I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

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.

Some people know how to make a movie. That is when we get a film.This is an example.This is simple story telling and adventure, with some great scenery.It's set in a jungle as a team of excavators hope to bring back Gold and news of an archaeological find.The key is to have all the elements.We have expert directing, more than adequate editing, and good script writing enough to tell an exciting and interesting story. In today's world of dull routine scripts, this is probably more exciting than a modern audience is used to. This was made in the days when people were smart enough to know de Mille was someone to emulate, and this director does emulate de Mille in many ways, as much as he can with a less than de Mille budget.The next element is believable and interesting characters. We have a slew of them. More than the usual excavation team. Even a few of the natives have interesting, believable, and important roles. Some of the more ignorant red necks of today will scoff at the superstitious ways, but superstitious attitudes are what makes this even more believable. We're at an Information Age cusp right now in which many of the younger people wallow in an Ignorance they aren't aware of, and don't realize what makes a character in 1940 credible.This is excellent story telling and adventure. To deny that is to look like a jealous fool.

'Green Hell' was Whale's penultimate feature length film. Frances Marion, the screen writer, was famous in the silent era, but when the talkies came in, her scripts had to be re-written by others for dialog. She simply had no talent at all for that; her mastery was in plot and action.Whale was coming off of 'The Man in the Iron Mask' which made lots of money for its producer, and Whale's agent told him that if he made 'Green Hell' it would put him back in the limelight.The budget was good enough, $685,000, and he had a reasonable thirty-six days to complete it. He had the help of Karl Freund and Ted Kent, his long time favorite editor, and one of his favorite assistant directors, Joe McDonough.The ambient temperature was screamingly high that summer; Freund's large bank of carbon arc lights didn't help. The problem with the film was the script. The dialog was worse than inane, audiences were falling out of their seats, laughing.I think Whale may have been bipolar. He had periods of manic activity, interspersed with complete disinterest in what he was doing. He was a director who was not afraid of demanding re-writes, and he did have a talent for judging scripts. He must have known that he was attempting to turn a color-by-the-numbers canvas into a work by Picasso, but when Ted Kent approached him about the script, Whale, according to James Curtis, Whales biographer, said merely that it was "very good. Great."Francis Marion wanted her name taken off the credits. But she wrote the script, and very little had been done to change. Her credit remained, and it was the last script she ever sold.The reviews were terrible. In his memoirs, Douglas Fairbanks doesn't so much as mention the film. Famous Productions had lasted for the length of this one movie, the company failed before the film was released. Harry Edington, according to Curtis, "took a job as production chief at RKO."

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.