jhkp MGM adventure set in Columbia (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.

mark.waltz 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.

jpdoherty 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!

ksf-2 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.