Le cercle de feu

Love it I am from Shelton Washington and even tho Oregon gets the credit and the opening I remember as a child watching it be made here in Mason County. My Dad was the real sheriff then and Ron Marston actually used his badge and hat in the movie and I have camped at the falls where they camped at the falls. A lot of Dad's deputies were in the film along with some of the people of the town. This movie holds a special place in my heart and I will always be partial to it. Even though it may be a B rated movie with lots of mistakes it shows what a beautiful country we have up her with the mountains. The actors did one heck of a job portraying their characters.

Ring of Fire opens with a great Duane Eddy song that accompanies the credits. For that reason, it's best to see this film from the beginning.

David Janssen plays a small-town Oregon police officer who tries to arrest three hoodlums played by Frank Gorshin, James Johnson, and Joyce Taylor. They are eating lunch in the town diner, when Janssen discovers that they are the prime suspects of a gas station hold-up the previous night. As he's driving them to the police station to book them for the gas station robbery, one of them grabs his gun, primarily because they weren't handcuffed. Thus begins the movie. As the four of them camp out in the outlying forest, Joyce Taylor decides to seduce David Janssen. Along with the cool Duane Eddy song, she is another reason not to miss this film. Frank Gorshin, who plays the supposed leader of the group, is good as a hardened juvenile delinquent. Of the Andrew Stone movies that I've been lucky enough to see, this is undoubtedly my favorite. It's in color, outdoors, on location, and manages to be amusing and exciting at the same time. The culminating fire scene, with the whole town running for their lives, isn't to be missed.

I've seen this at least 10 times not because it's an awesome movie but because it was filmed in the small town I grew up in. Every July it played in the small movie theater in Vernonia for at least one weekend, sometimes for the whole month. I have a lot of fun memories around it including the hoopla around the filming. Vernonia is not just a small town it's rural with only ~1500 people so it was a huge deal. As a 3rd grader it was a big deal when one of the folks from the production company showed up at my grandmother's to ask if they could film on her property. David Jansen flew in and out of Vernonia on a helicopter, landing on Bridge Street (the main street)so that he could sign autographs. I haven't seen the complete movie since 1972 and would like to see it again but can't find it.

Just caught this little gem and I must say, I was quite surprised... and entertained. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a great or even good movie, but what it lacks in acting and direction it more than makes up in well, ingenuity and effort. The basic plot is fine and the story plausible until the protagonists emerge from the forest and all hell breaks loose. There's a forest fire of massive proportions, an evacuation of equally massive proportions and disaster upon disaster. The bad guys buy it the good ones survive the good townspeople get away. What was amazing though is how many people crowded that little Rocky Mountain town. And the cars, they must have each owned a dozen. During the evacuation people kept running around, cars kept honking, and they all kept coming at you, scene after scene, with no letup. It also seemed like other than the three teenage protagonists and our hero, the town was populated by the middle aged and senior citizens. Quite spry I must admit, but where did the younger people go? It looked to me like the producers made the conscious decision to hire older actors. And then there was the forest fire. It was massive, awful, mesmerizing, utterly gigantic in scope. This must have been actual footage of a forest fire. I witnessed an unstoppable force of nature in all its awesome finality.

As for the actors, the three principals were quite good delivering their cornball lines, especially Frank Gorshen and Joyce Taylor. David Janssen was well, David Janssen. Straight faced all the way, little emotion, the picture of composure in the face of utter despair. Gorshen was fun to watch but his character was too one dimensional. Joyce Taylor on the other hand was worth the price of admission. Saucy all the way, dangerously sexy and with more than enough complexity to make her character an interesting standout. And what a fox. I was sorry to discover that her career was quite limited. Nonetheless she impressed me and I'll be looking out for more films with her.

So there you have it. Another bad film that's actually quite fun.

I've just seen the movie for the first time, on German television that is. Although they dub foreign movies with sometimes strange results (John Wayne and Indians speaking German...), they make sure not to compromise a film's integrity, so atmosphere, sound quality etc. are always perfectly preserved. And I must say, this film, of 1961, managed to do what only few films have in years - the grand finale with the escaping townsfolk made me hold my breath several times and had me moved to the edge of my chair. The rest of the film is also impressive, it all looked so very lifelike. No overacting, no exaggerated pathos, yet at times even poetic. A great film which makes your heart beat faster. And in spite of its age, amidst all the licked special effects block-busters of these days a refreshing experience.

Maurits Reijnen, Amsterdam