| The Hills Run Red | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Carlo Lizzani |
| Produced by | Luigi Carpentieri Ermanno Donati |
| Written by | Piero Regnoli |
| Starring | Thomas Hunter Henry Silva Dan Duryea Nicoletta Machiavelli Nando Gazzolo Gianna Serra Loris Loddi Geoffrey Copleston |
| Music by | Ennio Morricone |
| Cinematography | Antonio Secchi |
| Editing by | Ornella Micheli |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | November 10, 1967 |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | Italy United States |
| Language | Italian/English |
The Hills Run Red (Un Fiume di dollari) is one of the earliest spaghetti westerns made after the Eastwood/Leone Italian western boom, in 1967 and directed by Carlo Lizzani. The film stars Thomas Hunter in the heroic lead role and Henry Silva as a crazed villain.
After the American Civil War, a Confederate veteran and his comrade travel through the hills in a chuck wagon on the mission of burying a large sum in lost gold. As they near their exact destination they spot a Union army escort approaching on horseback. Knowing there is little chance of escaping without being arrested or killed, they decide that their only hope is that one of them jump off the wagon while the other continue on his way to bury the loot. So after rolling down an embankment using the rocks as cover, it is the 'hero' who is eventually caught by the soldiers. They demand to know what he is up to and where his friend is, who they saw with him on the wagon a few minutes previously. When he won't tell them anything, they take his gun, beat him up and arrest him.
The movie then skips to 5 years later when the man is released from a small Union jail. Once he has his horse back he rides off to small abandoned ranch in the hills. As he stands on the sidewalk, he is shot at. Unarmed (the soldiers at the prison refused to return his gun), he dives into the adjacent barn where he meets an old friend who gives him a gun. He kills a first gunman who runs in to the barn and then hits the deck as a second comes rushing in shooting. After an exchange of shots and some quick reactions when both men run out of bullets, a fistfight ensues and he eventually overpowers his opponent and manages to kill him with his own knife.
The plot changes direction from this point in that he rides to the local town which is overrun by an outlaw gang led by a psychopathic killer. For the second half of the film, the hero is then on a vengeance quest as it appears the crazy bandit is responsible for taking his girl and the possible deaths of his family who lived at the afore-mentioned ranch.