Green Hell (film)

This article is about the film. For the song, see Green Hell (song).
Green Hell

Theatrical release poster
Directed by James Whale
Produced by Harry E. Edington
Written by Frances Marion
Starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Joan Bennett
Music by Frank Skinner
Cinematography Karl W. Freund
Edited by Ted Kent
Production
company
James Whale Productions
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release dates
  • January 26, 1940 (1940-01-26) (United States)
Running time
 87 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Green Hell is a 1940 American jungle adventure film directed by James Whale starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Joan Bennett.[1]

Green Hell was given a lavish production by Universal, which built a massive indoor jungle set on a sound stage. An Inca Temple 125 feet high, 225 feet wide, and 45,000 square feet in area were constructed. Having spent big bucks on a film which turned out to be a critical and financial disaster, Universal used the set again, recycling it into an Egyptian temple for The Mummy's Hand (1940).[2]

Whale made only one more completed film after this, a 1941 World War II romantic melodrama They Dare Not Love, starring George Brent, improbably cast as an exiled Austrian prince fighting the Nazis.

Plot

A group of adventurers journey deep into the South American jungle in search of ancient Incan treasure. A beautiful woman, brought to their camp by hired bearers, has come to join her husband, a newer member of the group, who was recently killed by hostile natives. As the months pass, jealousies and tempers flare as fights break out over the woman. The Incan treasure is eventually found but the treaure-seekers, now united by a common enemy, are about to be attacked by hordes of fierce natives armed with bows and poisoned arrows.

Cast

Critical reception

The New York Times wrote, "every one keeps a stiff upper lip except Miss Bennett, who purses hers, and the youngest member of the expedition, who becomes hysterical and screams, "Oh, the monotony of it!" Monotony, egad! What a word for the best worst picture of the year!";[3] while The Radio Times wrote, "famously ludicrous jungle melodrama...Although capably staged in studio sets by James Whale and well enough cast...it is made unendurable by the dialogue and situations devised by former Oscar winner Frances Marion. As Vincent Price once said, "About five of the worst pictures ever made are all in this one picture";[4] Leonard Maltin called it "hokey but entertaining." [5]

Douglas Fairbanks Jr said the film was "hell. Every jungle cliche was trotted out. Joanie Bennett says it remains her worst movie. I remember George Sanders saying he held his nose every time he had to say a line... [director James Whale had] just lost it. He didn't care about it at all."[6]

Preservation

A print and it's trailer are preserved in the Library of Congress collection, Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Green Hell". BFI.
  2. ↑ "Green Hell". TV Guide.
  3. ↑ "Movie Review - Green Hell - THE SCREEN; Monotony in the Jungle - NYTimes.com".
  4. ↑ Allen Eyles. "Green Hell". RadioTimes.
  5. ↑ "Green Hell (1940) - Overview - TCM.com". Turner Classic Movies.
  6. ↑ Bawden, James; Miller, Ron (4 March 2016). Conversations with Classic Film Stars: Interviews from Hollywood's Golden Era. University Press of Kentucky. p. 102.
  7. ↑ Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress, p.72 c.1978 by American Film Institute[Retrieved April 24, 2016]


External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.