Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

ianlouisiana Johnny Mercer knew a thing or two about women like Irena(Miss R.Hayworth battered but unbowed as a refugee from just about everything) wearily passing from man to man before she ends up on a ratty boat owned by Mr R.Mitchum and Mr J.Lemmon en route to anywhere as long as she hasn't been there before. Without really trying she causes a violent fight between the two men and Lemmon is only saved by a timely intervention by the splendid Mr E.Connor as their deckhand. Put ashore she allows Lemmon to accompany her to a run - down hotel and hatch a plot to smuggle her back to the USA which is foiled when Mitchum betrays him to the Customs.Miss Hayworth and Mr Mitchum clearly deserve each other and become lovers.Forced to sign on as crew in a decrepit freighter,Lemmon is trapped by the legs in a collision at sea and can only be saved if he allows the doctor(Mr B.Lee in what may be his finest screen performance)to amputate.You may extrapolate the rest with little difficulty,but much of the joy in "Fire down below" is in the casting of the smaller parts with Mr A.Newley exceptional as a barman/fixer who initially gets the three main characters together and a customarily wry turn from Mr H.Lom as the Harbourmaster who must make the decision to tow the damaged freighter out to sea to avoid an explosion which would devastate the waterfront and undoubtedly cost him his job and at the same time abandon Mr Lemmon to his fate which also would undoubtedly cost him his job. I first saw the film in 1958 at the "Savoy" on Brighton seafront in a more innocent world where it was o.k. to like Americans and view them as the potential saviours of western civilisation rather than the precursors of its doom,o.k. to see the U.S. Navy as an honourable,brave and helpful organisation run by nice guys like Mr B.Colleano despite being Canadian. Now of course those naive beliefs are no longer self - evident although I still grimly cling to them along with the hope that,out there somewhere Mitchum,Lemmon and Hayworth are living in a "Jules et Jim" menage a trois happily ever after. Well,I never said I was smart.

blanche-2 Rita Hayworth, Robert Mitchum, and Jack Lemmon star in "Fire Down Below," a 1957 film. Hayworth plays Irena, a woman with a mysterious European past and no passport. Mitchum and Lemmon are Felix and Tony, who run a ferry boat in the Caribbean. They are paid to take Irena to another island. Felix (Mitchum) knows she's trouble and worse than that, he's attracted to her. Tony (Lemmon) falls for Irena and, when she leaves the ferry, he accompanies her.The film takes an odd turn here - Tony wants to marry Irena, so he takes a job transporting illegal goods to get some money together. But someone has tipped off the police. Tony and his associate escape, and Tony ends up on a Greek ship. The ship has an accident, and Tony is trapped in the hold.This film starts out as one thing - a love triangle, a mysterious woman with a checkered past, two friends who become enemies - and becomes the story of a man facing death in the cargo hold of a ship. That part goes on too long, and we don't see the happenings on dry land. We are told about them toward the end of the film. It just felt like something was missing.There are suspenseful moments and good acting. Mitchum plays the sardonic Felix well, and Lemmon is, as always, likable as Tony and handles both the light and dramatic scenes very well. I do think for this role his casting was somewhat strange. I think like Hayworth he was trying to fulfill contractual obligations to Columbia. Hayworth is a long way from her Gilda days, but a striking woman. Her hard life, like the life of the character, has caught up with her. She doesn't display a lot of range in the role but has a knockout dance number during Mardi Gras that is very much the old Rita.Interesting for the cast.

Jackson Booth-Millard With James Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli involved and some really good stars this sounded worth a watch, so I did. Basically Tony (Jack Lemmon) and Felix (Robert Mitchum) sail around the Caribbean in their tramp boat doing odd jobs and drinking. While travelling they meet Irena (Rita Hayworth) and agree to take her to another island, and they both fall for her, leading to a break-up of partnership and betrayal. Tony goes on a cargo ship to take a job, but after a crash his legs are trapped underneath a large metal structure, and it seems only Felix can help him. Also starring Herbert Lom as Harbor Master, Bonar Colleano as Lt. Sellars, Anthony Newley as Miguel, Bernard Lee as Dr. Sam Blake, Edric Connor as Jimmy Jean and Peter Illing as Captain of the 'Ulysses'. It is unfortunate that the film itself turned out not to be very interesting, it was pretty boring actually. Adequate!

Gordon Cheatham (cheathamg) It's interesting that the things that make this film weak would have made it great if only it had been made in the late forties or early fifties and had been made in black and white. The setting is some exotic never-never land where life is cheap and morality is a rare and expensive commodity somewhere in the Caribbean. The acting is stylized. The characterizations are two-dimensional. The story is one of an overheated romance and acts of heroism involving people who are not worthy of respect except that ultimately they do the right thing. Rita Hayworth is a bad girl with a heart of gold, a faded version of Gilda. Robert Mitchum is doing his usual Robert Mitchum imitation, i.e. he's just too tired and bored to give the really good performance of which he was capable. Jack Lemmon is the idealist romantic who is willing to lay everything on the line and winds up learning a bitter lesson about people. As I said earlier, if only this film had been made earlier and in black and white it would have been an archetypal example of film noir. Personally, I like film noir but the genre was highly stylized and too often the actors were required to strike poses rather than develop the personalities of the parts they were playing. Unfortunately this film was made too late to be considered a part of that form and therefore deserves scorn instead of being lauded in Saturday afternoon showings at Parisian film societies.