Fire Down Below

Cubby Broccoli splashed out on three big stars - two of whom fall out over the third - for this high-profile Warwick production (based on a novel by Max Catto), in CinemaScope and Technicolor swamped with local colour. Presumably they got nervous about Mitchum & Hayworth's delayed entrance and it was decided to jettison what was (when it's pointed out) obviously the original flashback structure.

Hence the opening credits superimposed on a limbo dance in full flight and the introduction of the port and much of the supporting cast at what is now the mid-point, with Bernard Lee nipping through the town on his little red scooter in a sequence originally intended to start the film. (Mitchum and Hayworth then disappear from the film for half an hour at this point before making what was going to be their entrance.)

The best scenes are easily those that poignantly pair Jack Lemmon (just starting out in films) with Bonar Colleano (killed soon afterwards in a car crash) in what is now the second half of the film.

This film was quite enjoyable but I think it could have been immeasurably improved if the director and editor had included more scenes between Robert Mitchum and Rita Hayworth. The episode where Jack Lemmon's character is trapped on the ship is far too drawn out. His crisis should've been shortened and they should've actually shown Rita Hayworth turning to Robert Mitchum because they are kindred spirits, instead of just explaining this occurance later on. Mitchum and Hayworth were off-screen far too long. That major complaint aside, I found the film very entertaining. Mitchum is perfect with the weary, cynical, and intense combination. Hayworth has more depth than usual as the mysterious foreign woman. And Lemmon in a rare dramatic turn is very convincing as the naive and lovestruck young man. Here's an interesting tidbit: the film was executive produced by Cubby Broccoli, the long time producer of the Bond movies, and Bernard Lee, who would play M in the Bond films, has a supporting role in Fire Down Below. 7/10.

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.

Rita Hayworth was 40 at the time this film was made. Rather interesting. She still looked lovely. Robert Mitchum and Jack Lemmon are both vying for her attention; Mitchum wins out momentarily.

Toward the end the story shifts as Lemmon is trapped in a ship, there is a fire, and Lemmon becomes a more sympathetic character. Mitchum and Hayworth feel guilty. This story would seem ripe for a re-make; it is a good story; rather a curiosity.

The Technicolor oranges and greens are prevalent; it is always interesting to watch films from this period. It would seem the stars themselves were fabricated to coordinate with the surroundings. The scenes at the carnival event are colorful and wild. Worth seeing as a commentary on the times.

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 ****