jamil-5 Review of Green Mansions

Green Mansions (1959)

An impossible story to film, but Mel Ferrer almost brings it off.

[8/10 · 13 March 2000]

When I read Hudson's "Green Mansions" I thought, "Well, they'll never make a movie out of this!" But director Mel Ferrer gives it a good try and might have had even more success if he had cast a stronger actor than Anthony Perkins as the male lead. Audrey Hepburn is marvelous as Rima, the bird-girl (Who else could have played the role?) and the rest of the cast is strong, especially Henry Silva as a virile, villainous Indian. There's an imaginative use of Cinemascope and the score (mostly Bronislaw Kaper but some Heitor Villa-Lobos) is atmospheric and sensuous. The revised ending (Is she dead or isn't she?) fails but the book's conclusion isn't any better. For the Romantics among us. I've seen this movie several times and never fail to enjoy it.