"Green fire.
Emeralds burning like blue fire.
So rare.
So precious to own."
So goes the theme song of this echt-1950s Hollywood adventure in an exotic land. Those lyrics, which do not hang upon the cheek of this movie like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear, no matter how hard I try to love them, are about on a par with the rest of the story.
Greedy Stewart Granger and skeptical Paul Douglas are two mining engineers determined to find emeralds in a South American country. They set up a camp on a promising mountain and spend a good deal of time fraternizing with the owners of a neighboring coffee plantation -- Grace Kelly and her callow brother, John Ericson.
Granger and Kelly fall in love under the tropical moon. Douglas falls too, but he's fat and older and not nearly as smooth as Granger. I believe, though, that Kelly, had she thought about it, would have found Douglas's Philadelphia accent engagingly familiar. "Oh, come awn, I'm no sub-stee-tute for Stewart Granger." Inevitably, there is conflict. It comes in two forms. First El Moro, this greaseball bandido, finds the idea of stealing any emeralds, those stones so precious to own, appealing and lets the two miners know that he'll return when circumstances call for it. Second, the mine shaft that Granger, Douglas, and a handful of men have dug into the mountain has collapsed. This means that they either return as failures or they "step mine," which we would call "strip mining." And this requires lots of dough, which they don't have, and is labor intensive. Granger the greedy implements a simple solution without Douglas's knowing about it. He talks Ericson into funding the mining enterprise with the plantation's entire kitty, and Ericson brings all the plantation workers to the mine, leaving Kelly with a ripe crop of coffee beans and nobody to harvest and process them.
Other tribulations follow. Ericson is accidentally killed. The sluice from the mine changes the course of the river and threatens Kelly's plantation, on which the women of the village are now working tirelessly as a replacement for the absent men.
El Moro shows up, eyes beady, teeth glistening, phonemes slurring. A shoot out at the climax, and all the bad guys die in an avalanche while all the good guys live, and the river changes its course, and the plantation is saved, and Granger has an epiphany, and it ends happily.
Frankly, I kind of enjoyed it. Granger is tan and fit and leaps around like Errol Flynn. Grace Kelly is the most beautiful and least probable owner of a tropical empire you've ever seen. She looks almost sassy in those starched blouses and tight slacks. Paul Douglas is always easy to identify with because he completely lacks any of the social graces. John Ericson -- what is he doing in this movie? What was he doing in ANY movie?
The special effects are good for their period. The gun fight at the end, with the bandidos peppering away at the human springbok Granger, had some novel sounds and original minor effects. Bullets zip through the air. And when they ricochet, it's with a soft "ptew" rather than the traditional loud, vibrating "whanggggg." If they hit a wooden object, a chip flies off. Now, this all sounds like a matter of little consequence, but it was new at the time and quite exciting.
But, Dios mio, this is an OLD story. Warners and the other studios were grinding them out like Sonicburgers back in the 30s and thereafter. Reckless, materialistic adventurer goes into the wilderness, falls in love with a local, and is redeemed. Well, I'll just mention "His Majesty O'Keefe" as another typical example. This one happens to be more entertainingly done than most.
Emeralds burning like blue fire.
So rare.
So precious to own."
So goes the theme song of this echt-1950s Hollywood adventure in an exotic land. Those lyrics, which do not hang upon the cheek of this movie like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear, no matter how hard I try to love them, are about on a par with the rest of the story.
Greedy Stewart Granger and skeptical Paul Douglas are two mining engineers determined to find emeralds in a South American country. They set up a camp on a promising mountain and spend a good deal of time fraternizing with the owners of a neighboring coffee plantation -- Grace Kelly and her callow brother, John Ericson.
Granger and Kelly fall in love under the tropical moon. Douglas falls too, but he's fat and older and not nearly as smooth as Granger. I believe, though, that Kelly, had she thought about it, would have found Douglas's Philadelphia accent engagingly familiar. "Oh, come awn, I'm no sub-stee-tute for Stewart Granger." Inevitably, there is conflict. It comes in two forms. First El Moro, this greaseball bandido, finds the idea of stealing any emeralds, those stones so precious to own, appealing and lets the two miners know that he'll return when circumstances call for it. Second, the mine shaft that Granger, Douglas, and a handful of men have dug into the mountain has collapsed. This means that they either return as failures or they "step mine," which we would call "strip mining." And this requires lots of dough, which they don't have, and is labor intensive. Granger the greedy implements a simple solution without Douglas's knowing about it. He talks Ericson into funding the mining enterprise with the plantation's entire kitty, and Ericson brings all the plantation workers to the mine, leaving Kelly with a ripe crop of coffee beans and nobody to harvest and process them.
Other tribulations follow. Ericson is accidentally killed. The sluice from the mine changes the course of the river and threatens Kelly's plantation, on which the women of the village are now working tirelessly as a replacement for the absent men.
El Moro shows up, eyes beady, teeth glistening, phonemes slurring. A shoot out at the climax, and all the bad guys die in an avalanche while all the good guys live, and the river changes its course, and the plantation is saved, and Granger has an epiphany, and it ends happily.
Frankly, I kind of enjoyed it. Granger is tan and fit and leaps around like Errol Flynn. Grace Kelly is the most beautiful and least probable owner of a tropical empire you've ever seen. She looks almost sassy in those starched blouses and tight slacks. Paul Douglas is always easy to identify with because he completely lacks any of the social graces. John Ericson -- what is he doing in this movie? What was he doing in ANY movie?
The special effects are good for their period. The gun fight at the end, with the bandidos peppering away at the human springbok Granger, had some novel sounds and original minor effects. Bullets zip through the air. And when they ricochet, it's with a soft "ptew" rather than the traditional loud, vibrating "whanggggg." If they hit a wooden object, a chip flies off. Now, this all sounds like a matter of little consequence, but it was new at the time and quite exciting.
But, Dios mio, this is an OLD story. Warners and the other studios were grinding them out like Sonicburgers back in the 30s and thereafter. Reckless, materialistic adventurer goes into the wilderness, falls in love with a local, and is redeemed. Well, I'll just mention "His Majesty O'Keefe" as another typical example. This one happens to be more entertainingly done than most.