Green Mansions (1959) on Netflix
NR19591h 44mAdventureDramaRomance
Abel flees Caracas after rebels overtake the city, seeking revenge after his father, a former minister of war, was killed. In the jungle he meets Rima, a girl the local tribe fears.
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- Netflix2.7/5
- IMDb5.3/102,852 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Abel narrowly escapes Caracas when rebels overtake the city, and he sets out to avenge his father, who had been the minister of war. After gathering supplies he crosses by canoe to the far shore, where a jaguar nearly kills him and the native people save him. Brought before their chief, Runi, Abel stands still and tells his story to prove his bravery. Runi's son Kua-ko, who was raised by the missionaries of Caracas and speaks English, says the tribe will leave Abel in peace if he harms no one. Kua-ko also speaks of the Bird Woman, blamed for his older brother's death, and of the forest the tribe may not enter. Abel goes there anyway and glimpses a young woman who quickly disappears.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Green Mansions (1959)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Green Mansions was the first feature film photographed using Panavision lenses for 35mm anamorphic widescreen cinematography, but the titles on the film still credited CinemaScope.
- Director Mel Ferrer had snakes and birds native to the Venezuelan jungle captured and shipped to Hollywood, and he and Audrey Hepburn raised a baby deer in their home for months so it could be used in scenes where Rima meets forest creatures.
- Heitor Villa-Lobos was commissioned to write the full score for Green Mansions, but his music was inspired by the original novel rather than the film adaptation, and, unhappy with how it was used, he turned it into the cantata Forest of the Amazon.
- Mel Ferrer went to Venezuela to pick filming locations but found the jungles too dense and dark for the action sequences, so nearly an hour of jungle footage was shot south of the Orinoco and in the Parahauri Mountains, while the action was filmed on indoor stages and at Lone Pine, California.
- RKO Pictures tried in 1933 to reunite Bird of Paradise stars Dolores del Río and Joel McCrea in Green Mansions, but the project was canceled; it was resumed twenty-five years later by Edmund Grainger and Mel Ferrer at MGM.
