Green Hell (1940)

Thanks for the memories!

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Getting set for my 900th IMDb review,I started to look around for a non-Horror title to view from auteur film maker James Whale,and I stumbled across a surprisingly near-forgotten movie with a fantastic cast,which led to me getting ready to enter the jungle.The plot:Learning that a group of explorers have died whilst attempting to find a hidden Incan treasure, archaeologist Keith Brandon decides to hire a crew so that he can complete the mission. Preparing to set off,Brandon is asked by David Richardson if he can join in his search.Warning Richardson that they could be away for at least a year,Brandon sees Richardson display a real determination, which leads to him being invited to join all of the other guys on the mission.As the months start to pass,the group start to break into factions when Richardson's wife Stephanie decides to join them.View on the film:Given a big budget by Universal after The Man in the Iron Mask proved to be a smash hit, (with Universal spending so much on the sets for this movie,that they ended up re-using the sets for years after in order to make up for the box office results!)directing auteur James Whale & cinematographer Karl Freund stylishly place objects around the corner of the screen to give the jungle a real depth of field.Following each footstep in the jungle,Whale and Freund scan the title with gliding tracking shots which basks the heat from the jungle midst onto the audience.Keeping the gang solely consisting of men,Whale smartly uses the arrival of Stephanie Richardson to continue one of his major themes,as each of the explorers tidy's themselves up,and try to hide their original class.Whilst she was never truly comfortable writing for the "talkies",the screenplay by Frances Marion (and an uncredited Harry Hervey) keeps the film moving at a quick pace,thanks to offering a smooth mix of tense Adventure and downcast Melodrama.Although the decision to keep them apart on screen is rather strange,the writers give the Richard's a real sense of longing for each other,whilst trying to get to grips with their haunted memories.Sending the group out into the jungle,the writers offer a delightful mix of quirky character highlights ("Home on the range!") with gripping action scenes,as the group get a less than warm welcome.Despite not being happy with his performance in the movie,Vincent Price actually does very well at showing David Richardson's never truly fitting in with the rest of the adventurers.Joining Price, Joan Bennett smoothly dips the film into moody Melodrama as Stephanie Richardson,whilst George Sanders delivers some heart warming charm,as they all prepare to enter the green hell.

With a cast that includes some big names (Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Bennett) and a couple of guys who usually play fascinating villains (Vincent Price and George Sanders) you'd think this movie would be a lot more entertaining than it is. Also, for an adventure story of men going into the jungle to find lost gold from an ancient civilization might also spark added interest...but that didn't work, either.Credibility is a big problem here, at least looking at this film 50-plus years after it was made. When you see South American natives that look and sound like they came right off the farm in Kansas, it's tough to take the movie seriously! The sets were pretty hokey, too, and the dialog was really corny.This was another movie that started off strong and the quickly became horrible and stayed that way.

Director James Whale was nearing the end of his rope when he made the dismal Green Hell, in which he was perhaps trying to do for jungle movies what his earlier The Old dark House did for horror pictures: to spoof the genre with wit and style. But the script isn't there, and the excellent cast, which includes George Sanders, Vincent Price, George Bancroft and Alan Hale, flounder, and play altogether too sincerely for laughs. At his peak, in the early and middle thirties, Whale was one of the masters of film. His reputation was at least as high as Hitchcock's, and there seemed no end to what magic he could do on celluloid. His best work was in the horror field, but there was really no reason why he should have stayed there. One senses in Green Hell a director who wants to get out of the movie business altogether. The film would be sub-par even for a routine studio director. Whale was perhaps eager to get back to his first love, painting. He succeeded.

Essentially "Lost Patrol with a Girl"; not enough action to be a true adventure. Nice photography and spotty acting are the main features of Whale's last film. Noble Englishmen exploit grateful natives, finding treasure in an Inca temple. They fight over "the girl" and then are surrounded by savages with poison darts. Good battle scenes at the end. A must for Whale fans, for everyone else it's a moderately amusing time-waster.