Green Fire (1954)

Directed by Andrew Marton (1950's KING SOLOMON'S MINES), this South American CinemaScope adventure is often considered Grace Kelly’s worst film but it’s reputation is unfair. It’s an enjoyable potboiler, far more enjoyable than her other 1954 “prestige” film, the Oscar winning THE COUNTRY GIRL . An adventurer (Stewart Granger) discovers a lost emerald mine in the jungles of Colombia but complications ensue when his partner (Paul Douglas) and he both conflict over struggling coffee plantation owner (Grace Kelly). There’s enough mountain bandits, mine cave ins, landslides, flooding rivers and romance to keep the film moving nicely. The handsome but dull Granger seems equally matched with the beautiful but dull Kelly though one keeps hoping against hope that she’ll choose the likeable Douglas instead. John Ericson co-stars and Miklos Rozsa provides a suitably exotic score.