GREEN MANSIONS (1959)

In late 1800s Venezuela, Abel (Anthony Perkins) is trying to escape the revolutionary street fighting in Caracas; with men and dogs following him, he grabs a ride with a priest on a boat going down the Amazon. His father was killed by rebels and Abel plans to eventually make his way back and seek revenge after finding gold rumored to be in the interior lands. The priest warns him about the natives who have a habit of practicing their headshrinking skills on strangers, advising him the natives admire bravery and the ability to talk non-stop for long periods of time. On his first day in the jungle, he is almost attacked by a jaguar but saved by natives. Brought before Chief Runi, he undergoes a day standing in the hot sunshine, talking non-stop, before Runi decides to free him. Runi's son Kua-Ko (Henry Silva), having spent time with missionaries, can speak English and warns him away from the forbidden forest where there lives a mysterious woman, a bird spirit, who was responsible for the death of Kua-Ko's brother. Abel goes exploring anyway, is bit by a snake and passes out. He awakens two days later having been cared for by an old man named Nuflo (Lee J. Cobb) and the bird girl, Rima (Audrey Hepburn), who is not a spirit but a girl who was saved from a village massacre by Nuflo, whom she thinks of as her grandfather. Romantic feelings develop between Abel and Rima, and when Abel discovers that Kua-Ko is about to journey into the forbidden land to kill Rima, he figures out that it was actually Kua-Ko who killed his brother. And Rima soon realizes that her 'grandfather' may have been culpable in the destruction of her village. Bad things ensue all around.

Words like "mystical" and "romantic" are used to describe the original novel by W.H. Hudson from 1904 (and still in print) and the movie is often labeled as fantasy or magical realism. The film is romantic, the visuals do suggest fantasy, and there is a touch of the mystical, especially in the final moments, but overall it's too earthbound to qualify as fantasy. Comparisons to Lost Horizon make a little more sense, as an amorphous spirituality does crop up here and there, but at heart, it's mostly a jungle melodrama, not too far from the Tarzan movies. Hepburn does a nice job incarnating the slightly otherworldly Rima. Perkins (pictured above) does not exactly fit the bill of an revenge-seeking adventurer—in the original novel, the character is a poet and including that in the movie would have made Perkins more believable—but still, he's OK here. Henry Silva makes a good (and hunky) villain you love to hate, Cobb is fine, and Sessue Hayakawa, as Runi, doesn't have much to do but looks appropriately 'jungle regal.' Most of the film was shot on lush-looking studio sets which look quite good, and there is a little background footage that was filmed on location, but there are some jarring cuts between the gorgeous green jungles and some California exteriors that look nothing like Venezuela. The primary element of mysticism has to do with the afterlife—Rima shows Abel the hatha flower which, according to her, dies after it blooms but always blooms again elsewhere, a point that is crucial to the ending which is not necessarily coherent but is beautifully shot. [TCM]