I watched The Hills Run Red this afternoon. It is solid but unspectacular. Some good fights and beatings keep the movie plodding along. As mentioned, Mendez is a fine villain. Some of the sets in the town looked unconvincing and theme park style.
The scene with the horse ambush is excellent - the horses were very well trained.
Just about enough to keep going here.
3 stars.
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I watched it today. For the second time after about 16 years. What stuck in my memory was Silva as the villain and the final shootout with a high body count 
I enjoyed watching it. Morriconeâs main theme is great. In my opinion, a very decent spaghetti western. And a good release from Explosive Media.
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This one is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. The stuff with the kid & that hand gesture is unbelievably corny, but Silva and Hunter chew the scenery so hard they must have been picking parts out of their teeth for decades afterwards. Not a masterpiece by any stretch but always a fun watch.
SEAGULL!!!
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âThe Hills Run Redâ was released in the UK on 21st May 1967, a few weeks before âFistful of Dollarsâ. It was probably the first Italian-made western aired on UK television, broadcast across ITV regions on 6th June 1972 (19:00 - 20:30) and 15th July 1972 (21:00 - 10:30).
Source below: (Evening Standard, 16th June, 1967)
In the U.S. it opened in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Buffalo etc mid-September 1967.
Sources below: (The Los Angeles Times, September 18, 1967) (New York Daily News, November 10, 1967)
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One of few new SWs for me the last couple of years and I understand the many different opinions and feelings of it. But I must watch it a few times more to get the right feel for it.
In the beginning Thomas Hunter gave it a bit lighthearted Death Walks In Laredo feeling and some scenes reminded me of it and of other SWs, but he is supposed to be more serious here but he is uneven with his acting style..
Anyhow the scenery with several nice well known both Spanish and Italian location mixed in a green environment in strong colours looked good and were filmed in new angles.
The Morricone theme is flashy but not so varied as it could have been. I still have to understand more of the details of the story to be able to see if this qualifies for a 6/10. Even If I don´t like wild shooting it is better than fistfights and ballrom blitz etc 
The bottom at my current SW Top list (at least acceptable 6/10 ratings) looks like this :
x74 Poker With Pistols (Giuseppe Vari) 1967
75 Dead Men Donât Count/Cry For Revenge (Rafael Romero Marchent) music Marcello Giombini 1968
76 Mannaja/A Man Called Blade (Sergio Martino) 1977
x77 Hey Amigo, Youâre Dead/Hey Amigo ! A Toast To Your Death/Killer Amigo (Paolo Bianchini) music Carlo Savina 1970
78 Django Shoots first (Alberto De Martino) 1966
x79 If You want to LiveâŚShoot (Sergio Garrone) 1968
The Hills Run Red is a bit more serious than the number 78 for example, but I guess it will be difficult to rate this stable so to speak. I was hungry for a new SW today and I am satisfied to have been acquainted with this one but not knowing what will be my verdict in the future 
It is definitely not one of those really boring 4/10 SWs you only last 10-20 minutes or soâŚ
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80 The Hills Run Red (Carlo Lizzani) 1966 Ennio Moricone
I watched it the second time with my wife and was more awake, and the story is OK a bit simple but well directed, nice vistas not too boring fighting, but too impressive Morricone theme for the film but which is of high quality especially the Dellâoro,singing âbeforeâ the film itself on the Bluray.
It is really funny with the I think many only seconds-long switches between Dino Di Lautentiis over green western town southeast (I think) outside Rome and Spain for example Colmenar Viejo with its green undulating landscape or in that case also the other well known Italian horse âracesâ scenes in the easter parts of middle Italia (donât remenber the name and donât bother to check it up).
The many borrowed elements don´t bother me much, or similarities with the a bit later rodado Death Walks In Laredo. If I had not seen that one (nowadays a 5/10 due to the light-heartness) maybe the leading actor Thomas Hunter would feel better
And the American style with the already presumed dead Niciletta M character who was more interesting in Garter Colt (7/10) or better styled regarding her visual attractiveness in Navajo Joe 6/10 (but due for an uprating maybe nowadays when OntĂgola is determined for being the location of the ESPERANZA railway station and even having been running there with my wife in 2023 ha ha) etc is slightly negative with the boring mainstream music in the end.
Henry Silva looks more like a comic book character and/or with his J R Ewing grin - my clear favorite character from that TV-series, as is Mr Ferguson from Lizzaniâs better SW Resquiescant (7/10)
All in all it is too simple but could be watched again but better than number 80 on my SW Top list and 6/10 it cannot be (at least not now) since it has no special advantages to it especially storywise but no real entertainment inhibiting items as well. I don´t get so emotionally engaged so to speak.
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Interestingly, when I started reading about films this was a film which was held high. One of the first film books I bought was a Western Lexicon which gave it 2/3 stars, and Frayling had it in a list of his 11 favourite Spags, and Hughes had it as one of the 20 essential SWs which got an own chapter in his book, and he gave it 4/5 in the smaller SW pocket version.
It could for me never live up to that reputation, which means I was quite disappointed when I first watched it. I can enjoy it meanwhile, but still not enough to give it more than a 5/10
And here in the forum The Hills Run Red never was a fan favourite, and is only ranked # 107 with 27 points from 5 voters. Actually without the 13 points from Mr Hughes it would only run on # 145.
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Henry Silvas character seems to suffer from hyperactivity disorder an lost his pills untraceable. (Maybe it is the german dub, that makes me think so)
Average , just a mercenary-job to Lizzani, I guess. The score and the well camera-work let these flick appear better than it is.
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Its popularity from UK critics might be due to the fact it was screened on national TV relatively early for a spaghetti western where I suspect most of them saw it at a time when they may have seen few Italian westerns. I suspect thatâs why it is in Hughesâs book.
It also had a UK theatrical release with an A rating so accompanied kids could see it.
I donât think itâs that easy, it was also in German books.
Requiescant was far less prominent there.
And Iâ m sure Hughes and Frayling have watched enough SWs to find other ones.
âThe Hills Run Redâ.
Iâm not an expert on the plot, history behind it, or into the pros and cons of this SW.
Simply going to say that itâs an okay western. The highlights for me are the Ennio Morricone score, and Henry Silva.
Itâs not a SW that stands outâŚ
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I have to agree.
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Makes me wish Mr Silva did more spaghettis, he plays an excellent bad guy in this, and I love him in all his eurocrime flicks
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Henry Silva was such an under-used actorâŚparticularly memorably in the original âThe Manchurian Candidateâ, in which he has a fight with Frank Sinatra. Please check it outâŚ
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Silva was a mate of Sinatraâs - he was one of the Oceans 11 and also played a bonkers Indian chief in his typically intense manner in Sinatraâs Sergeantsâ Three.
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