Green Fire

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.