ChicRawIdol
A brilliant film that helped define a genre
Nayan Gough
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Ava-Grace Willis
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
edwagreen
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.
dhrice
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.
Ginajeffrey
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.
prcadle
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.
