Reviews

I first saw this film about ten years ago and was bored by the run-of-the-mill, short on chemistry " romance",despite the personal, individual attractiveness of Poitier and Anderson,who looked gorgeous in those 70s fashions and Afro hairdo.However,I just recently caught what I consider the best and most memorable part- the spellbinding, electrifying appearance of the beautiful,talented South African singer, Letta Mbulu.What a voice! It was my first introduction to South African group performance.It saves the film in my opinion.

The film does have other redeeming qualities however, such as the star quality Sidney Poitier and the striking Johnny Sekka, a Senegalese actor who in his early roles in British cinema was type cast and who fared slightly better in Hollywood.

As a child I always heard that Green Mansions was filmed in my native land, British Guiana, now Guyana.It was one of our early claims to fame.So last night with some excitement I struggled to stay up and watch it for the first time.The opening credits are set against the background of the mighty Kaieteur falls and the Kanuku mountains, and then I was a trifle chastened to see the acknowledgements which thanked the governments of British Guiana,Venezuela AND Colombia.

Tony Perkins was terrible,all stagey and stilted and inept-perhaps it wasn't his fault, the dialogue was awful, the story rambling. Audrey Hepburn,who prior to this could do no wrong in my book, was totally out of place as an ethereal, sprite-like, half-Amerindian "child"; she appeared much too old and sophisticated, AND European. The " natives" were also fake,but what could one expect in 1959 when Hollywood was still using white men to portray Native Americans?