The Burning Hills (1956)

good back-story, and good acting

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

"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.

Ugh. This is one tiresome Western. Now I love Westerns, but not this one. There is not an iota of clever dialogue, just a boatload of clichés. Tab Hunter, though not unsympathetic, has an emotional range that makes Audie Murphy (my hero) look like Lawrence Olivier. Natalie Wood, though beautiful, has a Mexican accent that sounds heavy Slavic more than anything. The fight scenes go on waaaaay too long, and there is too much filler of men riding horses.The only saving graces are the character actors who make the best out of almost nothing. Skip Homeier is delightfully obnoxious and weaselly as always (see The Gunfighter, for his most memorable role); Claude Akins is dependable; and Earl Holliman looks and sounds like he is Larry the Cable Guy's younger and thinner brother.An odd sub-theme in this film, though not fully explored, is mixed-race breeding. Natalie Wood's mother was Mexican, but her father was a "Yankee" (though she hates all Gringoes). And Eduard Franz's tracker has a mother who is Indian, but a father who is Dutch(!). Weird.Unless you are desperate for a Western fix, skip it, or be prepared to use your fast-forward a lot.

Probably who saw this western in the fifties, would think of it as above average, in great Cinemascope and not with the typical western actors for the main roles. Tab Hunter would usually be in a western in a supporting role and Natalie Wood, besides "The Searchers" where she was still a child, did not make any westerns that I know about. But both of them came out well, and Natalie as Maria gives us a preview of the famous Maria she would be in "West Side Story". The supporting cast is great, Skip Homeyer, Claude Atkins and Earl Holliman. If you like action scenes, shootouts and fist fights, here you will have plenty. Tab is Trace Jordan who sets up to find the killers of his brother who branded his cattle with JJ. He ends up shooting the big boss Sutton (Ray Teal) in self defense and wounded, has to run away to the hills where he is found by Maria (Natalie). Louis L'Amour wrote a lot of westerns, they are all good entertainment and so is this film. It makes you miss the good old days when there plenty of westerns at the movies.