L'enfer des tropiques

It's interesting that the things that make this film weak would have made it great if only it had been made in the late forties or early fifties and had been made in black and white. The setting is some exotic never-never land where life is cheap and morality is a rare and expensive commodity somewhere in the Caribbean. The acting is stylized. The characterizations are two-dimensional. The story is one of an overheated romance and acts of heroism involving people who are not worthy of respect except that ultimately they do the right thing. Rita Hayworth is a bad girl with a heart of gold, a faded version of Gilda. Robert Mitchum is doing his usual Robert Mitchum imitation, i.e. he's just too tired and bored to give the really good performance of which he was capable. Jack Lemmon is the idealist romantic who is willing to lay everything on the line and winds up learning a bitter lesson about people. As I said earlier, if only this film had been made earlier and in black and white it would have been an archetypal example of film noir. Personally, I like film noir but the genre was highly stylized and too often the actors were required to strike poses rather than develop the personalities of the parts they were playing. Unfortunately this film was made too late to be considered a part of that form and therefore deserves scorn instead of being lauded in Saturday afternoon showings at Parisian film societies.

Max Catto's novel turned into a very odd love triangle involving two skippers of a smuggling vessel in the Caribbean with a luckless red-haired beauty, an immigrant from perhaps Lithuania, who needs to get to Cuba. British production is erratic, with location shots and studio close-ups often occupying the same scene, though the busy, fiery locals are a fun lot (they always seem to be celebrating). Second-half of plot takes a bizarre turn, with sensitive skipper Jack Lemmon getting trapped in the cargo of a burning ship and relying on Robert Mitchum, his old friend/sworn enemy, to pull him through. Mitchum and Lemmon are certainly one of the oddest twosomes in '50s cinema, but they don't play it buddy-buddy and the relationship is kept low-keyed. As the woman who comes between them, Rita Hayworth gets an amusingly irrelevant sequence dancing at Carnivale, but otherwise looks about as beat as her character is supposed to feel (I don't know if this was a case of Method acting or not). The picture isn't boring--nor ham-handed--but neither is it successful as a drama, character study, or action film. It seems to fall between the cracks, but fans of the star-trio should enjoy some of the fireworks. ** from ****

Rita Hayworth, Robert Mitchum, and Jack Lemmon star in "Fire Down Below," a 1957 film.

Hayworth plays Irena, a woman with a mysterious European past and no passport. Mitchum and Lemmon are Felix and Tony, who run a ferry boat in the Caribbean. They are paid to take Irena to another island.

Felix (Mitchum) knows she's trouble and worse than that, he's attracted to her. Tony (Lemmon) falls for Irena and, when she leaves the ferry, he accompanies her.

The film takes an odd turn here - Tony wants to marry Irena, so he takes a job transporting illegal goods to get some money together. But someone has tipped off the police. Tony and his associate escape, and Tony ends up on a Greek ship. The ship has an accident, and Tony is trapped in the hold.

This film starts out as one thing - a love triangle, a mysterious woman with a checkered past, two friends who become enemies - and becomes the story of a man facing death in the cargo hold of a ship.

That part goes on too long, and we don't see the happenings on dry land. We are told about them toward the end of the film. It just felt like something was missing.

There are suspenseful moments and good acting. Mitchum plays the sardonic Felix well, and Lemmon is, as always, likable as Tony and handles both the light and dramatic scenes very well.

I do think for this role his casting was somewhat strange. I think like Hayworth he was trying to fulfill contractual obligations to Columbia.

Hayworth is a long way from her Gilda days, but a striking woman. Her hard life, like the life of the character, has caught up with her. She doesn't display a lot of range in the role but has a knockout dance number during Mardi Gras that is very much the old Rita.

Interesting for the cast.

"Fire Down Below" involves a rather silly storyline with interesting scenery.Shot on location in the island of Tobago-complete with native Caribbean festivals and rituals-this film reveals more of the direction of Rita Hayworth's life-that of an aging glamourgirl fighting for survival despite her weakness for men and alcohol!At 37 Rita still has the sparkle of her earlier films.But here she's clearly older,heavier and depressed at the lack of fulfillment in her life! Much like what was really going on at that particular time in Rita's life!Her character Irena travels illegally from place to place-living off the willingness of those who wish to use her!She's jaded and unable to give or receive anything meaningful! Fire Down Below remains one of Rita Hayworth's last movies as a sexpot.Knowing that her next 10 years would involve a downward spiral into alcoholism,obscurity and eventual mental deterioration from Alzheimers disease leaves viewers feeling very sorry for her!It is a sad yet true insight into the life of a once beautiful and hopeful woman!

FIRE DOWN BELOW is watchable for the performances of ROBERT MITCHUM, RITA HAYWORTH and JACK LEMMON, as well as some good supporting actors, but there's a major disappointment.

The first half of the film deals with relationships and just starts to get added interest from the Mitchum-Hayworth chemistry when the story shifts gears and turns the rest of the plot over to Jack Lemmon for the film's climactic sub-plot. Ordinarily, this would have been fine, but not when viewers are expecting to see the Mitchum-Hayworth pairing develop into a deeper story of its own.

There's a lot of local color and some gorgeous scenery in Trinidad and Jamaica, but the story is an uninspired one that finally gets going once Hayworth enters the scene, then evaporates once she and Mitchum are given less to do.

Lemmon is fine as the happy go lucky, naive sort of bumbler he always played at this stage in his career. Hayworth is an even more jaded version of "Gilda" (maturing now and still quite attractive), and Mitchum is his usual laconic self.

Uneven as drama but watchable for its star appeal.