The Green Buddha

"The Green Buddha" was a film made for the British division of Republic Pictures. Because the British had a law at that time mandating a certain percentage of films shown in theaters MUST have been made in the UK, American film studios stated British branches...and so Republic sent Morris (who was under contract with them) to Britain to make the movie.

The story begins with a pair of crooks robbing an art exhibit of a valuable statue called 'The Green Buddha'. Soon, however, one crook double-crosses his friend and his plan is to sell it and keep all the profits. But he has to get to Glasgow and he commandeers an airplane and makes poor Gary (Morris) to fly him at gunpoint. Later, during the flight, they struggle and the plane crashes and evil Gary then goes to Glasgow following Frees death. Why? Because the plane was from his small airline and losing it will put him out of business...so, if he can retrieve the Buddha, he'll be able to use the reward to save his company. And, someone in Glasgow knows all about the theft.

This is a decent but not especially great film...pretty much what I'd call a time-passer. Morris is an interesting hero type, as he meets up with a lovely girl and she keeps thinking he'll hit on her...but all he really is interesting in his airline! I do appreciate how he isn't so stereotypical! Overall, a competent and reasonably interesting film...and not much more.

A small gang settles for an impossible heist, stealing a priceless Buddha statue at a museum in broad daylight in the middle of a public show and trying to get away with it. They do get away in a car, leaving one man behind who raised the revolver and leaving another man to make a phone call while the rest just run off with the statue, worth £50.000. One of them tries to save the statue for himself by hijacking an airplane and pulls a gun on the pilot, they fight, the plane crashes, the man with the statue runs on, and soon not only Scotland Yard but all other members of the gang are after him, gradually killing each other off including some obligatory fisticuffs, some falling into the water and others getting caught up in a roller-coaster at the fair. Hitchcock could have made something out of it. John Lemont doesn't. It's all quite common routine stuff with a lovely singing girl and all, which doesn't help. None of the actors offers any interest, this was made for nothing more than an entertainment and rather haphazardly, it seems. Not even the music is of any value. Fortunately it is only one hour long.

I mostly remind John Lemont for KONGA, FRIGHTENED CITY and SHAKEDOWN; exciting UK crime flicks, not very long and efficient. This one is typical of the British crime movies of this era, late fifties and early sixties. You have a good guy, villains, night clubs, gorgeous chicks some nasty underworld atmosphere but unfortunately an expected ending. So, don't get too much in expectations, you could be deceived. After all, I prefer KONGA from Lemont, a kitsch horror film, some kind of very very poor man's - nearly wagrant - KING KONG, nothing to do with the other Lemont's movies named before. Nothing at all.

Even though the plot has been around the block once or twice, it's still quite an acceptable crime caper. A small statue is stolen from a museum, but their getaway plane to Glasgow (long appreciated as an international hub for the smuggling of Oriental artefacts, or perhaps because it has a restaurant called "Mr. Wong's" on Sauchiehall St?) under the command of the equally statuesque Wayne Morris ("Holden") crashes. The felon makes good his escape, leaving our hero to try and track down both him and the statue so he can claim the reward to fix his rather battered plane. It's whilst on this trail that he meets, and falls for, pretty mediocre nightclub singer "Vivian" (Mary Germaine) and the two are soon heading for an action-packed denouement. A couple of nice supporting contributions from Kenneth Griffith and Walter Rilla keep it moving along well, and there is just about enough to keep it interesting - though virtually no guesswork required on our part. OK, though - a cheap and cheerful production that passes an hour.

Hard to see where the meaningless title Green Carnation has come from. This has always been known as The Green Buddha, the stolen statuette worth around fifty thousand pounds, a small fortune in 1954.

The plot has marked similarities to that of Cross Channel, another of Republic Pictures' ventures into British 'B' movies at the time, and also starring the amiable Wayne Morris. In the former he operated a charter boat, in this he's in the air-taxi business, and in both he gets involved with a gang of double-crossing crooks. Mary Germaine, attractive leading lady of British second features of this time, gets to sing on a couple of occasions, though it's not clear if her voice is dubbed. The only other notable aspect is some location shooting at Battersea Fun Fair.