Green Fire Flames Out

Grace Kelly starred in five movies released in 1954, including Rear Window (a bona fide Hitchcock classic), Dial M for Murder, and The Country Girl (for which she won a Best Actress Oscar). Her least impressive film that year was undoubtedly Green Fire, which she made so that MGM would "loan her out" for The Country Girl.

Kelly plays Catherine Knowland, a strong-willed young woman who runs a coffee bean plantation in Colombia with her brother Donald (John Ericson). Catherine falls for an adventurer named Rian Mitchell (Stewart Granger), whose principal interests are emeralds and women. Rian has discovered a long lost Conquistador emerald mine, which he plans to make profitable with his business partner (Paul Douglas). However, the two men need labor and additional capital. Catherine shows no desire in investing, but her more susceptible brother buys an interest in the mine while his sister is away. Not surprisingly, there is also a colorful local bandit waiting to steal the emeralds.

After striking box office gold in the early 1950s with Mogambo (starring Kelly) and King Solomon's Mines (with Granger), it's easy to see why MGM thought Green Fire would be a sure-fire hit. Take the stars of the previous films, center the action around an emerald mine, and shoot it (partially) on an exotic location--what could go wrong?

Grace Kelly.

The primary culprit--as is often the case in "packaged" films--is the script. The source novel, written by a mining engineer named Peter Rainier (no relation to Grace's future husband), may have been an exciting read. However, the film adaptation gets off to a sluggish start and never recovers. Green Fire is bereft of any thrills until the the closing scenes. 

The climax features a big explosion and a rock slide to divert the course of a river and save Catherine's plantation. It might be impressive if it didn't look like the miniature set it likely was. There is also a shoot-out with the bandits, but they aren't very threatening--indeed, they are some of the worst shots in the history of cinema.

Still, one can't lay all the blame on the screenplay. A really gripping drama between two stars can hold a picture like this together until the action-driven climax. The Naked Jungle, which is also set on a South American plantation, is the perfect example. But that film has two dynamic stars with sizzling on-screen chemistry (Eleanor Parker and Charlton Heston). There is no fire--emerald or otherwise--between Stewart Granger and Grace Kelly.

Even the great film composer Miklós Rózsa seems to be off his "A" game in Green Fire. His score is unexceptional and the title song (with lyrics by Jack Brooks) may be the weakest composition in Rózsa’s discography.