Fire Down Below (1957 film)

{{Infobox film

| name = Fire Down Below

| image = Fire_Down_Below_(1957)_cinema_poster.jpg

| caption = US cinema release poster

| director = Robert Parrish

| producer = Albert R. Broccoli
Irving Allen

| screenplay = Irwin Shaw

| based_on = {{based on|Fire Down Below
1954 novel|Max Catto {{small|(as Simon Kent)}}}}

| starring = Rita Hayworth
Robert Mitchum
Jack Lemmon

| music = Arthur Benjamin
Douglas Gamley
Kenneth V. Jones

| cinematography = Desmond Dickinson

| editing = Jack Slade

| color_process = Technicolor

| studio = Warwick Films

| distributor = Columbia Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1957|05|30|UK|1957|08|8|USA|df=y|ref1={{cite news|work=The Times |date=30 May 1957 |p=11 |title=To-day's Arrangements: "Princess Alexandra attends ... the première of the film Fire Down Below in aid of the Greater London Fund for the Blind, Odeon Theatre, Marble Arch.}}|ref2={{cite web|url=https://dvdcompare.net/review.php?rid=6647 |title=Fire Down Below |website=dvdcompare.net |date=July 8, 2021 |access-date=2023-04-19}}}}

| runtime = 115 minutes

| country = United Kingdom
United States

| language = English

| budget = $2.3 million{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=Warwick Shrinks Overhead and Sked|url=https://archive.org/details/variety208-1957-10/page/n249/mode/1up/search/%22warwick+films%22?q=%22warwick+films%22|date=23 October 1957|page=4}}

| gross = $2,050,000 {{small|(US only)}}{{cite news|title=Top Grosses of 1957 |work=Variety |date=8 January 1958 |p=30}}

}}

Fire Down Below is a 1957 adventure drama film with a screenplay written by novelist Irwin Shaw, starring Rita Hayworth, Robert Mitchum and Jack Lemmon, and directed by Robert Parrish. Based on Max Catto's 1954 novel with the same title, the picture was made by Warwick Films on location in Trinidad and Tobago, in Technicolor and CinemaScope, and released by Columbia Pictures.

Plot

After the Korean War, Americans Tony and Felix own a tramp boat, the Ruby, which they use for small-scale smuggling around the Caribbean, along with a third crewman, Jimmy Jean. One day their bartender contact, Miguel, introduces them to an American businessman who has been enjoying the company of beautiful but passport-less European goddess Irena. He has to return to Detroit, but wants to arrange for her to get to another island. They are reluctant, but $1,200 proves very tempting.

On the voyage, Tony starts falling in love with her. Knowing the kind of woman she is, Felix does his best to protect his partner by warning Irena to stay away from Tony. However, Felix starts falling for her himself. When she disembarks, Tony goes with her, ending his partnership with Felix.

Tony visits a drunk Felix and offers a final job together, but Felix rejects the offer, feeling hurt by his friend's abandonment, and warns that Irena will leave him. Though Jimmy brushes it off.

Tony and Jimmy Jean take on a shady job, but are intercepted by the authorities. They have to abandon ship and swim to a nearby island to avoid arrest. Tony takes a job on a cargo ship to get back to Irena. He also plans to kill Felix, correctly suspecting that his former partner tipped off the customs agents to get rid of the competition for Irena. However, while Tony is away, she goes to Felix and confesses that she loves him.

After a collision, Tony is trapped below deck under a girder, with time running out – the ship is aflame and carrying a highly explosive cargo. Doctor Sam Blake offers the only way out, by amputating Tony's trapped legs, but Tony would rather die. Felix goes aboard and stays with him. An explosion frees Tony from the wreckage, and Felix carries him to safety.

After Tony has recovered, he confronts Felix and Irena in a bar. It is there Tony realises that Irena loves Felix and not him, leaving him to walk away and cut his losses by saying, "Some days you win, some days you lose."

Cast

{{cast listing|

Rita Hayworth as Irena
Robert Mitchum as Felix Bowers
Jack Lemmon as Tony
Herbert Lom as Harbour Master
Bonar Colleano as Lt. Sellars
Bernard Lee as Sam Blake
Edric Connor as Jimmy Jean
Peter Illing as Captain of Ulysses
Joan Miller as Mrs. Canaday
Anthony Newley as Miguel
Eric Pohlmann as Hotel Owner
Lionel Murton as The American
Vivian Matalon as 1st U.S. Sailor
Gordon Tanner as 2nd U.S. Sailor
Maurice Kaufmann as 3rd U.S. Sailor
Murray Kash as Bartender
Maya Koumani as Waitress
Philip Baird as Young Man
Keith Banks as Drunken Young Man
"Stretch" Cox Troupe as the "Stretch" Cox Troupe (also as "Stretch" Cox and His Troupe)

}}

Production

The film was Rita Hayworth's return to motion pictures after a four-year absence. The producer and part-owner of the production company Warwick Films, Albert R. Broccoli, later to become famous as the producer of the first 16 Eon-made James Bond films, makes a cameo appearance in the film as a drug smuggler.

Release

The film had a gala premiere in the attendance of Princess Alexandra of Kent at the Odeon Marble Arch in London on 30 May 1957, and went on general release in Britain the next day. It premiered in the USA two months later, on 8 August 1957.

Reception

=Box office=

The film needed to make $5,500,000 to break even, and by October 1957 was going to come in $750,000 short. This financial failure caused Warwick Films to scale back its production.

Irvin Allen later used the film as an example of "when you try and get artistic". He elaborated:

I employed one of those genius boys to direct Fire Down Below. It cost us £900,000 and though we had Mitchum and Hayworth we'll lose a million bucks on it. We got away from our action formula and I made the mistake of letting my genius boy get out of line. I can't afford to do that. We've got big overheads.{{cite news|newspaper=Evening Standard|date=25 March 1959|page=8|title=‘I can’t afford to be a mouse in the rat race’|first=Thomas|last=Wiseman}}

Soundtrack

The theme song, "Fire Down Below", was composed by Lester Lee, with lyrics by Ned Washington, and was sung by Jeri Southern.
All harmonica themes in this film were composed and played by Jack Lemmon.
The film's soundtrack score was conducted by Muir Mathieson with the Sinfonia of London.