Green Fire (1954) User Reviews (26)

Good Flora And Fauna

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 27 September 2009]

Before writing this review I looked up emeralds in Wikipedia and found that Paul Douglas was wrong when he said during the film that emeralds are only found in two places, Colombia and the Soviet Union, specifically Siberia. They are found in all kinds of places including some areas of the USA. Would that were the only thing wrong with this film.

Still Colombia is the area best known for it and until recently when you thought of Colombia you thought of emeralds and coffee. Now sad to say you think drug cartel. But back in 1954 it was emeralds that was on the minds of adventurers Stewart Granger and Paul Douglas. They've discovered an abandoned mine that they think was abandoned prematurely. And the only place to get laborers is from the nearby coffee plantation owned by brother and sister Grace Kelly and John Ericson.

Young Ericson is hot to trot to help Granger and Douglas, Kelly less so. But she does have an eye for Granger even with both men pursuing her.

And of course there's bandit chief Murvyn Vye who actually does own the land where the emeralds might be found. But he'd just as soon let others do the back breaking work of digging them out.

Now with all the information I've given I think 99% of viewers would see where this one is going. In fact that's Green Fire's main problem, it's your basic routine action/adventure flick on which MGM decided to spend a ton of money. For one thing it's best asset is the color location cinematography in the Colombian jungles. After King Solomon's Mines and The African Queen, American audiences would not accept back lot jungles any longer. Note that Stewart Granger was the star of King Solomon's Mines and he got first crack at every jungle picture that came along after that.

Green Fire is hardly as good as King Solomon's Mines. Grace Kelly seemed pretty distant in this film, looking like she was a Philadelphia débutante rather than a coffee plantation owner. She did a flock of good films this year, Rear Window, The Bridges At Toko-Ri and her Oscar winner The Country Girl in 1954. Green Fire just isn't in the class of the others.

In short, admire the flora and fauna of Green Fire and the story is something you can live with.

A quite enjoyable adventure story.

[mvfever · 7/10 · 19 April 2004]

The movie really is good enough for its genre. The story well written and paced, the characters well portrayed, especially by Granger and Douglas. Granger was a natural as the adventurous treasure hunting mining engineer , Douglas, solid and humane , played his long time partner and friend. Together, they fought the hardship of mining, the bandits, sometimes each other, and for the girl Kelly. Kelly was a bit out of place here. She though was very beautiful but somehow too civil and too dignified for the south American jungle background. Her romance with Granger lacked intensity and passion. Fortunately, the story and some actions provided enough intensity and excitement , made the movie quite enjoyable

Lacked Energy

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 22 November 2012]

"Rian X. Mitchell" (Stewart Granger) is an ambitious mining entrepreneur who is looking in Columbia for a long-lost emerald mine built by the Conquistadors in 1687. He finds it but some bandits also find him and he is shot, robbed, pushed off a hillside and left for dead. He manages to stumble away but is then attacked by a jaguar. Fortunately, a village priest named "Father Ripero" (Robert Tafur) happens to be there and shoots the jaguar before it can kill Rian. Father Ripero then takes him to a nearby coffee plantation where "Catherine Knowland" (Grace Kelly) manages to tend his wounds. When he recovers he tells her that he has a partner, "Vic Leonard" (Paul Douglas) that he has to see right away but that he will return. Once he and his partner return to the coffee plantation they begin to work on the emerald mine which creates difficulties for all concerned. Anyway, having given the initial plot I will stop right here so as not to spoil the movie for anyone who wishes to view it. That said, while the entire cast performed in a decent manner the film seemed slow in some parts and lacked energy. Part of the problem may have been that the romance between Rian and Catherine lacked passion. Likewise, the action was solid but not very unique or original. In short, this is a decent movie with beautiful scenery and a capable cast. But with all it had going for it I believe it should have been better.

A Decent '50s Adventure

[dhrice · 20 April 2016]

I will confess to being a sucker for exotic locales and pretty faces, and this film has both. Filmed partially on location in Colombia, the movie offers dashing Stewart Granger as a treasure-hunting adventurer and radiant Grace Kelly as the heir to a struggling coffee plantation. Granger plays his role with the requisite cockiness, and Kelly just has to look beautiful and act sincere. The best role falls to Paul Douglas, who plays Granger's world- weary and curmudgeonly business partner. If you liked The Naked Jungle with Charlton Heston and Eleanor Parker, you will probably like this film, although Charlton Heston's Leiningen and Stewart Granger's Rian Mitchell are very different men. The plot is serviceable, with plenty of action and beautiful cinematography. It isn't great cinema, but if you want to settle in on a Saturday morning with a big mug of coffee and watch some '50s nostalgia, you could do worse than this movie.

Adventures , action , romance and emerald mines in the exotic Columbian jungles .

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 16 July 2013]

This colorful picture is set in Columbia, South America , and specifically at the treacherous jungle . There prospector Rian Mitchell (Stewart Granger) comes across what he thinks may be an important emerald site . A bit later on , emerald miner Mitchell is wounded by some bandits , however meets plantation owner named Catherine Knowland (Grace Kelly) and nursed back to health . Catherine along with her brother Donald (John Ericsun) runs a coffee plantation. Rian goes back to get his colleague Vic Leonard (Paul Douglas) to join him in his mining venture . When they come back to the location , they must deal with a nasty native , El Moro, who claims he has rights for the land the major mine is on . Meanwhile , Mitchell and Catherine fall in love and they subsequently are threatened by El Moro .

This exciting film contains adventures , thrills , a love story and colorful outdoors well photographed by cameraman Paul Vogel . Plenty of a Hollywood all-star cast as Granger, Kelly , Douglas and Ericsun ; however ordinary script complications muddle the tale . Director Andrew Marton likes lots of big , noisy explosions , especially at its finale , when he doesn't know what else to do . Heat and ills affected the crew and main actors but they surprised for her resistance . During location shooting in Columbia actors lived aboard a huge barge moored in a river , when the river suddenly into spate , the boat broke loose and was drifting at speed down the river when the natives in canoes rescued the players . Special mention to musical score by the classical Miklos Rozsa , a great composer expert on impressive atmosphere in Noir cinema and epic films .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Andrew Marton , though with no originality and some moments result to be a little boring . Marton was a specialist on Wartime movies as : ¨The thin red line¨ , ¨The longest day ¨and adventure movies as ¨African Texas style¨, ¨Around the world under the sea¨, ¨Clarence , the cross-eyed lion¨, and ¨King Salomon's mines¨(1950) co-directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton directed the second unit , he then was tasked with replacing Compton Bennett as director after the latter had been taken ill . One of his more prestigious assignments came about by chance to lay in some excellent work as second-unit director , notably in charge of the chariot race for William Wyler's ¨Ben-Hur¨ (1959), as well as of the Normandy invasion sequences for the World War II . After his contract with MGM expired in 1954, Marton founded his own production company in conjunction with fellow Hungarian émigrés Ivan Tors and Laslo Benedek . He later concentrated on TV adventure series, helming the pilots, respectively for "Daktari" (1966) and "Cowboy in Africa" .

Breathtakingly photographed adventure film worth catching for technical achievements.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 27 July 2012]

There are going to be a lot of comparisons to "King Soloman's Mines" because of the presence of leading man Stewart Granger and the same director. However, I also saw in it a more glamorous version of "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", with Granger, Paul Douglas and John Erickson equivalent to "Sierra Madre's" Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston and Tim Holt, if a bit toned down compared to that outstanding adventure film's cast. Granger is out to find the elusive emerald mine of the Conquistadors in the Columbian mountains. Like "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", these mountains are filled with bandits, lead by "El Mino". Attacked by the bandits at the beginning of the film, he manages to survive, and is taken to the home of lovely coffee plantation owner Grace Kelly whom he is instantly smitten with. Returning to Kelly's plantation after briefly leaving to bring his partner (Douglas) back with him, Granger finds himself the victim of the title, "Green Fire", which translates as the greed the earlier conquistadors fell victim to as their findings increased. That is experienced here when two of the Columbian miners begin to fight over what they believe to be emerald which turns out to be false.

Kelly had a busy year, being hot after "High Noon" and her Oscar-Nominated turn in "Mogambo". Other than this film, she "graced" audiences with her presence in Hitchcock's "Rear Window" and "Dial M For Murder" and her Oscar Winning turn in "The Country Girl". Her character may seem soft at first glance, but she isn't afraid of hard work; In fact, she gets out there, being physical in the dirt along with her plantation workers. Now that's the type of boss I like! Granger is essentially the same character he was in "King Soloman's Mines". Acting honors go to Paul Douglas as the good-hearted seemingly brutish partner who falls in love unrequitably with Kelly. For once, I'd like to see a film where the not so good looking hero ends up with the beauty and the hunk (Granger, whose character is only snapped out of his greed by impending tragedy) gets sent packing. The film's message about greed remains strong, as does the lesson about pulling together in times of crisis, in this case, an impending flood that could destroy the entire valley.

Hunting for emeralds with Her Serene Highness

[jjnxn-1 · 6/10 · 6 June 2014]

Grace didn't make many movies, she should have made one less! Silly adventure isn't wretched nor is it very good. Her only film to lose money on original release.

The movie is a standard jungle picture typical of the fifties made better then it should be by the cast. Grace and Stewart, who most definitely did not hit it off during filming-Grace found him boorish and puffed up, handle what little romance there is well enough. However the best performance as was often the case comes from Paul Douglas. Even though he didn't have leading man looks he had a bruised dignity that softened his blustering demeanor and made him a sympathetic character.

Some nice location photography and a decent if preposterous climax but this is without question the worst picture Grace Kelly made during her brief Hollywood heyday.

A routine adventure, efficiently made

[prcadle · 6/10 · 30 April 2013]

There is a whole subset of movies from the 1930's to the early 50's which revolve around the plot of a man who becomes so obsessed with the idea of succeeding at the task he has taken on for himself, that he temporarily loses his sense of decency and alienates - always in this order - his best friend/colleague, his girlfriend/fiancée, and finally, all the men who work for him and worship the ground he walks on. The main character is usually an engineer with a new idea that will make him lots of money, but the real motivation for him is proving his idea will work. Examples of this type of film would be Pat O'Brien in "China Clipper", John Wayne in "Tycoon" and James Stewart in "Thunder Bay".

Green Fire is one of the last of this type of film, and one of the most beautifully shot. It has some action sequences thrown in - a couple of short gun fights with the local bandit leader, for example, an avalanche or two and an almost devastating flood. There is also a love triangle of sorts.

This one is set in Colombia, South America, and the idea is to find the emeralds in an old mine that the conquistadores first opened. Stewart Granger is the mining engineer, Paul Douglas his partner and best friend. Granger is presented as a lovable rogue who cons his buddy into staying on for one more adventure.

Nearby to their mine is a large coffee plantation, owned by Grace Kelly's character and her brother. She is devoted to this plantation as it has been in the family for 4 generations. The brother is young ands restless and doesn't care "beans" about coffee, which of course makes him a great patsy for Granger to con into backing the mining operation.

Granger and Kelly fall in love, but she is afraid he will be ever the wanderer and she's firmly rooted to her plantation. Granger becomes more and more ruthless in his pursuit of the emeralds - first alienating his friend Douglas, then Grace and eventually his actions endanger the lives of everyone in the region, and may destroy the plantation. But of course it all works out in the end, he comes to his senses, regains his moral balance and kisses the girl in the rainstorm at the end of the film.

A very routine plot line, set in what was then a rather exotic locale. Granger was a limited actor, but this was not a demanding role and he does well. Douglas is probably the best among the cast as the best friend with more common sense and stronger moral compass. Grace Kelly is lovely as always, but not very convincing in the role - she just never really was the "outdoors type".

The film is shot in beautiful widescreen color, some location shooting seems to have taken place, but most of it was on very nicely done sets and backlots.

At 1 hour and 40 minutes, the film tells its story pretty briskly with not much extraneous material.

It's not a timeless classic, but it is a good example of typical 1950's adventure films, and is entertaining enough to watch once every few years.

Lacking Fire!

[jpdoherty · 4/10 · 15 December 2009]

A handsome looking early Cinemascope/colour romantic adventure story is probably about all that makes MGM's GREEN FIRE (1954) an entertaining enough movie. Produced by Armand Deutsch it was routinely written by the usually more astute Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and directed without an awful lot of spark by Andrew Marton. However it did have its compensations in Paul Vogel's spirited Cinematography and a stunning score by Miklos Rozsa.

Starring in the film was a mixed bag of talent! Stewart Granger and Paul Douglas are a pair of Emerald miners prospecting in the hills of Colombia. And Grace Kelly is a neighbourhood coffee planter who Granger has the hots for. The thinly plotted adventure also has some local bandits headed by the infamous El Moro (Murvin Vye) who, of course, wants any and all of the yet unearthed green stones for himself leading to an action filled finale.

Although a constantly busy actor Stewart Granger never did have a hugely distinguished career in film. Appearing in a number of unmemorable British films in the forties the London born actor landed himself the lead in Metro's "King Solomines Mines" in 1950 followed by a contract with the studio where - with the exception of the fine swashbuckler "Scaremouche" (1952) and "The Wild North" (1951) - he continued on his merry way of churning out a load of indifferent pictures (including a most unfortunate and ill advised attempt at a western in 1957 called "Gun Glory"). Also Grace Kelly was, to my mind, a quite unremarkable actress! She never really impressed me like she did the public in general. Her role here in GREEN FIRE is tame and forgetful which is probably due to her part being so poorly written. Nevertheless in GREEN FIRE she is quite unimpressive! Two years later the lady would star in MGM's "The Swan" (1956) the story about a girl being groomed to marry a crown prince. The actress then retired from films and did exactly that - becoming a real life princess. How about that?? But Paul Douglas is the most curious bit of casting! He simply doesn't suit the part of the intrepid adventurer! Always a very likable character actor Douglas was more at home in urban dramas and light comedies.

The film's most tangible aspect is Miklos Rozsa's music! It is also something of a curiosity! GREEN FIRE is the great composer's most tuneful score and it actually has a theme song which is a great departure for Rozsa. He always had an aversion to theme songs and under no circumstances did he ever wish to go down the Dimitri Tiomkin road. So what ever possessed him to have his pivotal and quite beautiful main theme - with lyrics by Jack Brooks - sung over the titles is anyone's guess! That said, the chorus performing the song do an admirable job and their effort strikingly and vividly adds an attractive harmonic flourish to the piece. Also, with the picture being set in Colombia the music has an engaging Latin flavour and there are plenty of indigenous folk tunes mixed through Rozsa's lovely score. The highlight of the score (and the movie) is the brilliant, exciting and intense cue that comes towards the end for the picture's climax where the composer uses an ingenious, frantic and rhythmic clock ticking sound in the orchestra for the build-up of tension as Granger sets the timer on the explosives charge that will literally bring down the mountain on the marauding bandits.

GREEN FIRE is by no means a great movie but with lovely Cinemascope Cinematography, a spectacular mountain avalanche and a great Rozsa score there are, I suppose, worse ways to spend 100 minutes!

There's magic in green fire

[jhkp · 7/10 · 4 July 2013]

MGM adventure set in Colombia (and beautifully filmed there). Stewart Granger plays a somewhat hapless, but charming, down-on-his-luck mining engineer, hoping to make a big emerald strike. Paul Douglas plays his solid, more practical partner, who's about to quit the game and take a job in Canada, when he's persuaded by Granger to give it one last go.

Granger has an accident and ends up recuperating at a comfortable coffee plantation owned by lovely Grace Kelly and her brother, John Ericson. Granger and Grace fall for one another, but complications ensue, including conflicting ethics.

Yes, you've seen it all before, and despite top stars and first-class production values, as well as landslides, animal attacks, a villain called El Moro, and Granger with his shirt off, the picture still comes across as a bit of a potboiler.

On the plus side, Granger and Kelly are both more nonchalant and casual than usual. In a far cry from her Hitchcock outings, Grace even drives a Jeep, rides horseback, gets dirty and wet, and performs manual labor. All in Helen Rose designs.

If you don't take any of it very seriously, you'll probably enjoy "Green Fire." It's one of those movies that doesn't grip you right away, or even in the first hour. When movies were meant to be seen in theaters, filmmakers were free to set up the story slowly, because the audience wasn't going anywhere. They weren't going to change the channel. This picture sets everything up solidly, eventually leading to an exciting climax and satisfying conclusion.

Sure, I could easily imagine a woman that looks and dresses like Grace Kelly in the Colombian jungle!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 20 November 2017]

1954 was a VERY busy year for Grace Kelly. She starred in five films...one of which (THE COUNTRY GIRL) earned her a Best Actress Oscar and two of which were Hitchcock pictures. But not all these projects were great...as she also starred, inexplicably, in "Green Fire"...a rather pedestrian film where the worst thing about it is Kelly.

The story mostly is about Rian Mitchell (Stewart Granger), a scheming treasure hunter who seems to always be on the verge of a bit find....but fails. As for Catherine (Grace Kelly), she mostly seems to be there as window dressing throughout the film...very weird window dressing. Why weird? It's set in the Colombian jungle and there the very American and white bread Kelly appears...in her designer costumes and perfectly coiffed hair. It is simply ridiculous...and never really seems believable or necessary. As for the rest of the film, some is kinda interest...kinda.

Overall, not a terrible film (after all, it has some nice location shots) but a movie that SHOULD have been a lot more interesting given its budget and cast.

Hard times in Colombia in collapsing emerald mines and a coffee farm at risk

[clanciai · 8/10 · 14 July 2018]

This seemed like a very ordinary adventure entertainment out in the jungles of South America about coffee and emeralds, but it turned out better than expected, mainly because of superb acting by Stewart Granger and Paul Douglas. The best scenes are when they are drunk together. It's a good story which provokes some afterthought and could teach anyone a thing or two, and there is an amounting turn of action towards the end when the bandit league really do their best to turn everything to the worst. Another asset of the film is Miklos Rosza's music - it could turn any film into a maze of magic. The colour is also splendid, and as an entertainment it is definitely first class, not only because Grace Kelly is into it as well, but firstly because of the exoticism and excellence of the story of how two good-for-nothings finally get together in the end for something good.

Will you have coffee or emeralds?

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 29 July 2009]

"Green fire.

Emeralds burning like blue fire.

So rare.

So precious to own."

So goes the theme song of this echt-1950s Hollywood adventure in an exotic land. Those lyrics, which do not hang upon the cheek of this movie like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear, no matter how hard I try to love them, are about on a par with the rest of the story.

Greedy Stewart Granger and skeptical Paul Douglas are two mining engineers determined to find emeralds in a South American country. They set up a camp on a promising mountain and spend a good deal of time fraternizing with the owners of a neighboring coffee plantation -- Grace Kelly and her callow brother, John Ericson.

Granger and Kelly fall in love under the tropical moon. Douglas falls too, but he's fat and older and not nearly as smooth as Granger. I believe, though, that Kelly, had she thought about it, would have found Douglas's Philadelphia accent engagingly familiar. "Oh, come awn, I'm no sub-stee-tute for Stewart Granger." Inevitably, there is conflict. It comes in two forms. First El Moro, this greaseball bandido, finds the idea of stealing any emeralds, those stones so precious to own, appealing and lets the two miners know that he'll return when circumstances call for it. Second, the mine shaft that Granger, Douglas, and a handful of men have dug into the mountain has collapsed. This means that they either return as failures or they "step mine," which we would call "strip mining." And this requires lots of dough, which they don't have, and is labor intensive. Granger the greedy implements a simple solution without Douglas's knowing about it. He talks Ericson into funding the mining enterprise with the plantation's entire kitty, and Ericson brings all the plantation workers to the mine, leaving Kelly with a ripe crop of coffee beans and nobody to harvest and process them.

Other tribulations follow. Ericson is accidentally killed. The sluice from the mine changes the course of the river and threatens Kelly's plantation, on which the women of the village are now working tirelessly as a replacement for the absent men.

El Moro shows up, eyes beady, teeth glistening, phonemes slurring. A shoot out at the climax, and all the bad guys die in an avalanche while all the good guys live, and the river changes its course, and the plantation is saved, and Granger has an epiphany, and it ends happily.

Frankly, I kind of enjoyed it. Granger is tan and fit and leaps around like Errol Flynn. Grace Kelly is the most beautiful and least probable owner of a tropical empire you've ever seen. She looks almost sassy in those starched blouses and tight slacks. Paul Douglas is always easy to identify with because he completely lacks any of the social graces. John Ericson -- what is he doing in this movie? What was he doing in ANY movie?

The special effects are good for their period. The gun fight at the end, with the bandidos peppering away at the human springbok Granger, had some novel sounds and original minor effects. Bullets zip through the air. And when they ricochet, it's with a soft "ptew" rather than the traditional loud, vibrating "whanggggg." If they hit a wooden object, a chip flies off. Now, this all sounds like a matter of little consequence, but it was new at the time and quite exciting.

But, Dios mio, this is an OLD story. Warners and the other studios were grinding them out like Sonicburgers back in the 30s and thereafter. Reckless, materialistic adventurer goes into the wilderness, falls in love with a local, and is redeemed. Well, I'll just mention "His Majesty O'Keefe" as another typical example. This one happens to be more entertainingly done than most.

Good cast in routine action yarn

[bux · 5/10 · 12 November 1998]

By far, the cast overshadows this routine action/adventure tale of a duo of soldiers of fortune seeking emeralds in Columbia. Kelly seems out of place as the young maiden running a coffee plantation, who eventually confronts Granger over labor and water rights. The location shots are of interest, and Granger and Douglas do the best they can with the script. Hackneyed ending provides no surprises.

American miners off to adventure in foreign lands

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 18 January 2008]

Stewart Granger is Rian Mitchell, who finds the famous lost mine which is supposed to be just filled with emeralds, thus the name of the film, "Green Fire", from MGM. At first, his partner Vic (Paul Douglas ) isn't interested, and just wants to take a regular job in Canada, but ends up staying. At one point, to try to win money, Rian plays a game called Tejo, which seems to be a game of aim. One pitches a disk at a sandbox, which contains a small ball of clay which has a bullet or some explosive under it; you know you have hit it right on the head when it explodes and bursts into the air. Of course, the explosives are handled by a young kid..... where is Child Protective Services ? I looked up the game up on yahoo.com, and it seems to be a real game in Columbia. The miners get intertwined with the American owners of a plantation, as well as with Father Ripero (Robert Tafur) who seems to be on their side, bandits, and of course, a mariachi band, which was quite talented - couldn't find them listed in cast or music/sound credits... too bad. This story is quite similar to "Elephant Walk" (Paramount studios), which also came out in 1954 - Americans travel to foreign land, and take on nature. Not bad... better than I thought it would be. Filmed in cinemascope, ratio of 2.55 to 1, so it's shown in letterbox on TCM.

change it

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 22 October 2020]

In Colombia, English adventurer Rian Mitchell (Stewart Granger) discovers Carrero, the lost emerald mine of the Conquistadors. El Moro's bandits kill his guide and leaving him for dead. He is rescued Father Ripero who brings him to a coffee plantation owned by Catherine Knowland (Grace Kelly) and her brother Donald. Rian returns to the city to find his business partner Vic Leonard leaving for Canada.

This may be the earliest Hollywood movie with a Tejo game. I think that I only saw this game a few years ago on a travel show. Once he gets to Grace Kelly, I expected that the lead would stay there to woo her. The movie loses a bit of steam dealing with Vic in the city. At least, it allows him to play a lot of Tejo but I'd rather stay at the coffee plantation. The story should be a lot simpler. It's based on a memoir but who cares? Change it all. Write out Vic. I like the setup but the rest is a bit of a grind. Granger is fine but one hopes for better to play opposite Grace Kelly. This is fine.

A cross between "King Solomon Mines" and "The Treasure of Sierra Madre"

[jordondave-28085 · 6/10 · 23 September 2023]

(1954) Green Fire DRAMA ADVENTURE

Adapted from the memoirs by Peter W. Rainier, that has explorer, Rian Mitchell (Stewart Granger) seeking wealth somewhere on the South American jungle after hearing something about a legend regarding the conquistadors. He does this with the help of business partner, Vic Leonard (Paul Douglas), coffee grower, Catherine Knowland (Grace Kelly) and her brother, Donald Knowland (John Ericson), along with some of the South American villagers. Okay film, but uninteresting chemistry between Grace Kelly and Stewart Granger. I also find that some of the deaths that occurred in the movie are avoidable.

Stewart Granger in Colombia

[marthawilcox1831 · 1/10 · 11 August 2014]

I've never really enjoyed this film when it was repeated on television, and I still haven't changed my opinion. Both Stewart Granger and Grace Kelly are wasted in this film, even though Kelly was past her best after 'Dial M For Murder'. Granger still had 'Moonfleet' ahead of him, but this film does nothing to add to his canon of films except to have the opportunity to work with Kelly. In his autobiography, 'Sparks Fly Upwards', Granger says 'Grace had one phobia, her behind.' Admittedly, I did notice that her behind stuck out when Paul Douglas embraced her. In the final scene when Grace and Stewart kiss, he says in his autobiography that the torrential downpour 'accentuated that fabulous behind. To save her embarrassment, I covered it with both hands.' I bet Paul Douglas would have wanted to do the same thing.

Although the film is awful, reading about Stewart's experience of making the film is interesting.

Dud!

[raskimono · 5/10 · 13 March 2004]

Time has not been kind to this cinemascope curio from 1954 that did good box office business back then. Granger and Kelly, neither of whom qualify among my favorite actors are the stars. Granger was always too stoic for me. The man couldn't act and Kelly too cold and imitating other actors instead of giving her own performance. This movie involves the search for "green fire" the name for some jewels and involves a rival team that is trying to use Granger to find the jewels and intercept it from him, once found. Kelly is a white girl in the land with a plantation. That about wraps it up. The love story is staid and the action sequences dull, even in cinemascope. I am told I must write at least ten lines so this should do it.

Better than other reviews indicate

[Ginajeffrey · 8/10 · 28 June 2014]

Green Fire is a pretty good watch. Stewart Granger is at his handsome best and he and Kelly certainly present their characters as a couple with spark between them. Paul Douglas is a rock, as usual in his supporting role as the loyal partner to Grangers leading man. I was pleasantly surprised by Kelly's acting in this little film. She was better and less like an inexperienced young actress than I have seen her before. I liked the restrained quality in her performance. Oddly it was the exact opposite to this, in Grangers performance, which appealed to me. He was at the top of his form, physically lithe and handsome and at the top of his form as the stereotypical dashing leading man. He owned the part. I rate this film as at the top of its genre pile! It was enjoyable but not difficult, and full of eye candy for boys and girls. Great fun.

Grace Kelly's most forgettable film

[hall895 · 4/10 · 17 January 2016]

Grace Kelly only appeared in eleven films during her brief acting career. Green Fire is the most obscure of them. Obscure for good reason. This is an eminently forgettable film. Kelly plays Catherine Knowland, owner of a coffee plantation in Colombia. Stewart Granger plays Rian Mitchell, who's hunting for emeralds nearby. Paul Douglas plays Vic Leonard, Rian's reluctant partner in the emerald mining expedition. Rian wants emeralds. He also wants Catherine. Unfortunately there are complications. The mining is going poorly. No emeralds. Local bandits show up and threaten to steal any emeralds he may eventually find. Rian gets frustrated, then he gets desperate and desperation can lead to terrible consequences.

There's a lot of melodrama here but it doesn't really make for a very good film. The plot is threadbare. The film is billed as a spectacular adventure but there is absolutely nothing spectacular about it. It's very mundane, in many places dreadfully boring. Granger comes across very flat in playing Rian. Douglas brings much more personality to the role of Vic, at least he has some wisecracks which perk things up a bit. The romance between Rian and Catherine never sparks to life. Vic is interested in Catherine as well but that would-be romance seems unlikely to say the least. The film plods along, leading man Rian being unlucky both in love and emerald mining, desperate enough to do things which make both the other characters and the audience detest him. He becomes an entirely unsympathetic character, which certainly doesn't help any with enjoyment of the film. The film really struggles to hold your interest and keep you invested in the proceedings. The romance falls flat. None of the action sequences are particularly memorable. Douglas does have some good moments. Kelly isn't given much to do besides look pretty, though she certainly is good at that. Granger really disappoints. All in all, it's a movie not worth remembering. It's Grace Kelly's one true dud.

Great cast but lousy script!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 30 June 2017]

Copyright 29 November 1954 by Loew's Inc. A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture. New York opening at the Mayfair: 24 December 1954. U.S. release: 21 January 1955. U.K. release: February 1955. Australian release: 13 October 1955. Sydney opening at suburban Metro cinemas. 9,013 feet. 100 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: An emerald miner in Colombia falls for the young owner of a coffee plantation.

NOTES: Location scenes filmed at Barranquilla on the Magdalena River, and in the mountains surrounding Bogota, Colombia.

COMMENT: The rush to film stories in CinemaScope resulted in some half-baked adventure dramas whose publicity promised far more entertainment thrills than the movie actually delivered or, as in this case, interspersed those thrills with a routine, lackluster, clichéd and predictable yarn that wasted the considerable talents of the players unwittingly involved in fostering this tedium.

Another unfortunate aspect of "Green Fire" is that the climax is entirely contrived by special effects whose miniature sets are painfully obvious on the big screen. This succeeds in dissipating even more of the audience's interest than the sluggish story.

Despite background filming in exotic locales (and even these scenes despite the actual presence of the principals in them are presented in a somewhat too pedestrian fashion to rouse all that much interest — and there is one glaringly bad phony backdrop which invites audience derision) and all the efforts of the principals to let loose with their star power charm, virility and lovable, heroic grouchiness (and a nice if all too brief study in villainy from Murvyn Vye) from Kelly, Granger and Douglas respectively, the film succeeds mainly on the strength of its process — namely the box office lure of CinemaScope. Even the promising Rozsa score is dissipated by an inappropriate title tune.

green fire

[mossgrymk · 4/10 · 15 July 2023]

"Mogambo" with an excitement by-pass. Or, if you prefer, "Indiana Jones" on Darvon. Watched it for about twenty minutes and then bailed, right around the time the stereotyped/sexist hot senorita secretary was draping herself all over Stew Granger. Which led me to muse on how Granger was a poor Limey's Clark Gable pretty much throughout his career. Which led me to muse on how MGM did Gable a favor by replacing him on this dog with Granger. Which somehow led me to muse on how bad the dialogue was and how it was penned (or typed) by the same guys who wrote the sublime "White Heat" just four years before and how big studio Hollywood, more than any other entity, took good writers and ground them to mush. Grace looks fine, though. C minus.

***1/2

[edwagreen · 9/10 · 15 October 2016]

In the same year that she garnered the Oscar for "The Country Girl," Grace Kelly made this 1954 film set in Colombia.

A tale of finding lost emeralds, Stewart Granger finds them and encounters all sorts of difficulties in pursuing many more of these green emeralds- bandits, dangers working the mines, and his love interest, Kelly in the film.

As always, there is a rich score by Miklos Rosza and when I heard parts of it, I thought I was hearing some chords from his great "Ben-Hur" scoring.

It was also laughable that his partner, the usually gruff Paul Douglas, would make Douglas vie for Kelly's affection. When Kelly's brother agrees to help Granger in his pursuit and is subsequently killed, a rift builds between the Granger-Kelly pursuit of the emeralds, as she becomes dead set against it.

An adventurous film which was nicely handled.

A Hollywood movie

[pgs-1 · 10/10 · 18 April 2002]

Green Fire is a Hollywood movie (with all what it means) One cant imagine a film like this be made any other places. There is not a big plot, not spectacular actors-performances, but you stil find you enjoy. Grace Kelly is as always what dreams are made of, and a real Hollywood actors like Granger and Douglas know how to make a boy-film. Green Fire is a film you will love on a raining sunday afternoon.