Green Fire

Green Fire

There is a whole subset of movies from the 1930's to the early 50's which revolve around the plot of a man who becomes so obsessed with the idea of succeeding at the task he has taken on for himself, that he temporarily loses his sense of decency and alienates - always in this order - his best friend/colleague, his girlfriend/fiancée, and finally, all the men who work for him and worship the ground he walks on. The main character is usually an engineer with a new idea that will make him lots of money, but the real motivation for him is proving his idea will work. Examples of this type of film would be Pat O'Brien in "China Clipper", John Wayne in "Tycoon" and James Stewart in "Thunder Bay". Green Fire is one of the last of this type of film, and one of the most beautifully shot. It has some action sequences thrown in - a couple of short gun fights with the local bandit leader, for example, an avalanche or two and an almost devastating flood. There is also a love triangle of sorts. This one is set in Colombia, South America, and the idea is to find the emeralds in an old mine that the conquistadores first opened. Stewart Granger is the mining engineer, Paul Douglas his partner and best friend. Granger is presented as a lovable rogue who cons his buddy into staying on for one more adventure. Nearby to their mine is a large coffee plantation, owned by Grace Kelly's character and her brother. She is devoted to this plantation as it has been in the family for 4 generations. The brother is young ands restless and doesn't care "beans" about coffee, which of course makes him a great patsy for Granger to con into backing the mining operation. Granger and Kelly fall in love, but she is afraid he will be ever the wanderer and she's firmly rooted to her plantation. Granger becomes more and more ruthless in his pursuit of the emeralds - first alienating his friend Douglas, then Grace and eventually his actions endanger the lives of everyone in the region, and may destroy the plantation. But of course it all works out in the end, he comes to his senses, regains his moral balance and kisses the girl in the rainstorm at the end of the film. A very routine plot line, set in what was then a rather exotic locale. Granger was a limited actor, but this was not a demanding role and he does well. Douglas is probably the best among the cast as the best friend with more common sense and stronger moral compass. Grace Kelly is lovely as always, but not very convincing in the role - she just never really was the "outdoors type". The film is shot in beautiful widescreen color, some location shooting seems to have taken place, but most of it was on very nicely done sets and backlots. At 1 hour and 40 minutes, the film tells its story pretty briskly with not much extraneous material. It's not a timeless classic, but it is a good example of typical 1950's adventure films, and is entertaining enough to watch once every few years.

I will confess to being a sucker for exotic locales and pretty faces, and this film has both. Filmed partially on location in Colombia, the movie offers dashing Stewart Granger as a treasure-hunting adventurer and radiant Grace Kelly as the heir to a struggling coffee plantation. Granger plays his role with the requisite cockiness, and Kelly just has to look beautiful and act sincere. The best role falls to Paul Douglas, who plays Granger's world- weary and curmudgeonly business partner. If you liked The Naked Jungle with Charlton Heston and Eleanor Parker, you will probably like this film, although Charlton Heston's Leiningen and Stewart Granger's Rian Mitchell are very different men. The plot is serviceable, with plenty of action and beautiful cinematography. It isn't great cinema, but if you want to settle in on a Saturday morning with a big mug of coffee and watch some '50s nostalgia, you could do worse than this movie.

"Green fire. Emeralds burning like blue fire. So rare. So precious to own." So goes the theme song of this echt-1950s Hollywood adventure in an exotic land. Those lyrics, which do not hang upon the cheek of this movie like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear, no matter how hard I try to love them, are about on a par with the rest of the story. Greedy Stewart Granger and skeptical Paul Douglas are two mining engineers determined to find emeralds in a South American country. They set up a camp on a promising mountain and spend a good deal of time fraternizing with the owners of a neighboring coffee plantation -- Grace Kelly and her callow brother, John Ericson. Granger and Kelly fall in love under the tropical moon. Douglas falls too, but he's fat and older and not nearly as smooth as Granger. I believe, though, that Kelly, had she thought about it, would have found Douglas's Philadelphia accent engagingly familiar. "Oh, come awn, I'm no sub-stee-tute for Stewart Granger." Inevitably, there is conflict. It comes in two forms. First El Moro, this greaseball bandido, finds the idea of stealing any emeralds, those stones so precious to own, appealing and lets the two miners know that he'll return when circumstances call for it. Second, the mine shaft that Granger, Douglas, and a handful of men have dug into the mountain has collapsed. This means that they either return as failures or they "step mine," which we would call "strip mining." And this requires lots of dough, which they don't have, and is labor intensive. Granger the greedy implements a simple solution without Douglas's knowing about it. He talks Ericson into funding the mining enterprise with the plantation's entire kitty, and Ericson brings all the plantation workers to the mine, leaving Kelly with a ripe crop of coffee beans and nobody to harvest and process them. Other tribulations follow. Ericson is accidentally killed. The sluice from the mine changes the course of the river and threatens Kelly's plantation, on which the women of the village are now working tirelessly as a replacement for the absent men. El Moro shows up, eyes beady, teeth glistening, phonemes slurring. A shoot out at the climax, and all the bad guys die in an avalanche while all the good guys live, and the river changes its course, and the plantation is saved, and Granger has an epiphany, and it ends happily. Frankly, I kind of enjoyed it. Granger is tan and fit and leaps around like Errol Flynn. Grace Kelly is the most beautiful and least probable owner of a tropical empire you've ever seen. She looks almost sassy in those starched blouses and tight slacks. Paul Douglas is always easy to identify with because he completely lacks any of the social graces. John Ericson -- what is he doing in this movie? What was he doing in ANY movie? The special effects are good for their period. The gun fight at the end, with the bandidos peppering away at the human springbok Granger, had some novel sounds and original minor effects. Bullets zip through the air. And when they ricochet, it's with a soft "ptew" rather than the traditional loud, vibrating "whanggggg." If they hit a wooden object, a chip flies off. Now, this all sounds like a matter of little consequence, but it was new at the time and quite exciting. But, Dios mio, this is an OLD story. Warners and the other studios were grinding them out like Sonicburgers back in the 30s and thereafter. Reckless, materialistic adventurer goes into the wilderness, falls in love with a local, and is redeemed. Well, I'll just mention "His Majesty O'Keefe" as another typical example. This one happens to be more entertainingly done than most.

MGM adventure set in Colombia (and beautifully filmed there). Stewart Granger plays a somewhat hapless, but charming, down-on-his-luck mining engineer, hoping to make a big emerald strike. Paul Douglas plays his solid, more practical partner, who's about to quit the game and take a job in Canada, when he's persuaded by Granger to give it one last go. Granger has an accident and ends up recuperating at a comfortable coffee plantation owned by lovely Grace Kelly and her brother, John Ericson. Granger and Grace fall for one another, but complications ensue, including conflicting ethics. Yes, you've seen it all before, and despite top stars and first-class production values, as well as landslides, animal attacks, a villain called El Moro, and Granger with his shirt off, the picture still comes across as a bit of a potboiler. On the plus side, Granger and Kelly are both more nonchalant and casual than usual. In a far cry from her Hitchcock outings, Grace even drives a Jeep, rides horseback, gets dirty and wet, and performs manual labor. All in Helen Rose designs. If you don't take any of it very seriously, you'll probably enjoy "Green Fire." It's one of those movies that doesn't grip you right away, or even in the first hour. When movies were meant to be seen in theaters, filmmakers were free to set up the story slowly, because the audience wasn't going anywhere. They weren't going to change the channel. This picture sets everything up solidly, eventually leading to an exciting climax and satisfying conclusion.

"Rian X. Mitchell" (Stewart Granger) is an ambitious mining entrepreneur who is looking in Columbia for a long-lost emerald mine built by the Conquistadors in 1687. He finds it but some bandits also find him and he is shot, robbed, pushed off a hillside and left for dead. He manages to stumble away but is then attacked by a jaguar. Fortunately, a village priest named "Father Ripero" (Robert Tafur) happens to be there and shoots the jaguar before it can kill Rian. Father Ripero then takes him to a nearby coffee plantation where "Catherine Knowland" (Grace Kelly) manages to tend his wounds. When he recovers he tells her that he has a partner, "Vic Leonard" (Paul Douglas) that he has to see right away but that he will return. Once he and his partner return to the coffee plantation they begin to work on the emerald mine which creates difficulties for all concerned. Anyway, having given the initial plot I will stop right here so as not to spoil the movie for anyone who wishes to view it. That said, while the entire cast performed in a decent manner the film seemed slow in some parts and lacked energy. Part of the problem may have been that the romance between Rian and Catherine lacked passion. Likewise, the action was solid but not very unique or original. In short, this is a decent movie with beautiful scenery and a capable cast. But with all it had going for it I believe it should have been better.

Grace Kelly only appeared in eleven films during her brief acting career. Green Fire is the most obscure of them. Obscure for good reason. This is an eminently forgettable film. Kelly plays Catherine Knowland, owner of a coffee plantation in Colombia. Stewart Granger plays Rian Mitchell, who's hunting for emeralds nearby. Paul Douglas plays Vic Leonard, Rian's reluctant partner in the emerald mining expedition. Rian wants emeralds. He also wants Catherine. Unfortunately there are complications. The mining is going poorly. No emeralds. Local bandits show up and threaten to steal any emeralds he may eventually find. Rian gets frustrated, then he gets desperate and desperation can lead to terrible consequences. There's a lot of melodrama here but it doesn't really make for a very good film. The plot is threadbare. The film is billed as a spectacular adventure but there is absolutely nothing spectacular about it. It's very mundane, in many places dreadfully boring. Granger comes across very flat in playing Rian. Douglas brings much more personality to the role of Vic, at least he has some wisecracks which perk things up a bit. The romance between Rian and Catherine never sparks to life. Vic is interested in Catherine as well but that would-be romance seems unlikely to say the least. The film plods along, leading man Rian being unlucky both in love and emerald mining, desperate enough to do things which make both the other characters and the audience detest him. He becomes an entirely unsympathetic character, which certainly doesn't help any with enjoyment of the film. The film really struggles to hold your interest and keep you invested in the proceedings. The romance falls flat. None of the action sequences are particularly memorable. Douglas does have some good moments. Kelly isn't given much to do besides look pretty, though she certainly is good at that. Granger really disappoints. All in all, it's a movie not worth remembering. It's Grace Kelly's one true dud.

Green Fire is a pretty good watch. Stewart Granger is at his handsome best and he and Kelly certainly present their characters as a couple with spark between them. Paul Douglas is a rock, as usual in his supporting role as the loyal partner to Grangers leading man. I was pleasantly surprised by Kelly's acting in this little film. She was better and less like an inexperienced young actress than I have seen her before. I liked the restrained quality in her performance. Oddly it was the exact opposite to this, in Grangers performance, which appealed to me. He was at the top of his form, physically lithe and handsome and at the top of his form as the stereotypical dashing leading man. He owned the part. I rate this film as at the top of its genre pile! It was enjoyable but not difficult, and full of eye candy for boys and girls. Great fun.

source: Green Fire

Grace didn't make many movies, she should have made one less! Silly adventure isn't wretched nor is it very good. Her only film to lose money on original release. The movie is a standard jungle picture typical of the fifties made better then it should be by the cast. Grace and Stewart, who most definitely did not hit it off during filming-Grace found him boorish and puffed up, handle what little romance there is well enough. However the best performance as was often the case comes from Paul Douglas. Even though he didn't have leading man looks he had a bruised dignity that softened his blustering demeanor and made him a sympathetic character. Some nice location photography and a decent if preposterous climax but this is without question the worst picture Grace Kelly made during her brief Hollywood heyday.