HOME FROM THE HILL (1960)

Though M-G-M pushed its release back to Spring 1960, this brawny Vincente Minnelli pic was actually the last in a line of OTT ‘50s Hollywood mellers focusing on wealthy but doomed hick-town American families. If Douglas Sirk, over @ Universal, churned out the ultimate masterpieces in the genre, the better parts of HOME lift it past its missteps & lack of consistency. Robert Mitchum & George Peppard (as his bastard) overwhelm their story counterparts, Eleanor Parker as Mitchum's cultured wife and George Hamilton as his heir. (Hamilton works hard to copy the pre-PSYCHO Anthony Perkins, but hasn't the means.) The lack of balance works against the drift of the story, but it does keep things interesting. Mitchum is just sensational, managing to suggest BOTH a Big Daddy and a Brick. What a CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF Mitchum & Minnelli might have made! And you’d never guess that Peppard never became a major star after watching his engaging work in this. Hang on to the end to see Minnelli paste his signature red visual calling card on a gaudy tombstone as if it were Hollywood itself lying there.