's definitely one of his lesser efforts, but even so, lesser Morricone is still pretty good. The songs are certainly sung with passion. The script by Piero Regnoli is mostly straightforward, but it's got one interesting detail up its sleeve: the character of Colonel Winny Getz, played engagingly by genre veteran Dan Duryea. You're never quite sure what this guy's deal is until the end.

The acting is variable. Some members of the cast come off fairly well, such as the beautiful ladies Nicoletta Machiavelli and Gianna Serra, Gazzolo as the understated villain, and Geoffrey Copleston as saloon owner Brian Horner. Hunter delivers a performance that is amusingly over the top at certain points. But the most entertaining acting to watch is courtesy of a hilariously hammy Henry Silva, playing Seagulls' minion Garcia Mendez. There's nothing subtle about this guy; even his wardrobe is all black.

"The Hills Run Red" kills time easily enough for those who are devotees of the Spaghetti Western genre.

Six out of 10.