It's early 20th century. Abel (Anthony Perkins) barely escapes political turmoil in Caracas, Venezuela in which his father, the Minister of War, was killed. He decides to seek the needed gold for revenge from the jungle. He is captured by natives and befriends the tribal chief. He is told not to enter a specific forest which he promptly does in search for gold. He catches a glimpse of a girl and the chief recalls the death of his beloved son at the hands of that girl. Abel is told to kill this daughter of Didi. When he returns to the forest, he is bitten by a coral snake and saved by Rima (Audrey Hepburn). She lives in the forest with her grandfather Nuflo (Lee J. Cobb).This is trying to be an epic romantic adventure. It purports to use real locations and that is appreciated. There are some big vistas and good exterior shooting. On the other, the studio interior filming does detract. The difference between real exterior locations and fake interior work is problematic. It takes all the positive and taints it. The acting is big theatrics especially from Audrey Hepburn. Abel is not necessarily an appealing character. There are problems with everybody in the way they're portrayed. If not for the great actors, this would be a bad watch.

It's a RARE film that I would give a "9" to, but I was tempted to do so here because this is a RARE film. Not a perfect film, mind you, but exceptional none the less. But, an "8" will suffice.The first reason I'm giving this film such a high rating is that there's not a single actor in it that I'm particularly fond of. In regard to Audrey Hepburn, I could take her or leave her. I enjoyed about 20% of her films. This is the only film of Anthony Perkins that I like. And, as with Hepburn, there are but a very few performances by Lee J. Cobb that I've really enjoyed. Yet, I very much enjoyed each of them in this film.The second reason I'm giving this film such a high rating is that it's truly unique. If you don't like this film, then you probably can't see it as a fable, rather than a real story. You must set aside reality to enjoy this film. The story is really one of a normal man seeking gold for revenge who finds something more precious -- an amazing love. There's no other film that comes to mind as being similar.I'll not relate the plot...others have done that. But I will discuss my displeasure with the ending. Apparently in the novel, Rima dies in the fire. Here, we are left to decide if the glowing image is really her, or her spirit. In earlier viewings, I thought Rima died and what we see is her spirit, because that would explain why Perkins finds the dead doe. But in my last viewing I noted that Anthony Perkins walks to her outstretched hand. So either it is Rima, or he has died...but from what. Obviously, MGM felt we had to have a sort-of happy ending.Nevertheless, because of its uniqueness and beauty, this is a film to savor.Kudos to MGM for the beauty of both the on-location filming in South America and the lush sets for other portions of the film.

Anthony Perkins said and he added he was "very nervous to be directed by her husband" .In her "Audrey Hepburn:an intimate portrait" ,Diana Maychick wrote:"the public(....) collectively avoided the 3 million dollars flop at the box office .(.....)Audrey's star ,however ,continued to rise..." Hindsight displays its charm.It owes a good deal to the actress's presence ,who had glamor,tenderness and mystery going for her but what's definitely lacking in the film is a sense of mystery in the directing.It begins as an adventure (with snatches of politic)movie,and eventually turns into some kind of exotic fairy tale ,but not devoid of realistic elements.To be completely successful ,such a screenplay demanded either some madness or a great pastoral simplicity.The director tried his hand at both and the result looks like a broken kaleidoscope .The cinematography and the star are a feast of the eye ."Green mansions" indeed.In spite of its obvious flaws,is this movie so bad ?Certainly not,and Hepburn's fans will not be disappointed .She's so good that even the deer can't steal the show from her.Like this?Try these....."The unforgiven" ,John Huston,1960;also feat.Hepburn (whose character is not unlike the one she plays in "green mansions" ) and Perkins."Always" Steven Spielberg 1989 (only for Hepburn's short appearance)"The Emerald Forest" ,John Boorman,1985.

I guess there's some difference of opinion as to what is found in the area that headwaters of the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers make their neighborhood. Arthur Conan Doyle wrote that there was a lost world of prehistoric dinosaurs when he wasn't doing Sherlock Holmes stories. But W.H, Hudson has us believe that there's a young waif like girl making her home with her granddad among all the hunter/gatherer tribes of the area.At the time that both The Lost World and Green Mansions were written that area was still one of the few unexplored parts of our globe. I daresay that there are still some parts of that area that haven't seen the trod of civilized feet ever. But it sure makes for stories of imagination and in the case of Green Mansions, romance.W.H. Hudson who was also a naturalist and ornithologist by trade had the advantage over Conan Doyle because he knew from whence he wrote about. The film has some lush photography and in fact was shot on location in Venezuela. In fact it opens with a view of Angel Falls, one of the great natural wonders of the world. Makes the Niagara Falls in my neck of the woods look like a waterfall from a Six Flags Park.Green Mansions had been kicking around Hollywood for almost thirty years before Mel Ferrer decided it would suit his wife Audrey Hepburn. It was originally bought by RKO for Dolores Del Rio who scored big in another exotic romance, Bird of Paradise. Anthony Perkins plays an exile from a revolutionary government in Venezuela who has retreated deep into the interior jungle. He's looking for gold, but instead finds Rima the bird girl living with her grandfather, Lee J. Cobb. Perkins also finds a tribe of headhunters with Sessue Hayakawa as their chief and Henry Silva as his son. They're a suspicious lot and fear the nymph of the rain forest.For a story set in Latin America, it's interesting that only Henry Silva is a Latino in the cast. Yet the leads have to be the sensitive types and Hepburn and Perkins do fill the bill there.Sad to say that Green Mansions was a flop critically and financially. I think we ought to take a second look at it. My guess is that no one wanted to see Audrey Hepburn in something so radically different than what she had been doing up to that time. She's quite good, every bit as good as Jean Simmons in The Blue Lagoon which is a similar story.Check this one out if it is shown on TCM.