Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

clanciai 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.

JohnHowardReid 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.

Uriah43 "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.

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.