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Such a frustrating disappointment

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

An absolute waste of money

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Louis L'Amour wrote well-structured western stories that were very entertaining. Usually, there's a hero who never goes out of his way to hurt anyone. And the force(s) of villainy are clearly defined. But Hollywood wanted to pair Natalie Wood and Tab Hunter, so the love story in this film includes some amorous un-L'Amourous scenes to cater to young viewers.The first couple of scenes establish who our hero is (Tab Hunter as Trace Jordan) and how bad the villains are. Natalie plays Maria, a strong-willed young woman who is also victimized by the gang of gunslingers who enforce the evil dictates of one Joe Sutton (Ray Teal). After Trace attempts to bring the bad guys to justice, they chase him over the countryside. Maria tries to help him.Members of the gang include Claude Akins, who also appeared in "The Sea Chase" with Tab Hunter in 1955. One of the orneriest gang members is played by Earl Holliman. After this film, he would appear consecutively in "Giant", "The Rainmaker" and "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral". Talk about being in the right places at the right time.Unfortunately, certain scenes are marred by some very corny lines. The result is a great L'Amour story burdened by Hollywood "enhancements". You can judge for yourself if Natalie Wood's accent is horrible or not. She surely took a lot of criticism for Maria's accent in "West Side Story", which would follow in five years.

"The Burning Hills" marked director Stuart Heisler's final big-screen western after the well-made Clayton Moore & Jay Silverheels "Lone Ranger" in 1956. Heisler helmed other oaters, such as "Dallas" with Gary Cooper, and they had worked together before that on the parody horse opera "Along Came Jones." The Susan Hayworth oil field drama "Tulsa" qualified more as a western owing to its setting, and Heisler had handled some uncredited chores on an even earlier Cooper epic "The Cowboy and the Lady," but it too was more contemporary. Heisler spent the 1950s and 1960s calling the shots on a variety of cowboy television series such as "Lawman," "Tales of Wells Fargo," "Gunsmoke," "The Dakotas," "Rawhide," and "The Virginian." Indeed, the Los Angeles native, who earns his spurs as a film editor, knew the difference between a stirrup and a pommel so his westerns were as authentic as the times allowed. Future bestselling author Irving Wallace adapted the Louis L'Amour novel "The Burning Hills," and this straightforward outdoors opus reunited Heisler with Tab Hunter, who had starred in "Island of Desire," as well as Natalie Wood, who had appeared in the 1952 Bette Davis soaper "The Star." "The Burning Hills" opens ominously as three gunslingers stroll stealthily into a man's camp and shoot him the back. The fellow they kill is Johnny Jordan, and Johnny's younger brother is not around when the murder takes place. Trace Jordan (Tab Hunter of "Battle Cry") rides back to discover his brother dead. The Mexican ranch hand and he examine the scene of the homicide and ferret out clues. They know three dastards came after Johnny. Trace notices that one walks with a limp, another wears heavy Mexican spurs, and the last chain smokes cheroots. Trace rides into Esperanza to report his brother's murder, but he finds the sheriff's office empty and in shambles. Eventually, he rides to the Sutton Ranch where he confronts the patriarch, Joe Sutton (Ray Teal of "Ace in the Hole"), who refuses to help him. Trace vows to visit the nearby U.S. Army installation Fort Stockwell and bring back blue-uniformed horsemen. Joe pulls a revolver out of his desk drawer, and they exchange gunfire. Trace wounds Sutton in the chest and escapes. Sutton's foreman Ben Hindeman (Claude Akins of "Rio Bravo") wounds Trace with a lone rifle shot as our hero is galloping away on horseback. Initially, Sutton's men cannot find him. Trace's horse lugs him to an abandoned mine shaft with a water hole. Trace falls off his pony and rolls near the waterhole. He blocks the stream with his inert body that nourishes the sheep at a small Mexican ranch below. Maria Cristina Colton (Natalie Wood of "Rebel Without A Cause") tends Trace's wounds and then conceals him from Sutton's men. Sutton's hot-tempered son, Jack Sutton (Skip Homeier of "The Gunfighter") and his foreman Hindeman assemble a search party. They acquire an expert tracker, Jacob Lantz (Eduard Franz of "Hatari") who can follow a trail anywhere through anything. They question Maria, and she fires at Jack but misses him. Narrowly, Trace and Maria manage to escape from Sutton's squad of six-gunners in the mine. Fortunately, the mind caves in before the bad guys can pursue our hero and heroineMaria has no love lost for the villainous Suttons. After all, the Suttons murdered her father. As a result, she is more than happy to help Trace. Sutton's worthless, no-account, son murders his own foreman when they lose track of the hero. Jack shoots Ben in the back in cold blood and assumes command of the rabble. He knows that if Trace ever reaches the army fort that his father and he are cooked. She slows down Jack and company by spiking their coffee with Jemison weed. Maria manages to find Trace, but the villains recover and follow her. Mort (Earl Holliman) has been drinking moonshine when he spots Maria leaving her ranch. He finds Trace and they have a knockdown, drag-out fight. Our hero and heroine escape from the bad guys a second time.Actually, there isn't much to "The Burning Hills." Heisler stages the action with suitable flare, particularly in the opening scene where Trace's brother is gunned down without a chance to defend himself. He should have kept his holstered revolver closer to him. He shows very little of Johnny's three murderers. Essentially, this is a small potatoes shoot'em up. Ray Teal and Skip Homeier make ideal villains and Tab Hunter is a standard-issue hero with the beautiful Natalie Wood along as a fiery heroine. David Buttolph provides an atmospheric orchestra score to heighten the tension and suspense.

Two young lovers flee a murderous rancher's posse. In 1956, Warner Bros. paired up two of their most promising young contract players in this movie and one other, The Girl He Left Behind. Unfortunately for the studio, neither film caught fire. Hunter certainly had the All-American good looks but in the acting department was no James Dean, while Wood's struggle here with a Mexican accent amounts to little more than an honest effort.Wisely, the studio stacked the dialog with a veteran supporting cast—Akins, Franzen, and Teal —who carry most of the lines. At the same time, was there ever a better nasty young punk than the great Skip Homeier, who could hold his own with any heavyweight actor. Also, it's too bad the young Earl Holliman didn't have matinée good looks because he could have injected real feeling into Trace's pivotal part.The cast itself gets to ride around greater LA in a generally non-scenic Technicolor Western. However, the showpiece brawl over the big rocks and into the roaring river is a real doozy. Hunter certainly earned his salary with that one. Then too, Franzen's Indian tracker is nicely conceived and adds a good ironical touch to the fairly predictable outcome.All in all, the movie amounts to little more than a minor vehicle for two of the studio's attractive young stars. The talented Wood, at least, would go on to bigger and better things.

The Burning Hills is directed by Stuart Heisler and adapted by Irvin A. Wallace from the novel written by Louis L'Amour. It stars Tab Hunter, Natalie Wood, Skip Homeier, Eduard Franz, Earl Holliman, Claude Akins & Ray Teal. It's a CinemaScope/Warnercolor production, with Ted McCord photographing primarily out of the Warner Ranch at Calabasas, California, and David Buttolph scores the music. Plot sees Hunter as Trace Jordan, who after finding his brother murdered seeks revenge on the killers. He is aided in his quest by Maria (Wood), a half-breed Mexican girl who has her own agenda to fulfill.Stock formula Oater that puts two attractive young actors at the front in the hope that that will be enough to see it home. OK, maybe that's being a touch harsh since the film does have some moments to make a viewing worthwhile, notably McCord's use of "Scope" and Heisler's more than competent construction of action sequences. But there's so much turgid filler in between the good points it just comes across as a movie made to promote Hunter and Wood. Which would have been OK if they wasn't outshone by pretty much the whole supporting cast! There in is the major issue with The Burning Hills, one look at Ray Teal's gang sees fine character actors Holliman and Akins wasted, while I would defy anyone to argue that Homeier would not have given a better performance than that of the blankly wooden Hunter in the lead role. Clearly it's an aesthetic decision by Richard Whorf and the Warner Bros people.However, if able to forgive the "tween" like romance that hangs heavy on proceedings? Then it's a film for genre fans to pass the time away with. The revenge core in the narrative stays true, and the finale raises the temperature for all the right reasons, where, Heisler makes good use of the water based set-up. Look out too for the unsung work of the stunt men, with one particular moment showing how they suffer for their art. The Warnercolor is sadly a bit lifeless on this occasion, but the print of the film that exists is hardly one to write home about, while Buttolph's score is pretty much standard rank and file for a bottom rung "B" Western feature.Recommended to Western fans? Only if it happens to be on the TV and they appreciate Messrs Homeier, Holliman & Akins. 4/10