Rod Taylor

Adam West

Velimir Živojinović

Brioni Farrell

Peter Carsten

Olivera Katarina

Branko Pleša

Marinko Šebez

Janez Vrhovec

Dragomir Felba

Gizela Vuković

Jovan Janićijević 'Burduš'

Dragomir Čumić

Leo Martin

Krunoslav 'Kićo' Slabinac

Dragomir Stanojević

Zoran Stojiljković

Senka Veletanlić

Pavle Vuisić

Howard Berk

Stole Janković

Michael Economou

Božidar Miletić

Ivanka Vukasović

Vojislav Borisavljević

Drama

Thriller

Partizani

Avala Film

FRZ 41

Filmska Radna Zajednica (FRZ)

Film Forty-First - Avala Film Working Organization

Noble Productions

Rodlor Productions

Nobla Film Est

Liechtenstein

United States of America

Yugoslavia

**_Guerillas in the hills of Serbia defend their homeland from the German army_**

A Yugoslav raised in America (Rod Taylor) fights the invading Germans as a leader in the National Liberation Army, aka Yugoslav Partisans. Adam West plays a German captain who’s sympathetic toward the Serbians because he’s actually Austrian and in love with a Jewess (Brioni Farrell).  

“Hell River” (1974), also known as “Guerilla Raid” and “The Partisan” (amongst other titles), is a Serbo-Croatian WW2 film that originally ran 3 hours on Yugoslavian television. This shorter version was released for other markets.

Loosely based on the true events, it comes in the tradition of "The Guns of Navarone" (1961), "The Heroes of Telemark" (1965) and "Hornets' Nest" (1970) and is similar to the future “Force 10 from Navarone" (1978) and “The Eagle Has Landed” (1976). Sure, it’s not on the level of the better ones, but it’s quite well done and not far off. The longer version is no doubt more compelling.

Interestingly, a few seconds of “Hell River” are featured in Tarantino's “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (2019) as the fictional movie "The 14 Fists of McCluskey," an Italian flick Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) starred in because he couldn’t get significant roles in America. 

The film runs 1 hour, 42 minutes, and was shot in Serbia (Sabac, Lazarevac, Mountain Zlatibor and River Drina by the border of Bosnia).

GRADE: B-/B

English

Hell River

Hell River

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