MICHAEL DOUGLAS SERVES 'HAIL, HERO!' WITH DEBORAH WINTERS

Poster showing Michael Douglas and Deborah Winters from HAIL, HERO! Year: 1969 Rating: ***

In the beginning of Michael Douglas's career he plays Carl Dixon, a free-spirit during the Vietnam WAR era who returns from New York college life to a rural farm-family that's harbored proud fighting men since the Civil War.

The first act of HAIL, HERO! has Carl entering into his small Southern hometown with the kind of jovial personality that embodies aimless sarcastic abandon (that he'd revisit in another counter-culture flick ADAM AT 6 A.M.)...

A young Michael Douglas and beautiful Deborah Winters in HAIL, HERO! Year: 1969 Rating: ***

First playing bull and matador with a truckload of Mexican workers and eventually being misunderstood by his uptight father, who gives him a nice clean haircut right away...

From his era, kids didn't let their "freak flag fly" and it gave Michael Douglas, perhaps weighed-down under famous father Kirk's immense shadow, a more mainstream and handsome look in spite of his carefree hippie character.

Brothers Peter Strauss and Michael Douglas bookend Deborah Winters in Hail, Hero!

The best scenes involve blonde starlet Deborah Winters who, that same year, played a suburban teen hippie chick having a bad acid trip in THE PEOPLE NEXT DOOR. Here’s she’s a promiscuous country girl with a crush on Carl and a past relationship with his older brother, Frank...

And in the thankless straight man role, future TV-miniseries giant Peter Strauss might as well be Nick Nolte's uptight brother from RICH MAN POOR MAN. Strauss's Frank was crippled because of Carl and holds a grudge that enters into the final act, taking place at a big party where generations collide.

Deborah Winters is the hottie in the waterhole in HAIL, HERO!

But it’s one prolonged segment with Douglas and Winters, splashing around in a swimming hole wearing close to nothing, that provides something for either sex to enjoy.

Unlike many counter-culture curios, HAIL, HERO is never too preachy or annoyingly idealistic. The soundtrack is large and brassy and the acting, including veterans Arthur Kennedy and Teresa Wright, is topnotch.

Peter Strauss with Deborah Winters in HAIL, HERO! with Arthur Kennedy

Meanwhile the sporadic use of muted flashbacks of important memories — like Carl's father having an affair with the Spanish maid, and the accident that changed Frank’s life — make this VHS import more interesting that it sometimes deserves to be...

And, despite being dated and ultimately stagey, with a really bizarre and pointless midsection where Frank smokes pot with a hermit hag in a cave, what's really important is the introduction of Micheal Douglas, proving — as the son of a legend — that he could hold his own.

Deborah Winters with an uncredited actress on horseback in HAIL, HERO!

Like Michael Douglas Deborah Winters is the child of an movie star... Penny Edwards

Deborah Winters as Becky in HAIL, HERO! aka Cześć, bohaterze!

Deborah Winters as Becky in HAIL, HERO! aka Hail, héroe

Deborah Winters as Becky in HAIL, HERO! aka Héroes

Deborah Winters facing Michael Douglas in his first feature HAIL, HERO!

Deborah Winters recalled that Michael Douglas never looked her in the eye filming Hail, Hero!

Michael Douglas in Hail, Hero! aka Cześć, bohaterze! aka O Protesto aka