No-one would ever accuse "Fire Down Below" of being a good film but photographed in Cinemascope and Technicolour on location in the Caribbean it's certainly a handsome one, Throw in Robert Mitchum, Rita Hayworth and Jack Lemmon and it becomes a film with star quality as well. The plot is as old as the hills as pals Mitchum and Lemmon fall out over Hayworth, the woman they are transporting 'from nowhere to nowhere'. The film generates a little excitement, (though not much),when Lemmon gets trapped in a ship that is about to blow up. The terrible dialogue is courtesy of Irwin Shaw from a book by Max Catto and director Robert Parrish was hardly the man to turn a pig's ear into a silk purse.

You'd sure think that with Robert Mitchum, Jack Lemmon and Rita Hayworth this would be an exceptional film--but it isn't--at least in a good way! Despite all this talent, Mitchum and Hayworth are essentially wasted--especially Mitchum who is given very little to do during the film other than to act grumpy! In addition, mid-way through the film, the entire flow of the movie stops and it's almost like an entirely different film for 45 minutes. At the end, it unconvincingly returns back to the original and far inferior story.

The plot involves two partners who live in the Caribbean--making money taking people on fishing trips or doing a little smuggling. When a guy pays them to transport Miss Hayworth secretly out of the country, Mitchum responds with some nonsense about "hating women like her" and other such nonsense. To the well-trained ear used to bad movies, this obviously means "I'll act like I hate her through most of the film, but soon we'll be slobbering all over each other!". What a horrid cliché--and so predictable.

Later, when Mitchum is treating Hayworth badly, Lemmon assumes the role of Sir Galahad and defends her. Eventually, he even decides he wants to marry her and take care of her. However, Hayworth knows that she's just no good and won't commit.

In the interim, Lemmon goes on a very dangerous smuggling mission without Mitchum. He wants to get money for Hayworth to smuggler her into the United States, so he feels it's worth the risk. Things go poorly, however, and Lemmon's boat is destroyed. He hops aboard a freighter and makes for the island where Hayworth is waiting. However, completely out of the blue, there is an accident on board and Lemmon is trapped and the boat is about to explode (gosh) and there's a very limited amount of time to save him. However, all attempts fail and it looks like Lemmon will be blown to smithereens. This part of the film is actually very tense and interesting--and DOESN'T star Mitchum or Hayworth but a whole new cast of characters!! As I said, it's like a movie within a movie.

In the end, Hayworth and Mitchum return to help out good 'ol Jack, but by now (no surprise),Hayworth and Mitchum have discovered that they don't hate each other but are in love (gag me).

The film is poorly constructed, clichéd, stupid and failed to do anything with the only good part of the film (Lemmon trapped on the boat). What a waste of good talent.

You can't go wrong seeing a movie with the three stars that are in this one. But the real feature of this film is the location shooting in Trinidad/Tobago. If this doesn't make you want to choose that as your next vacation you are a hopeless stick-in-the-mud.

The song was also a big hit in 1957. It's a great melody and you hear it and you can't get it out of your mind.

Two men whose friendship his tested by a woman they both have the hots for. And when that woman is Rita Hayworth, who can wonder. She's older now, but still incredibly beautiful.

See a great story and appreciate Trinidad, make those vacation plans.