THE FILMS OF... GEORGE HILTON

George Hilton was one of the most popular and successful stars of Italian cinema throughout the 1960's and 1970s. Less well known internationally than some of his peers - Terence Hill and Franco Nero, for instance - he's nonetheless developed something of a cult following in recent years. His trademark was a kind of languid charm, well suited to films with a slightly comic touch, although he was never afraid of taking on a more straightforward dramatic role. This charisma was later well used in a series of giallo roles, in which he usually played a suspicious philanderer; a character with an attractive smile and a venal soul. His career has now encompassed well over 60 films, and he is still acting today.

George Hilton in THE CRAZY BUNCH

Born on the 16 th July, 1934 , in Montevideo , Jorge Hill Acosta y Lara started his career by acting on radio and the stage in Uruguay . In 1955 he moved to Argentina, where he determined to try his luck in the many films that were being at that time. Adopting the name Jorge Hilton, he soon began appearing in photo-novels (comic strip stories with black and white photographs in place of drawn graphics). While making these (he starred in about 300 of them), he also moved into film. The productions he worked on in Buenos Aries are obscure nowadays, and were generally targeted towards the domestic market. Nonetheless, they were made by important Argentinian filmmakers such as Fernando Ayala (Los tallos amargos (56), Una viuda dificil (57)) and Enrique Cahen Saleberry (El bote, el rio y la gente (60)).

In 1963, he moved to Italy , hoping to find work in the burgeoning movie industry that had developed in Rome (other South Americans to do this included Luis Davila, Jorge Rigaud and Alberto de Mendoza). After anglicising his first name to George, he landed the leading role in a couple of adventure films: The Masked Man Against The Pirates (L'uomo mascherato contro i pirate) and The Black Pirate (Il Corsaro Nero nell'isola del tesoro), shot back to back in 1964. Although these weren't hugely successful, they did at least serve as a showcase for his talents and - after a supporting role as Agent 007 in the Franco and Ciccio movie Due mafioso contro Goldginger - he was cast in Lucio Fulci's Massacre Time (Tempo di massacre, 66). This was the film which first bought him to a wider audience: as Jeff Corbett, a drunken sharpshooter more interested in barroom brawling and tequila than righting wrongs, he stole the show from his screen-sibling and ostensible hero Franco Nero.

Many spaghetti westerns followed. In 1967 alone he played: a bounty hunter in Any Gun Can Play (Vado... l'ammazzo e torno), a dubious gunman in Poker With Pistols (Un poker di pistole) a young farmhand drifting into crime in Last of the Badmen (Il tempo degli avvolto), an outlaw priest in Red Blood Yellow Gold (Professionisti per un massacre) and another drunk in The Greatest Robbery in the West (La piu grande rapina del West). By this time he had become an international star, and was particularly popular with Spanish audiences.

1968 continued in a similar vein with The Ruthless Four (Orguno per se), Dead for a Dollar (T'ammazzo! - Raccomandati a Dio) and The Moment to Kill (Momento di uccidere). However, he also started branching out into other genres: in Siete minutos para morir he plays a spy who's mixed up in espionage alongside hero Paolo Gozlino; in A Ghentar si muore facile he is an adventurer trying to track down a load of diamonds in a revolution-torn country. Although only a small role, perhaps his most interesting performance came in The Battle of El Alemein (La Battaglia di El Alamein), an all-star war film in which he plays the doomed British lieutenant who develops a friendship with his Italian equivalent, Frederick Stafford.

A couple of other war films followed the year after: The Dirty Two (Il Dito nella piaga) is pretty terrible, but Desert Battle (La Battaglia del deserto) is a cracking little production, with Hilton as an allied Captain stranded in the desert with a loony mechanic (Frank Wolff) and a German tank crew. Amongst another group of westerns, A Bullet for Sandoval (Los Desperados) stands out, but One More in Hell (Uno di più all'inferno) is also a pretty nifty number.

By the beginning of the seventies, however, the genre was beginning to die out; as the box office declined the plots became increasingly picaresque and the comedy became broader. Hilton demonstrated a significant talent for comedy in a series of elaborately titled and increasingly demented films for director Giuliano Carnimeo: A Fistful of Lead (C'è Sartana... vendi la pistola e comprati la bara, 70); They Call Me Hallelujah (Testa t'ammazzo, croce... sei morto... Mi chiamano Alleluja, 72); The Return of Hallelujah (West ti va stretto, amico ... è arrivato Alleluja, 72); Holy God it's the Passatore (Fuori uno sotto un altro arriva il passatore, 73); Man Called Invincible (Lo chiamavano Tresette... giocava sempre col morto, 73) and The Crazy Bunch (Di Tressette ce n'è uno, tutti gli altri son nessuno, 74). In the mid seventies there was a mini-revival for spaghetti westerns, but The Macho Killer (El Macho, 77) proved more of a death rattle than a vivifying breath of fresh air.

At the same time, however, Hilton had moved into new areas by starring in a number of giallos (Italian murder mysteries with outrageously convoluted plots). In The Sweet Body of Deborah (Il Dolce corpo di Deborah, 68) - one of the earliest and most important genre examples - he played a redder than red herring, a charming and totally untrustworthy womaniser who's mixed up in a plot to drive poor Carroll Baker mad. This is a great film, and the quality was maintained with Next (Lo Strano vizio della Signora Wardh, 70) and The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (La Coda dello scorpione, 71), both of which were directed by Sergio Martino. Less successful, but not without merit, were The Case of the Bloody Iris (Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?, 71), The Devil Has Seven Faces (Diavolo a sette face, 71), My Dear Killer (Mio caro assassino, 72) and The Two Faces of Fear (I Due volti della paura, 72). Toward the end of the giallo cycle he also appeared in a couple of rather idiosyncratic items: The Day of the Maniac (Tutti i colori del buio, 72) integrated occult touches into its whodunit plotline, whilst The Dark is Death's Friend (L'assassino è costretto a uccidere ancora, 74) is a thoroughly grimy melodrama in which a murder plot goes spectacularly wrong.

The giallo too began to fade, and in its place came a number of urban thrillers featuring disillusioned cops and sleazy criminals. Hilton made a number of these, but they make a pretty poor selection when compared to some of his earlier work. Seven Hours of Violence (Sette ore di violenza per una soluzione imprevista, 72) was reasonable enough, but The Double Game (Torino violenta, 78) and Blazing Flowers (Milano... difendersi o morire, 78) are pretty shoddy.

By the end of the seventies, the heyday of Hilton's career had come to a close. He continued acting, popping up as a character actor in films such as Raiders of Atlantis (I Predatori di Atlantide, 83), but the roles were less eye-catching and their frequency less frantic. His last screen appearances to date would appear to have been in the Mario Merola comedy Cient'Anne and Mario Caiano's TV thriller Tre Addii (both 99).

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Matt Blake