Captain Wade Hunnicutt, a notorious womanizer and the wealthiest and most powerful person in his East Texas town, is wounded by a jealous husband.

Theron's new lifestyle leads him into a love affair with Libby Halstead, a local girl from a proper family, but her father Albert's animosity forces a secret relationship.

Theron learns from his mother that the reason for Libby's father's scorn is Wade's reputation as a womanizer, that Rafe is his illegitimate half-brother, and that his parents have not been intimate since before he was born.

George Hamilton was cast after MGM executives were impressed by his performance in Crime and Punishment U.S.A..[4] He later said: "What Vincente later told me he saw in me was not my tortured soul but that I had the quality of a privileged but sensitive mama's boy.

"[5] Husband-and-wife team Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch wrote the screenplay, making some key changes in Humphrey's story to emphasize the core conflicts.

They created the role of Mitchum's illegitimate son and made his wife a desirable though bitter woman instead of the aging crone from the book.

The writers also tried to capture the cadence of Southern speech and had written another family drama located in the South, The Long, Hot Summer.

"[6] This film was originally intended for Clark Gable and Bette Davis, but the roles then went to Robert Mitchum and Eleanor Parker.

[citation needed] In a contemporary review, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote that the film lacked focus and that "... the whole thing is aimless, tedious and in conspicuously doubtful taste.

"[7] An April 1960 review in Spokane’s The Spokesman-Review praised Mitchum's performance and the film overall: "Every man who ever fired a gun or sired a son will want to see 'Home From the Hill' ...