Hornets' Nest is a 1970 Italian-American war film directed by Phil Karlson and starring Rock Hudson, Sylva Koscina, and Sergio Fantoni.

In Northern Italy in 1944, the entire population of the village of Reanoto is massacred by the SS under the command of the cruel Major Sturmbannführer Taussig for helping the Italian resistance movement.

Their drop zone has been discovered by Wehrmacht troops under the command of Hauptmann Friedrich von Hecht, who kill them all except the leader of the paratroopers, Captain Turner, who is rendered unconscious and goes unnoticed by the Germans when he lands in the branches of a tree.

He has the boys steal the captured American demolition gear from von Hecht's headquarters, killing SS Rottenführer Gunther in the process, but Aldo hides the detonators until Turner leads them in their revenge.

In response to the killing of Gunther, Standartenführer Jannings hunts for Turner and his "Dead End Kids" an SS-led affair, placing von Hecht under the command of Taussig and reassigning his regular Wehrmacht troops to guard a tunnel.

After the failure of the large budgeted Darling Lili, he thought an action war film geared to the youth market directed by the experienced Phil Karlson had potential.

Time magazine called the film "a weird little war movie full of bizarre energy and merciless violence, a kind of 'Dirty Dozen Reach Puberty'".

An exploitation guide for cinema owners suggested dressing up boys under 15 in army uniforms and putting actual hornets' nests (hopefully without their makers) in shop windows to promote the film.