Terra em Fogo

Cary Grant stars as a famous neurosurgeon who is vacationing in a South American country with his new bride. The pair are subject to a "friendly abduction" when the current president of that country, Raoul Farrago (Jose Ferrer), learns of his presence. You see, the president has a brain tumor, and due to the fact that his country is on the verge of civil war, he dares not travel to another country for the operation he needs to save his life.

Farrago is a tyrant who claims that he must be so because democracy would never work in his country. His people are illiterate children, he says, and wouldn't know what to do with freedom if they had it. However, being a national "father image" doesn't prevent the president from stealing everything in the country that isn't nailed down. The president's wife does a great job of emulating Evita Peron before much was really known about her. Then there is Gilbert Roland as the leader of the opposition. He wants to make his people free, as long as he gets to be the new dictator. Roland does a great job with this role. How far he has progressed here since his early days as an actor at the dawn of sound.

So the question is - does Grant owe a service to the dictator by saving his life with a delicate operation only so that patient can go on being a killer and a thief, or would the death of this tyrant better serve mankind? If you throw the safety of his wife into the balance - what decision does the doctor make?

Most IMDb critics claim that this is unlike any other Cary Grant role, but I think his performance is remarkably reminiscent of "Notorious." Agent Devlin was more romantic, to be sure, but Dr. Ferguson is also a cool, calm, rational, and duty-bound man in a political maelstrom: he's a surgeon, vacationing in a banana republic whose tumor-stricken dictator shanghais him. The result is a trenchant dramatic character, which Grant does very well, supported by Ramon Novarro and Gilbert Roland, who always add quality to a movie. And I'd single out two other performers:

The Spanish composer Vicente Gómez graces only one scene, in a café, but he plays a soulful guitar solo that I wanted much, much more of.

And then there's José Ferrer as the dictator. He almost steals every scene, especially when he watches Grant's amateur surgical team drill into a fake human skull, rehearsing for the surgery awaiting the dictator himself tomorrow. When the rehearsal is done, Ferrer is sweating visibly and fumbling with a cigarette. He makes it easy for you to project yourself into that makeshift O. R. with the student surgical team-- you with a brain tumor and a captive surgeon who makes no effort to hide his antipathy.

But Grant holds his own. "Tell them never to use that instrument on the brain again," he says to his translator. "It might suck a piece right out of the brain." Ferrer hears, of course, and through his sweat he asks, "How did it go?" Grant drops the stitched-up skull in a garbage pail and says, "Oh, it went quite well. But you died."

CRISIS remains perhaps the only film that is completely forgotten when lists of Cary Grant films are offered. Even some of Grant's lesser vehicles are discussed, in depth, but Richard Brooks' CRISIS, which features a really stellar cast is 'lost' in contemporary cinema circles. There is no logical reason for this. Grant gives one of his very rare straight dramatic performances -- and one very very different from the dramatic range in NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART. It is a strong, forthright piece of work. The film deserves rediscovery for any number of reasons -- Grant's work, the first sign of Brooks' major talent... and one of the few (if only) Grant films that deals with modern political issues. I had remembered the film very well from my youth and never saw it listed for TV showings or any retrospectives. Thus, finding a rare DVD copy was wonderful ... and, surprisingly, very rewarding. Here's to someone pulling CRISIS out of obscurity and into a rung on the Cary Grant pantheon.

Fans of Cary Grant should see this under appreciated film. It proves that Grant could indeed act - and that he has far greater range than his standard light comedy fare would indicate.

This is not a great movie, but it is a very well made movie. It has high production values. The film features three of the major "Latin Lovers" from the Silent era - Gilbert Roland, Ramon Novarro, and Pedro De Cordoba.

Jose Ferrer and Signe Hasso play a Latin American Dictator and his wife. They are the weakest points in the production - Ferrer insists on "Acting" through every scene. His performance comes across as very dated and unbelievable. Hasso, normally a fine actress, comes across as wooden and barely lifelike.

The weakest point in the production is the script. It insists on being very "politcal" and this detracts from the enjoyment value. Yet, because of this political viewpoint, it treats Latinos with much more respect and consideration than other movies filmed during this era.

I first saw this movie in 1950 when it was released. I thought it was a good drama, more or less accurately portraying many of the problems of Latin American governments, with good dialog particularly between the two male leads. Incidentally, I did not find either character particularly sympathetic, but no matter. Many of the comments here have mentioned the resemblance to Eva Peron of the Signe Hasso character. Just an interesting observation: In the much later made for TV movie, Evita Peron, Signe Hasso and Jose Ferrer both had roles. He was the tango singer who seduced Evita and took her to Buenos Aires. She was the aging actress who befriended the young Dva Duarte and found herself in a jail cell. Of the two movies, Crisis is by far the better film. Evita Peron was a ripoff.