The movie really is good enough for its genre. The story well written and paced, the characters well portrayed, especially by Granger and Douglas. Granger was a natural as the adventurous treasure hunting mining engineer , Douglas, solid and humane , played his long time partner and friend. Together, they fought the hardship of mining, the bandits, sometimes each other, and for the girl Kelly. Kelly was a bit out of place here. She though was very beautiful but somehow too civil and too dignified for the south American jungle background. Her romance with Granger lacked intensity and passion. Fortunately, the story and some actions provided enough intensity and excitement , made the movie quite enjoyable

Before writing this review I looked up emeralds in Wikipedia and found that Paul Douglas was wrong when he said during the film that emeralds are only found in two places, Colombia and the Soviet Union, specifically Siberia. They are found in all kinds of places including some areas of the USA. Would that were the only thing wrong with this film.

Still Colombia is the area best known for it and until recently when you thought of Colombia you thought of emeralds and coffee. Now sad to say you think drug cartel. But back in 1954 it was emeralds that was on the minds of adventurers Stewart Granger and Paul Douglas. They've discovered an abandoned mine that they think was abandoned prematurely. And the only place to get laborers is from the nearby coffee plantation owned by brother and sister Grace Kelly and John Ericson.

Young Ericson is hot to trot to help Granger and Douglas, Kelly less so. But she does have an eye for Granger even with both men pursuing her.

And of course there's bandit chief Murvyn Vye who actually does own the land where the emeralds might be found. But he'd just as soon let others do the back breaking work of digging them out.

Now with all the information I've given I think 99% of viewers would see where this one is going. In fact that's Green Fire's main problem, it's your basic routine action/adventure flick on which MGM decided to spend a ton of money. For one thing it's best asset is the color location cinematography in the Colombian jungles. After King Solomon's Mines and The African Queen, American audiences would not accept back lot jungles any longer. Note that Stewart Granger was the star of King Solomon's Mines and he got first crack at every jungle picture that came along after that.

Green Fire is hardly as good as King Solomon's Mines. Grace Kelly seemed pretty distant in this film, looking like she was a Philadelphia débutante rather than a coffee plantation owner. She did a flock of good films this year, Rear Window, The Bridges At Toko-Ri and her Oscar winner The Country Girl in 1954. Green Fire just isn't in the class of the others.

In short, admire the flora and fauna of Green Fire and the story is something you can live with.

"Rian X. Mitchell" (Stewart Granger) is an ambitious mining entrepreneur who is looking in Columbia for a long-lost emerald mine built by the Conquistadors in 1687. He finds it but some bandits also find him and he is shot, robbed, pushed off a hillside and left for dead. He manages to stumble away but is then attacked by a jaguar. Fortunately, a village priest named "Father Ripero" (Robert Tafur) happens to be there and shoots the jaguar before it can kill Rian. Father Ripero then takes him to a nearby coffee plantation where "Catherine Knowland" (Grace Kelly) manages to tend his wounds. When he recovers he tells her that he has a partner, "Vic Leonard" (Paul Douglas) that he has to see right away but that he will return. Once he and his partner return to the coffee plantation they begin to work on the emerald mine which creates difficulties for all concerned. Anyway, having given the initial plot I will stop right here so as not to spoil the movie for anyone who wishes to view it. That said, while the entire cast performed in a decent manner the film seemed slow in some parts and lacked energy. Part of the problem may have been that the romance between Rian and Catherine lacked passion. Likewise, the action was solid but not very unique or original. In short, this is a decent movie with beautiful scenery and a capable cast. But with all it had going for it I believe it should have been better.