Plunder of the Sun (1953)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Thin, ultimately silly film is given unearned heft by virtue of Jack Draper's cinematography which turns ancient Mexican ruins into the nightmare city of classic noir, the wet streets and shadowy alleys that are the essence of the genre. Glenn Ford is sour and surly as an American insurance man who travels the tropics with a full wardrobe of tweed suits (maybe that's why he's so grim). Down on his luck in a vividly evoked pre-Castro Cuba, he signs on to smuggle a certain antiquity BACK into the Mexico from whence it came for reaasons that never make much sense. Soon there are three or four factions vying for whatever he has taped under his left nipple: a sleazy archaeologist (Sean McClory), an American hot thang with plasticene-brassiere breasts that jut like nose cones (Dianna Lynne), a sultry hispanic gal (Patricia Medina), and finally some kind of Mexican expert and his thug son. There's too much fist fighting over a gun--Glenn and Sean duke it out about four times over Sean's Colt Detective Special--and the whole thing never makes much sense. But damn, it looks GREAT! Don't know who this Draper guy is--he seems mostly to have worked in Mexico--but his deep focus photography really brings the location to menacing, palpable life. The best passage follows as Ford evokes the ruins and what they mean to dim, pointy-titted Lynne, and it's pre-PC so he's able to make vivid the human sacrifice that blasphemed the place and thus give it a vibration of tragedy and death otherwise unearned in the movie. The other delight is McClory's debauched archaeologist, under a blonde crewcut and some heavy tortoise-shell specs. He's very vivid and far more charismatic than the dreary, mumbly Ford The movie really looses it in its climax, and ends in a silly shootout and fistfight in a backlot Hollywood set that wastes all the good will it had built up with the location work; suddenly, it looks like early TV and in a sense it has become early TV.

Illegal looting of ancient human artifacts is the unusual theme of this adventure story, set mostly in Mexico. Told in flashback, the lead character is a man named Al Colby (Glenn Ford) who gets involved in intrigue when he agrees to deliver a small packet from Cuba to a Mexican destination via ship.Assorted characters complicate Colby's courier task. But none of these characters are interesting, least of all the flippant Jefferson (Sean McClory), with his crew cut and awful glasses. Indeed, the main problem with the film is the script, with its contrived and hokey premise, and the Jefferson character as a villain.On the other hand, the tours of the various archeology sites are fascinating. And if the script had dumped some of the characters and focused more on the treasure hunt, the film would have been better.The B&W cinematography is quite good, with its dark shadows and strange camera angles. It's almost noirish. Filmed on location in Mexico, the outdoor visuals convey a sense of grand scope and historical authenticity.Francis L. Sullivan is well cast as a shady businessman. And lovely, exotic Patricia Medina is ideal as the mysterious and sultry Anna Luz. But Glenn Ford is a poor choice for the lead role. Had he been any less animated, he could have passed for one of those stone statues at the ancient ruins.The film is worth watching once, mostly for the outdoor visuals and the small part of the plot that deals with characters using clues to find missing treasure. But the film could have been so much more entertaining with a more adventure-minded actor in the lead role, and a plot geared more to the frustrations and unknown dangers linked to the task of finding buried treasure.

The insurance adjuster Al Colby (Glenn Ford) is interrogated by the Mexican authorities about the trail of dead bodies behind him. When the personnel from the American Consulate arrive to talk to Colby, he tells that his journey had begun in Havana, Cuba, where he was short of money. Colby is contacted by Thomas Berrien (Francis L. Sullivan), a crooked collector of antiquities that offers one thousand dollars to him to travel by ship to Oaxaca, Mexico, smuggling a small package. During the voyage, Thomas dies in his cabin, and Colby opens the package and finds three parchments and one medal of stone. When he is contacted by the rival of Thomas, the archaeologist Jefferson (Sean McClory), he discovers that the parchments contain information about a hidden treasure in the Zapotecan ruins of Mitla."Plunder of the Sun" is a flawed but enjoyable action movie of treasure hunting and double-crossing. Glenn Ford performs an ambiguous and amoral adventurer that is motivated by money only. There are several silly moments, like for example the tiger men removed by chisel by archaeologists that do not see the loose stone; or the heavy statue falling over Jefferson; or the conclusion with Dr. Ulbaldo Navarro (Julio Villareal) clearing his situation. The funniest scene is when he tells Julie Barnes, performed by Diana Lynn, that she would not be threatened by the sacrifice of virgins by the Zapotecans. Nevertheless the movie is entertaining and was filmed in the Zapotecan ruins of Mitla and Monte Alban. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Pergaminho Fatídico" ("Fatidic Parchment")

I'm sure the primary reason that Glenn Ford and the rest of the cast did Plunder of the Sun is that they got a chance to film the whole story on location in Havana and later on in the Mexican city of Oaxaca. Pity they didn't shoot the thing in color.I for one was disappointed that Francis L. Sullivan was killed right at the beginning of the film after he hires Glenn Ford to smuggle a small package into Mexico on board a ship that set sail from Havana. Sullivan is always good and I certainly looked forward to a film where he was once again the villainous mastermind.What Ford was carrying was some ancient Aztec writings about a buried treasure located in Oaxaca. And then a whole bunch of people come into his life ready and willing to be his partner. Including the beautiful Patricia Medina and the trampy Diana Lynn. Lynn was surprisingly good as an alcoholic, poaching on the kind of parts Gloria Grahame took out a patent on. I wouldn't be surprised if Grahame wasn't who Batjac productions had in mind for the part originally.My guess is that the film had a lot of relevant parts left on the cutting room floor. Scenes changed without any transition and characters seemed to be left without motivation. And Sean McClory really looked dumb in a blond wig. Detracted from his performance as a rapacious and disgraced archaeologist, an Indiana Jones gone to seed.John Wayne produced this and had the good sense not to star.