Green Mansions (1959)

Thanks for the memories!

Nice effects though.

A Disappointing Continuation

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

In a year that she won critical acclaim, the N.Y.C. Film Critics Award and the 3rd of 5 Oscar nominations in "The Nun's Story," how in heaven did Audrey Hepburn manage to make such a clinker as "Green Mansions?"Tony Perkins flees a Venezuelan revolution and plots revenge. We never hear about this subject again and how he is going to go about extracting revenge for the killing of his father.Instead, we are subjected to his meeting with a tribe and he proves he is manly. He is sent off to kill a girl in the neighboring forest who killed the elder of Sessue Haywakawa's son. Hayakawa is briefly seen and does little to nothing in the film.We are subjected to fights, nice scenery and beautiful nature. Lee J. Cobb, who plays Hepburn's alleged grandfather isn't even the grandfather.If the tree she was hiding in went up in those spectacular flames, it is presumed that Hepburn was dead. She came back to him through nature. A first class stinker of major proportions.

It's a RARE film that I would give a "9" to, but I was tempted to do so here because this is a RARE film. Not a perfect film, mind you, but exceptional none the less. But, an "8" will suffice.The first reason I'm giving this film such a high rating is that there's not a single actor in it that I'm particularly fond of. In regard to Audrey Hepburn, I could take her or leave her. I enjoyed about 20% of her films. This is the only film of Anthony Perkins that I like. And, as with Hepburn, there are but a very few performances by Lee J. Cobb that I've really enjoyed. Yet, I very much enjoyed each of them in this film.The second reason I'm giving this film such a high rating is that it's truly unique. If you don't like this film, then you probably can't see it as a fable, rather than a real story. You must set aside reality to enjoy this film. The story is really one of a normal man seeking gold for revenge who finds something more precious -- an amazing love. There's no other film that comes to mind as being similar.I'll not relate the plot...others have done that. But I will discuss my displeasure with the ending. Apparently in the novel, Rima dies in the fire. Here, we are left to decide if the glowing image is really her, or her spirit. In earlier viewings, I thought Rima died and what we see is her spirit, because that would explain why Perkins finds the dead doe. But in my last viewing I noted that Anthony Perkins walks to her outstretched hand. So either it is Rima, or he has died...but from what. Obviously, MGM felt we had to have a sort-of happy ending.Nevertheless, because of its uniqueness and beauty, this is a film to savor.Kudos to MGM for the beauty of both the on-location filming in South America and the lush sets for other portions of the film.

This must surely be the strangest movie that Audrey Hepburn made, though it's not without its virtues. Directed by her-then husband, actor Mel Ferrer, the 1959 movie is a fanciful adventure story where Hepburn plays Rima, a nymph-like "bird girl" living in the remotest part of the Venezuelan jungle. She is being hunted by the local Indian tribesmen for being an evil spirit, but she is protected first by her grandfather Nuflo and then by Abel, a young political refugee whom she rescues after he is bitten by a deadly coral snake. The slowly-paced story initially focuses on Abel's hazardous journey into the jungle with Joseph Ruttenberg's cinematography nicely capturing the authentic Amazon locations.Rima shows up as a shadowy figure about a half-hour into the film and doesn't speak until about ten minutes later. Leave it to Hepburn to exhibit any sort of conviction in such an impossible role. Looking ethereal if a little too styled and coiffed (even without Givenchy) and sounding entirely too Euro-cosmopolitan, she still exudes Rima's innocence while discovering the darker secrets of her past. The rest of the cast is not as lucky. Anthony Perkins, a year away from "Psycho", is irritatingly unctuous as Abel when he is not simply confounded by his heroic role. His low point has to be the ridiculous scene when he sings a love song to Rima as he strums his guitar. And where exactly did the guitar come from? Familiar character actors show up in the oddest roles. Lee J. Cobb, heavily made up as a cross between Uncle Jesse Duke and Santa Claus, turns in yet another ham-fisted performance as Nuflo, and Henry Silva is cast as another exotic as the ultimately nefarious tribal leader. Nehemiah Persoff has a small bit at the beginning as a greedy trader, while Sessue Hayakawa, of all people, has a mostly silent role as the tribal leader. Adding to the artifice is the obvious use of soundstages and matte shots to replicate the jungle, and the ending is pure Hollywood sappiness. This is a curio for Hepburn fans.

I have read "Green Mansions" and have seen the film, and I must say both are among my favorites. The novel and film especially touched me because I always have been fascinated with South America. There is a certain mystery about the Amazon jungle, and I loved seeing the range of South American society from the city to the jungle depicted in the film. As Abel (portrayed by Anthony Perkins) leaves the city of Caracas, Venezuela, and goes to the jungle, the viewer should note the layers of civilization being peeled away as the journey takes him from an urban society to the Stone Age. His character is a wealthy, educated man of European (Spanish) descent, but he is able to adapt to the jungle. As the film progresses, it demonstrates the basic qualities of human nature and the idea that people everywhere are basically the same.It is interesting to see Perkins cast as an upper-class purebred Spaniard in a romantic leading man role; one must remember this film was made BEFORE Perkins' appeared as Norman Bates in "Psycho" and unfortunately became typecast as a weirdo or villain. Although Perkins became famous for "Psycho," the role ruined the potential he had as a very handsome, elegant leading man.The film also shows the basic elements of human nature with the potential for good and the propensity for evil. Abel (a victim much as Abel in the Bible) flees Caracas after his father is murdered, and like the Conquistadors who came before him, he seeks gold to restore his place in society and exact a sort of revenge on his father's murderers. In the jungle he finds Rima (portrayed so ethereally by Audrey Hepburn), who represents innocence and the idealism of youth and true love. The jungle becomes a Garden of Eden, yet evil is on the outskirts of the plantation, ready to destroy the peace and happiness of Rima and Abel.The superstitious Indians have a Cain-and-Abel dispute with the one representing Cain placing the blame on the innocent Rima. When Abel learns the truth, he realizes that good and evil exist in all societies.