GREEN MANSIONS (1959)
Article 2080 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 11-25-2006
Posting Date: 4-23-2007
Directed by Mel Ferrer
Featuring Audrey Hepburn, Anthony Perkins, Lee J. Cobb

A political refugee escapes into the jungle in the hope of finding a lost city of gold with which he can finance his revenge. He encounters a primitive tribe that fears a mystical bird woman in a forbidden forest. He decides to investigate.

This is an interesting jungle melodrama in its way, but the cast is downright bizarre. I have no problem with Lee J. Cobb as an old man tortured with guilt, but I find it a little hard to buy Anthony Perkins as the courageous but vengeance-driven hero of the story, but he puts his best foot forward. It’s extremely odd to find Audrey Hepburn as a jungle woman, though she’s certainly lovely in the part. And any movie in which Henry Silva plays the son of Sessue Hayakawa is bound to give one pause. The fantastic content mostly consists of the mystical overtones of much of the action that surrounds the woman in the forbidden forest. There are biblical references to the Cain and Abel story from the Bible. It’s silly on occasion, effective on others, but it’s watchable enough.