Green Mansions (film)
Encyclopedia
Green Mansions is a 1959
American romantic adventure film
directed by Mel Ferrer
. Based upon the 1904 novel Green Mansions
by William Henry Hudson
, the film starred Audrey Hepburn
(who at the time was married to Ferrer) as Rima
, a jungle girl who falls in love with a Venezuelan traveller played by Anthony Perkins
. Also appearing in the film were Lee J. Cobb
, Sessue Hayakawa
and Henry Silva. The score was by Heitor Villa-Lobos
and Bronislaw Kaper
.
The film was intended to be the first of several projects directed by Ferrer and starring his wife, but ultimately this was the only one released. It was one of the few critical and box office failures of Hepburn's early career. Vincente Minnelli
had originally been slated to direct the film, but delays in the project led MGM to choose Ferrer to direct it.
) narrowly escapes Caracas
, Venezuela
after it is overtaken by rebels. He decides to seek revenge, as his father, the former Minister of War, was killed. After getting supplies, he takes a canoe
to the far shore, where he is nearly killed by a leopard
, but is saved by the native, Indian
-like people.
He decides to prove his bravery by not moving once he sees the chief, Runi (Sessue Hayakawa
) and telling his story. The Indians are impressed, and do not kill him. After a while, Runi's son Kua-ko (Henry Silva), who has lived with the missionaries of Caracas and speaks English
, tells Abel that Runi has agreed so long as he does not harm them, they will not harm him. Abel agrees, and befriends Kua-ko, who tells him of the "Bird Woman", who killed his older brother, and that their tribe is not allowed in the nearby forest.
Abel ignores the warning and ventures into the forest, where he sees a young woman (Audrey Hepburn
); however, she quickly disappears. He returns to the Indians, and Kua-ko tells him that Runi wishes Abel to use his gun and kill the girl. He returns to the forest, but decides to warn the girl instead. He sees her again, but is bitten by a coral snake
. The girl takes Abel to her home and tends his wound. Upon waking up, he meets the girl's grandfather, Nuflo (Lee J Cobb), who tells him her name is Rima.
The next day, with his leg wounded by the snake, Abel meets Rima again and they begin to talk. Rima takes a liking to him, but Nuflo warns her that he will leave once his leg heals. Abel is soon able to walk without a cane, and Rima therefore begins showing him the forest. Abel tells her that he has come to like her as well, and Rima is confused. She goes to speak with her dead mother's spirit, and decides to return to where she came from to ask a village elder about her strange new feelings for Abel. Later, Abel and Rima travel to the edge of the forest, where he shows her Riolama, which she remembers as her village. Despite Nuflo's initial reluctance to take her, Rima forces him to show her the way by threatening his soul if he does not.
Abel decides it is time for him to return to the Indians. He tells Runi of how Rima saved him, but neither he nor Kua-ko believe him. He quickly realizes that Kua-ko killed his brother and placed the blame on Rima, but is tied up. After a bravery test (withstanding bee and wasp stings without making a sound), Kua-ko and the Indians make ready to enter the forest and kill Rima.
Abel escapes and warns Nuflo and Rima, and together they escape to Riolama, where Nuflo tells Abel that he cannot return to the village because he caused a massacre. He managed to help Rima and her mother, and promised to take care of Rima, but was ashamed at his part in the massacre. Rima overhears, and curses Nuflo. She then rushes down to Riolama, where she faints in the heat. Abel follows and takes her to safety. When she awakens, Abel tells her how he has come to love her, and Rima does also, having only come to decipher her strange feelings and now recognizing them as love for him.
Rima steals away while Abel is asleep to go back to Nuflo and apologize, but when she finds him, the Indians have burnt their home and he is nearly dead. She asks his forgiveness, and with his last words Nuflo tries to warn her of the Indians. She quickly discovers for herself, and races through the forest to escape. Kua-ko burns the great tree where she has hidden. Meanwhile, Abel awakens and realizes what Rima has done. He quickly follows and finds Kua-ko, who teases that he killed her. The two fight into a stream, where Abel manages to drown Kua-ko.
Abel remembers a flower Rima told him of, which, if it disappears in one place, blossoms in another close by. He finds the flower, and not far off, Rima herself, who extends her hand. He takes it, and they begin their life in the forest together.
And
Rima of the novel was 4.5 feet (1.37 m) tall, 17 years of age, demure and dark-haired (although descended from a mysterious group of fair-skinned people), and had lived her life entirely in the deepest jungle. Hepburn at the time of filming was 29 years old, more than a foot taller than the novel Rima, and too stunningly beautiful and smooth-skinned to ever be taken as a forest creature.
and in the Parahauri Mountains, much of which was incorporated into the film. The action sequences were filmed on indoor stages and at Lone Pine, California
.
Ferrer had several snakes and birds native to the Venezuela
n jungle captured and shipped to Hollywood for use in filming. He also brought a baby deer to the residence he shared with Hepburn, and they raised it for several months prior to filming so that it could be used in several scenes where Rima interacted with the forest creatures.
was originally commissioned to write the full score for the film. However, his music was inspired by the original novel, rather than the film adaptation.
Unhappy with the way his music had been used, Villa Lobos edited his full score into a cantata, Forest of the Amazon (Floresta do Amazonas). It was premiered in 1959 in New York
with the Symphony of the Air and the soprano Bidú Sayão
under the composer's direction. The same forces recorded it in stereophonic sound
for United Artists Records
, which released it on LP and reel-to-reel tape. The recording had a limited release on CD.
Alfred Heller, a friend and associate of Villa Lobos, made a modern digital recording of the complete uncut cantata (74 minutes) with soprano Renee Fleming
, along the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. He wrote on the Amazon website that Villa-Lobos had completed work on the full cantata in December 1958. The United Artists recording used about 46 minutes of the cantata.
, with Charles Wolcott conducting.
For the final score, Kaper wrote original material and used or adapted material composed by Villa-Lobos. Additional music and arrangements were supplied by Sidney Cutner and Leo Arnaud. The love theme "Song of Green Mansions" was composed by Kaper, with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster
.
The complete Kaper score was issued on cd in 2005, on Film Score Monthly
records.
DVD release in the UK on 6 April 2009.
1959 in film
The year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters....
American romantic adventure film
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
directed by Mel Ferrer
Mel Ferrer
Mel Ferrer was an American actor, film director and film producer.-Early life:Ferrer was born Melchor Gastón Ferrer in Elberon, New Jersey, of Catalan and Irish descent. His father, Dr. José María Ferrer , was born in Cuba, was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St....
. Based upon the 1904 novel Green Mansions
Green Mansions
Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest is an exotic romance by William Henry Hudson about a traveller to the Guyana jungle of southeastern Venezuela and his encounter with a forest dwelling girl named Rima.-Plot summary:...
by William Henry Hudson
William Henry Hudson
William Henry Hudson was an author, naturalist, and ornithologist.- Life and work :Hudson was born in the Quilmes, a borough of the greater Buenos Aires, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, son of settlers of U.S. origin...
, the film starred Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
(who at the time was married to Ferrer) as Rima
Rima
Rima, also known as Rima the Jungle Girl, is the fictional heroine of W. H. Hudson's 1904 novel Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest. In 1974, she was adapted into a comic book character and featured in the short-lived monthly series Rima the Jungle Girl, published by DC Comics...
, a jungle girl who falls in love with a Venezuelan traveller played by Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
. Also appearing in the film were Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb was an American actor. He is best known for his performance in 12 Angry Men his Academy Award-nominated performance in On the Waterfront and one of his last films, The Exorcist...
, Sessue Hayakawa
Sessue Hayakawa
was a Japanese and American Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors...
and Henry Silva. The score was by Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
and Bronislaw Kaper
Bronislaw Kaper
Bronisław Kaper was a Polish film composer who scored films and musical theater in Germany, France, and the USA. The American immigration authorities misspelled his name as Bronislau Kaper...
.
The film was intended to be the first of several projects directed by Ferrer and starring his wife, but ultimately this was the only one released. It was one of the few critical and box office failures of Hepburn's early career. Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli was an American stage director and film director, famous for directing such classic movie musicals as Meet Me in St. Louis, The Band Wagon, and An American in Paris. In addition to having directed some of the most famous and well-remembered musicals of his time, Minnelli made...
had originally been slated to direct the film, but delays in the project led MGM to choose Ferrer to direct it.
Plot
A young man named Abel (Anthony PerkinsAnthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
) narrowly escapes Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
after it is overtaken by rebels. He decides to seek revenge, as his father, the former Minister of War, was killed. After getting supplies, he takes a canoe
Canoe
A canoe or Canadian canoe is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over A canoe (North American English) or Canadian...
to the far shore, where he is nearly killed by a leopard
Leopard
The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
, but is saved by the native, Indian
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
-like people.
He decides to prove his bravery by not moving once he sees the chief, Runi (Sessue Hayakawa
Sessue Hayakawa
was a Japanese and American Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors...
) and telling his story. The Indians are impressed, and do not kill him. After a while, Runi's son Kua-ko (Henry Silva), who has lived with the missionaries of Caracas and speaks English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, tells Abel that Runi has agreed so long as he does not harm them, they will not harm him. Abel agrees, and befriends Kua-ko, who tells him of the "Bird Woman", who killed his older brother, and that their tribe is not allowed in the nearby forest.
Abel ignores the warning and ventures into the forest, where he sees a young woman (Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
); however, she quickly disappears. He returns to the Indians, and Kua-ko tells him that Runi wishes Abel to use his gun and kill the girl. He returns to the forest, but decides to warn the girl instead. He sees her again, but is bitten by a coral snake
Coral snake
The coral snakes are a large group of elapid snakes that can be subdivided into two distinct groups, Old World coral snakes and New World coral snakes...
. The girl takes Abel to her home and tends his wound. Upon waking up, he meets the girl's grandfather, Nuflo (Lee J Cobb), who tells him her name is Rima.
The next day, with his leg wounded by the snake, Abel meets Rima again and they begin to talk. Rima takes a liking to him, but Nuflo warns her that he will leave once his leg heals. Abel is soon able to walk without a cane, and Rima therefore begins showing him the forest. Abel tells her that he has come to like her as well, and Rima is confused. She goes to speak with her dead mother's spirit, and decides to return to where she came from to ask a village elder about her strange new feelings for Abel. Later, Abel and Rima travel to the edge of the forest, where he shows her Riolama, which she remembers as her village. Despite Nuflo's initial reluctance to take her, Rima forces him to show her the way by threatening his soul if he does not.
Abel decides it is time for him to return to the Indians. He tells Runi of how Rima saved him, but neither he nor Kua-ko believe him. He quickly realizes that Kua-ko killed his brother and placed the blame on Rima, but is tied up. After a bravery test (withstanding bee and wasp stings without making a sound), Kua-ko and the Indians make ready to enter the forest and kill Rima.
Abel escapes and warns Nuflo and Rima, and together they escape to Riolama, where Nuflo tells Abel that he cannot return to the village because he caused a massacre. He managed to help Rima and her mother, and promised to take care of Rima, but was ashamed at his part in the massacre. Rima overhears, and curses Nuflo. She then rushes down to Riolama, where she faints in the heat. Abel follows and takes her to safety. When she awakens, Abel tells her how he has come to love her, and Rima does also, having only come to decipher her strange feelings and now recognizing them as love for him.
Rima steals away while Abel is asleep to go back to Nuflo and apologize, but when she finds him, the Indians have burnt their home and he is nearly dead. She asks his forgiveness, and with his last words Nuflo tries to warn her of the Indians. She quickly discovers for herself, and races through the forest to escape. Kua-ko burns the great tree where she has hidden. Meanwhile, Abel awakens and realizes what Rima has done. He quickly follows and finds Kua-ko, who teases that he killed her. The two fight into a stream, where Abel manages to drown Kua-ko.
Abel remembers a flower Rima told him of, which, if it disappears in one place, blossoms in another close by. He finds the flower, and not far off, Rima herself, who extends her hand. He takes it, and they begin their life in the forest together.
Cast
- Anthony PerkinsAnthony PerkinsAnthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
- Abel - Audrey HepburnAudrey HepburnAudrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
- Rima - Lee J Cobb - Nuflo
- Sessue HayakawaSessue Hayakawawas a Japanese and American Issei actor who starred in American, Japanese, French, German, and British films. Hayakawa was the first and one of the few Asian actors to find stardom in the United States as well as Europe. Between the mid-1910s and the late 1920s, he was as well known as actors...
- Runi - Henry Silva - Kua-ko
- Nehemiah PersoffNehemiah PersoffNehemiah Persoff is an American film and television character actor. He was born in Jerusalem, Palestine Mandate.Born in what is now part of Israel, Persoff emigrated with his family to the United States in 1929...
- Don Panta - Michael PateMichael PateMichael Pate was an Australian actor, writer and director.-Early life:He was born Edward John Pate in Drummoyne, Sydney...
- Priest - Estelle HemsleyEstelle HemsleyEstelle Hemsley was a prominent early African American actress of stage and screen. She appeared in the stage and screen versions of Take a Giant Step, the latter of which earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress...
- Cla Cla
Critical reception
Although considerable effort had been made to produce a faithful and convincing rendering of the book, the film was not reviewed kindly by critics at the time and was not a commercial success.
Critics were not kind to the film, impressed neither by its lush widescreen visuals nor by the equally lush musical score that accompanied them.. .
And
Screen adaptation of W. H. Hudson's novel suffers due to miscasting of Hepburn as Rima the Bird Girl . .
Rima of the novel was 4.5 feet (1.37 m) tall, 17 years of age, demure and dark-haired (although descended from a mysterious group of fair-skinned people), and had lived her life entirely in the deepest jungle. Hepburn at the time of filming was 29 years old, more than a foot taller than the novel Rima, and too stunningly beautiful and smooth-skinned to ever be taken as a forest creature.
Production notes
Ferrer traveled to South America to select possible filming locations, but eventually concluded that the jungles there were too dense and dark to allow their use in the action sequences of the film. He did cause nearly an hour of jungle footage to be filmed south of OrinocoOrinoco
The Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes called the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3% of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia...
and in the Parahauri Mountains, much of which was incorporated into the film. The action sequences were filmed on indoor stages and at Lone Pine, California
Lone Pine, California
Lone Pine is a census-designated place in Inyo County, California, United States. Lone Pine is located south-southeast of Independence, at an elevation of 3727 feet . The population was 2,035 at the 2010 census, up from 1,655 at the 2000 census. The town is located in the Owens Valley, near the...
.
Ferrer had several snakes and birds native to the Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n jungle captured and shipped to Hollywood for use in filming. He also brought a baby deer to the residence he shared with Hepburn, and they raised it for several months prior to filming so that it could be used in several scenes where Rima interacted with the forest creatures.
Villa-Lobos
The Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-LobosHeitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos was a Brazilian composer, described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the best-known and most significant Latin American composer to date. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works...
was originally commissioned to write the full score for the film. However, his music was inspired by the original novel, rather than the film adaptation.
Unhappy with the way his music had been used, Villa Lobos edited his full score into a cantata, Forest of the Amazon (Floresta do Amazonas). It was premiered in 1959 in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
with the Symphony of the Air and the soprano Bidú Sayão
Bidu Sayão
Bidú Sayão was a Brazilian opera soprano. One of Brazil's most famous musicians, Sayão was a leading artist of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1937 to 1952.-Life and career:...
under the composer's direction. The same forces recorded it in stereophonic sound
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
for United Artists Records
United Artists Records
United Artists Records was a record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 initially to distribute records of its movie soundtracks, though it soon branched out into recording music of a number of different genres.-History:...
, which released it on LP and reel-to-reel tape. The recording had a limited release on CD.
Alfred Heller, a friend and associate of Villa Lobos, made a modern digital recording of the complete uncut cantata (74 minutes) with soprano Renee Fleming
Renée Fleming
Renée Fleming is an American soprano specializing in opera and lieder. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice.Fleming has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano repertoires. She has sung roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. She also...
, along the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. He wrote on the Amazon website that Villa-Lobos had completed work on the full cantata in December 1958. The United Artists recording used about 46 minutes of the cantata.
Kaper
A separate source from that quoted above indicates that the score by Villa-Lobos was composed from a translated script prior to completion of the editing of the film. Though Villa-Lobos did some work on the edited film, the task of scoring the completed film was done by Bronislaw KaperBronislaw Kaper
Bronisław Kaper was a Polish film composer who scored films and musical theater in Germany, France, and the USA. The American immigration authorities misspelled his name as Bronislau Kaper...
, with Charles Wolcott conducting.
For the final score, Kaper wrote original material and used or adapted material composed by Villa-Lobos. Additional music and arrangements were supplied by Sidney Cutner and Leo Arnaud. The love theme "Song of Green Mansions" was composed by Kaper, with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster
Paul Francis Webster
Paul Francis Webster was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Song and was nominated sixteen times for the award.-Biography:...
.
The complete Kaper score was issued on cd in 2005, on Film Score Monthly
Film Score Monthly
Film Score Monthly is an online magazine founded by editor-in-chief and executive producer Lukas Kendall in June 1990 as The Soundtrack Correspondence List...
records.
Availability
Until recently the film had only been available in cropped VHS transfers. However, Warner UK struck a deal with former special interest label Digital Classics to release Green Mansions and three other catalogue titles from the capacious Warner vaults. The film subsequently received an anamorphic NTSCNTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
DVD release in the UK on 6 April 2009.