Goldenes Feuer

Stars Jane Russell and Jeff Chandler. When upper crust caucasian girl Amanda falls fast for engineer Jonathan Dartland, there are issues to be discussed, since Jonathan is part apache. some really dramatic sunsets right at the beginning. Amanda is headstrong, and proposes right away. Dartland has an idea of the conflict they are in for, and is hesitant. and the local ladies are all wearing prim and proper dresses, while Amanda struts into town wearing a more revealing top, with bare shoulders and everything. and no hat! and the locals watch as Hugh ( dan duryea) pays more attention to Amanda than Dartland. jealousy. flirting. head games. amanda keeps trying to cozy up to Dartland, but he keeps pulling away, making things harder between them. and then amanda learns more about the apache culture, and how Dartland had thought the traditions were supposed to work. can they hold it together? Directed by Joseph Pevney, who made films from 1950 -1960, and then was king of the tv series. original novel by Anya Seton. Oh, and the title Foxfire comes from the glow of the rotting timbers near a mine, and is quite dangerous. according to Dartland, the miner. it's pretty good. some plot issues, but certainly entertaining.

I think it's the sensational color and the locations that lure me to this film. The time period fits well into it also. The deeply saturated blue sky and the arid desert draw me in like a magnet. In 1955 I was ten years old, and numerous rail trips through the west, with stops in Tucumcari, New Mexico, are brought to mind with films like this one. I recently visited Oatman, Arizona, where much if not all of this film was shot, only because of the film. Of course as would be expected, I found nothing in Oatman identifiable with the film after all these years, except the deep blue sky and the arid desert. Jeff Chandler was always a favorite, and his role as a strong silent mining engineer of American Indian heritage, plays well with Jane Russell's role as a rich bored adventurous young woman, almost a forerunner of "Green Acres" without the laughs. All of these sensory elements entice my 10 year old's psyche to the surface. The film offers great release for me. In 1955 one of the railroads used a young Indian boy's image as a logo, and General Motors Pontiac division used a similar theme. I was fascinated by Indian lore at the time, and the mystery and remembrance of it all comes into relative focus with this film. Not a film for everyone, but as far as I am concerned, they made this one for me.

Hot-blooded potboiler with facetious, flirtatious undermining has New York socialite Jane Russell vacationing at Arizona spa near Tucson; a flat tire brings her together with worldly half-breed Jeff Chandler (Apache on his mother's side, white on his professor father's). Their whirlwind marriage seems like a good idea at first, until Russell learns her engineer husband is beset with prejudice and Indian superstitions at the mine, that the tippling small town doctor wants her for his own, and the gossipy neighbors have their own version of a snobbish pecking order. Entertaining star-vehicle doesn't do much with Dan Duryea's role as the drunken doc (he keeps popping up unannounced, and the finale leaves his character stranded); however, Russell--with her incredulous witticisms--and strong, sexy Chandler are a good match (no big romantic sparks, though with lots of chemistry). The picture doesn't always add up on a logical level, yet emotionally it is intriguing. Handsome production (with rich color), unobtrusive direction, nice theme song co-written by Chandler and Henry Mancini. **1/2 from ****

Rich Eastern socialite Jane Russell is out West, where she meets half-Apache mining engineer Jeff Chandler. They fall into lust, which in this 1950s Universal drama means they get married quick - Chandler only being half-Indian is why this is acceptable, far more so than if he had been playing a Jew, which he was. Miss Russell is happy to live in a bug-infested shack, but she doesn't take to being a bedtime hobby for her husband.

There's a bit of sociology and psychology that gives this movie some depth, but under the direction of Joseph Pevney it turns into another soaper about "love on my terms." Miss Russell seems the nobler for having to chase cockroaches down the sink, but Chandler's obsession is getting an old gold mine up and profitable on the reservation, creating job and wealth for his mother's people. That seems more useful to me; one contemptuous character remarks he has turned down good jobs back East in his futile-seeming quest.

William H. Daniels gets some gorgeous photography out of the beautiful leads and land around Kingman, Arizona. The cast is padded with Dan Duryea in a subplot that does nothing, Mara Corday as the woman who loves him, and the always worthwhile Barton MacLane.

The pretty pictures will keep you interested, but for me the ending, in which Miss Russell returns to Chandler, seems more a matter of what the audience expects than anything else. They appear to have both realized what's wrong with their relationship, but knowing it and doing something about it are two very different things.

Beautifully photographed in S. Arizona and the stars provide plenty of heat. I didn't think The Code allowed for sharing double beds in 1955.