Green Hell (1940)

Simply A Masterpiece

Sick Product of a Sick System

People are voting emotionally.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I rated this a six but actually I enjoy this type of film. I expected much more from a top cast and director like James Whale. At any rate,it wasn't a total disappointment. The actors gave fairly good performances considering the screen play and hammy direction by Whale. It was fast moving and there were some good moments. The viewer just has to be patient.

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.

Voted the worst picture of the year by the students of Harvard and presumably the winner of the Harvard Lampoon award for 1940 if such was given out back in the day, Green Hell is a great example of what some actors will do for a friend.Note the credits for producer of this film, the name of the gentleman was Harry Eddington. He and another man Frank Vincent were partners in a talent agency and according to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in his memoirs, Eddington had always wanted to be a producer. He was well liked by his clients and the cast members he assembled were from mostly his free lance clients who did a favor for him. He got Frances Marion to write the script and James Whale to direct and sold the whole business to Universal.Other than some establishing shots the entire thing was done on the sound stage of Universal. It all looks phony, even the King Kong jungle at RKO was better than this. Of course American movie companies were not shooting abroad in tropical climates at this time. Fairbanks remembers that while the sets were all phony, the humidity due to lack of air conditioning wasn't.The story is set in South America at the Amazon headwaters where one of those movie lost cities has been found. Rumors of Inca treasure has brought a motley concoction of adventurers on an expedition headed by archaeologists Alan Hale and ramrodded by Fairbanks. Vincent Price is part of the group, but he's killed off before a third of the film is done. But when the native porters bring back medicine to help him possibly survive poison arrows, they also bring back his wife, now his widow Joan Bennett.And Joan is dressing pretty chic for jungle travel, she's got all the guys panting after her. But when those headhunters who killed off Price come back, it's starting to look more like the Alamo.Green Hell is a curious concoction that's part Trader Horn, part Rain, a little of the Alamo and a little of John Ford's Lost Patrol. Vincent Price as well as Fairbanks used to cheerfully make fun of this film. What some people won't do for a friend.

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.