Major spoilers isolated below.
"Green Mansions" has been hard to see for many years. WB finally released this MGM film in their Archive Collection, so since it's now available, here's some words of encouragement for people who might have read that this is just an atrociously bad film.
Yes, it does have its faults, but contains an engrossing plot with some surprising twists and is buoyed by some beautifully conceived atmosphere. Some jungle shots are truly stunning. The film was partly photographed on location in Venezuela, which has waterfalls, flora and fauna unlike other jungles. Yes, many of the jungle scenes are obviously a set, but more often than not artificial jungle and real jungle blend well.
Some shots of the jungle have real depth. They remind me a bit of the fanciful jungle created in the 1933 "King Kong" by use of matte paintings and miniatures, except in "Green Mansions," the jungle foliage fades off into the mist in full color.
Perhaps both Anthony Perkins as Abel the revolutionary and Audrey Hepburn as bird girl of the jungle, Rima, were miscast, but Lee J. Cobb's overacting as bird girl's 'grandfather' bothered me more. Both Perkins and Hepburn look good, Hepburn a bit too much, with not a hair out of place. She never really gets down and dirty like a girl raised in the jungle would. I wanted to see her suck the poison from Perkins' leg, but fat chance. She's just too sophisticated, and Hepburn never tried another role like this one, with the exception of the Kiowa Indian girl in John Huston's "The Unforgiven." She didn't fare much better in that one either.
Still, in "Green Mansions" Hepburn was blended into the jungle scenery magically by her director (and husband at the time), Mel Ferrer. There is one shot where Perkins' character, Abel, wanders through the jungle looking for bird girl Hepburn. When he leaves the shot, Hepburn moves down from a tree. She'd been there the whole time and just blended so well, she became a part of the tree.
Henry Silva, as the chief's son, Kua-Ko, fares much better than the leads. Kua-Ko has some perverse psychology that gives the film a depth not found in Abel or Rima. Sessue Hayakawa speaks no English as the tribe chief, Runi, and although Hayakawa is Japanese, he doesn't look out of place with the other South American natives.
The film has a fairly high quotient of "kitsch," with Perkins strumming guitar and singing to Hepburn being the highlight. Some of the matte shots are obvious, while others are beautifully realized. One shot of the camera tilting up from the jungle set to the tall trees and vines reaching up through streaming sunlight is as good as anything done today in the digital realm. Some of the matte shots are obvious, but still richly atmospheric. A conversation between Abel and Rima on a cliff side with with two distant waterfalls beyond them made for lush eye candy. So see the film for the visuals if nothing else.
MAJOR SPOILERS START HERE:
Storywise, I liked how the Cain/Abel story was woven into the subtext. There were actually two Abels, with Kua-Ko being Cain who slew is brother, and Perkins' Abel being a replacement for the brother Kua-Ko killed. And though many may disagree, I really liked the ambiguous ending. Was bird girl alive or dead? We see her, but the shot is so magically composed and majestically lit, like a view of heaven, that it could easily suggest otherwise.
SPOILERS END
It should be mentioned that beefing up the enjoyment of "Green Mansions" is the marvelous score by Bronislau Kaper and Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Fans of Indiana Jones might not find much to appreciate in "Green Mansions," but if you like a good story, seeping with atmosphere, you could do a lot worse than spend two hours in this magical Venezuelan jungle.
"Green Mansions" has been hard to see for many years. WB finally released this MGM film in their Archive Collection, so since it's now available, here's some words of encouragement for people who might have read that this is just an atrociously bad film.
Yes, it does have its faults, but contains an engrossing plot with some surprising twists and is buoyed by some beautifully conceived atmosphere. Some jungle shots are truly stunning. The film was partly photographed on location in Venezuela, which has waterfalls, flora and fauna unlike other jungles. Yes, many of the jungle scenes are obviously a set, but more often than not artificial jungle and real jungle blend well.
Some shots of the jungle have real depth. They remind me a bit of the fanciful jungle created in the 1933 "King Kong" by use of matte paintings and miniatures, except in "Green Mansions," the jungle foliage fades off into the mist in full color.
Perhaps both Anthony Perkins as Abel the revolutionary and Audrey Hepburn as bird girl of the jungle, Rima, were miscast, but Lee J. Cobb's overacting as bird girl's 'grandfather' bothered me more. Both Perkins and Hepburn look good, Hepburn a bit too much, with not a hair out of place. She never really gets down and dirty like a girl raised in the jungle would. I wanted to see her suck the poison from Perkins' leg, but fat chance. She's just too sophisticated, and Hepburn never tried another role like this one, with the exception of the Kiowa Indian girl in John Huston's "The Unforgiven." She didn't fare much better in that one either.
Still, in "Green Mansions" Hepburn was blended into the jungle scenery magically by her director (and husband at the time), Mel Ferrer. There is one shot where Perkins' character, Abel, wanders through the jungle looking for bird girl Hepburn. When he leaves the shot, Hepburn moves down from a tree. She'd been there the whole time and just blended so well, she became a part of the tree.
Henry Silva, as the chief's son, Kua-Ko, fares much better than the leads. Kua-Ko has some perverse psychology that gives the film a depth not found in Abel or Rima. Sessue Hayakawa speaks no English as the tribe chief, Runi, and although Hayakawa is Japanese, he doesn't look out of place with the other South American natives.
The film has a fairly high quotient of "kitsch," with Perkins strumming guitar and singing to Hepburn being the highlight. Some of the matte shots are obvious, while others are beautifully realized. One shot of the camera tilting up from the jungle set to the tall trees and vines reaching up through streaming sunlight is as good as anything done today in the digital realm. Some of the matte shots are obvious, but still richly atmospheric. A conversation between Abel and Rima on a cliff side with with two distant waterfalls beyond them made for lush eye candy. So see the film for the visuals if nothing else.
MAJOR SPOILERS START HERE:
Storywise, I liked how the Cain/Abel story was woven into the subtext. There were actually two Abels, with Kua-Ko being Cain who slew is brother, and Perkins' Abel being a replacement for the brother Kua-Ko killed. And though many may disagree, I really liked the ambiguous ending. Was bird girl alive or dead? We see her, but the shot is so magically composed and majestically lit, like a view of heaven, that it could easily suggest otherwise.
SPOILERS END
It should be mentioned that beefing up the enjoyment of "Green Mansions" is the marvelous score by Bronislau Kaper and Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Fans of Indiana Jones might not find much to appreciate in "Green Mansions," but if you like a good story, seeping with atmosphere, you could do a lot worse than spend two hours in this magical Venezuelan jungle.