Grünes Feuer

"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.

1954 was a VERY busy year for Grace Kelly. She starred in five films...one of which (THE COUNTRY GIRL) earned her a Best Actress Oscar and two of which were Hitchcock pictures. But not all these projects were great...as she also starred, inexplicably, in "Green Fire"...a rather pedestrian film where the worst thing about it is Kelly.

The story mostly is about Rian Mitchell (Stewart Granger), a scheming treasure hunter who seems to always be on the verge of a bit find....but fails. As for Catherine (Grace Kelly), she mostly seems to be there as window dressing throughout the film...very weird window dressing. Why weird? It's set in the Colombian jungle and there the very American and white bread Kelly appears...in her designer costumes and perfectly coiffed hair. It is simply ridiculous...and never really seems believable or necessary. As for the rest of the film, some is kinda interest...kinda.

Overall, not a terrible film (after all, it has some nice location shots) but a movie that SHOULD have been a lot more interesting given its budget and cast.

This colorful picture is set in Columbia, South America , and specifically at the treacherous jungle . There prospector Rian Mitchell (Stewart Granger) comes across what he thinks may be an important emerald site . A bit later on , emerald miner Mitchell is wounded by some bandits , however meets plantation owner named Catherine Knowland (Grace Kelly) and nursed back to health . Catherine along with her brother Donald (John Ericsun) runs a coffee plantation. Rian goes back to get his colleague Vic Leonard (Paul Douglas) to join him in his mining venture . When they come back to the location , they must deal with a nasty native , El Moro, who claims he has rights for the land the major mine is on . Meanwhile , Mitchell and Catherine fall in love and they subsequently are threatened by El Moro .

This exciting film contains adventures , thrills , a love story and colorful outdoors well photographed by cameraman Paul Vogel . Plenty of a Hollywood all-star cast as Granger, Kelly , Douglas and Ericsun ; however ordinary script complications muddle the tale . Director Andrew Marton likes lots of big , noisy explosions , especially at its finale , when he doesn't know what else to do . Heat and ills affected the crew and main actors but they surprised for her resistance . During location shooting in Columbia actors lived aboard a huge barge moored in a river , when the river suddenly into spate , the boat broke loose and was drifting at speed down the river when the natives in canoes rescued the players . Special mention to musical score by the classical Miklos Rozsa , a great composer expert on impressive atmosphere in Noir cinema and epic films .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Andrew Marton , though with no originality and some moments result to be a little boring . Marton was a specialist on Wartime movies as : ¨The thin red line¨ , ¨The longest day ¨and adventure movies as ¨African Texas style¨, ¨Around the world under the sea¨, ¨Clarence , the cross-eyed lion¨, and ¨King Salomon's mines¨(1950) co-directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton directed the second unit , he then was tasked with replacing Compton Bennett as director after the latter had been taken ill . One of his more prestigious assignments came about by chance to lay in some excellent work as second-unit director , notably in charge of the chariot race for William Wyler's ¨Ben-Hur¨ (1959), as well as of the Normandy invasion sequences for the World War II . After his contract with MGM expired in 1954, Marton founded his own production company in conjunction with fellow Hungarian émigrés Ivan Tors and Laslo Benedek . He later concentrated on TV adventure series, helming the pilots, respectively for "Daktari" (1966) and "Cowboy in Africa" .

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.

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.