Das geheimnisvolle Testament

First off this film has more style than I expect from John Farrow as a director, well photographed with style and camera movement. However the noir flashback structure and the various obvious Maltese Falcon knock off elements are pretty uninteresting this time around, pretty much every cliche you can think of comes up and seems to just get in the way of the real story starting. Much of the start is and a long long boat ride to Mexico. All these tiresome things, take up too much run time. Once the film finally gets to Mexico and some nice, but rather sparse, on location sequences it finally becomes interersting, as is the music by a Mexican symphonic composer. The actors do what they can with tiresome roles. Too bad they didn't actually make this mostly about the ruins and threat of ancient curses, which are pushed in all the promotional material for the film. Too bad the story doesn't do much with these possibly exciting elements. You could almost fast forward to when they arrive in Mexico and not miss anything.

While much of Glenn Ford's early 1950s film output are unabashedly 'B' movies (he filled the same niche as Robert Mitchum did, at RKO), the movies are, by and large, very entertaining, and "Plunder of the Sun", shot in Mexico for Warners and John Wayne's Batjac Productions, is no exception. Directed by John Farrow, this action drama offers noir elements (an ambiguous hero, a 'fallen' woman, brutal violence, and an 'expressionist' use of light and shadow), John Huston-like characters (reminiscent of both "The Maltese Falcon" and "Treasure of Sierra Madre"), and an actually pretty accurate look at ancient Indian civilizations that built cities with pyramids when Europe consisted of little more than tribes.

Ford is Al Colby, a down-on-his-luck American recruited by rotund Thomas Berrien (Sidney Greenstreet-channeling Francis L. Sullivan) to slip a package through Mexican customs. When Berrien unexpectedly dies, a variety of characters offers Colby money, potential treasure, or his life, in exchange for the mysterious package, which he discovers contains part of an ancient document mapping where a hidden cache of priceless artifacts is buried. Seduced by both beautiful native girl Patricia Medina, who seems involved with all the 'major players', and drunken American 'party girl' Diana Lynn (doing a 'Gloria Grahame' impression), and 'educated' through beatings and genial lectures by the mysterious 'Jefferson' (scene-stealing Sean McClory), Colby teeters between succumbing to the vast wealth the document promises, and 'doing the right thing', and turning everything over to the Mexican authorities, who legally 'own' the artifacts. While Ford's portrayal lacks the subtle shadings of Bogart or Mitchum, he handles the moral dilemma quite well, and he certainly can take a beating!

With much of the action filmed at actual Aztec sites, in Oaxaca, Mexico, the film has an authentic 'feel', is fast-paced, and very watchable.

Certainly worth a look!

American Al Colby (Glenn Ford) arrives in Havana. Femme fatale Anna Luz (Patricia Medina) recruits him to help her and her collector husband Thomas Berrien to smuggle a small package into Mexico.

Glenn Ford is too calm and collected. It has two effects. It doesn't really fit the role and his calmness saps away the tension. He acts like he expects to be recruited. The story would work much better if he's an average tourist falling for Anna and getting pulled into something that is over his head. He rarely acts like he's in danger. It suppresses the tension.

A recent documentary, "John Farrow: Hollywood's Man in the Shadows", reveals that Farrow's films had distinctive themes and techniques including complex tracking shots, and a strong sense of redemption in his leading characters.

However when Diana Lynn gives Glenn Ford a sharp slap in "Plunder of the Sun", it actually struck me that slaps between men and women constituted yet another common theme in John Farrow's films. Gail Russell received a stringent correction via Alan Ladd's flying palm in "Calcutta". Then Alan Ladd was himself admonished in "Botany Bay" with a stinging open-hander from Patricia Medina. Later Anita Ekberg was on the receiving end of a mighty capillary-bursting whack in "Return from Eternity". Most surprising of all is the one Robert Taylor delivers to Ava Gardner's unsuspecting cheek halfway through "Ride, Vaquero!" They could have used the boxing concussion rule on a Farrow set.

With that said, other reviewers have compared Farrow's "Plunder in the Sun" to Huston's "The Maltese Falcon", We get Al Colby (Glenn Ford) the tough insurance investigator mixed up with a beautiful woman or two, and a Sydney Greenstreet-like character, the wheelchair bound Francis L Sullivan as Thomas Berrien. Then we have the hunt for a priceless treasure, in the case of "The Maltese Falcon" it was a jewel-encrusted statue, in "Plunder of the Sun" it is a package of pages of a manuscript that lead to hidden Aztec gold.

That's where the comparison ends because where "Falcon" is an enduring classic, "Plunder" receded into obscurity. I think the reason is simple, and it comes down to the main character in each film. Bogart's Sam Spade is tough, but he is an observer of the human condition, he makes tough decisions, but he is not without empathy. Glenn Ford's Al Colby is just tough; there is little real compassion in him, he comes across as cold.

And therein lies the secret to all the most successful cop and crime shows on the big or small screen across the decades. Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade set the tone. A little humour and a witty line à la Kasper Gutman (Greenstreet) can also make up for a lot, however a light touch is as elusive as Aztec treasure in "Plunder".

The one character I think delivers in this film is Patricia Medina as Anna Luz, Here's David Dodges description of her from his novel: "She was Latin and pretty with big dark eyes, smooth dark hair, a bright skin and a slim figure".

The film is saved a little with a twist at the end. It also has great location work and Farrow could always deliver a solid noir mood with his low camera and deep shadows. Finally "Plunder" does have a good dramatic score by Mexican composer Antonio Díaz Conde, but he only used distinctive Mexican cues in a few places; like so much about the film, an opportunity was missed.

Not much of David Dodge's novel remains in this film version, other than the names of some of the characters and the basic plot. American insurance investigator Al Colby is hired to smuggle a package out of Havana and into Oaxaca, Mexico. When the man who hired him is murdered aboard ship, Colby decides to find out what he is carrying and why it is worth killing for. Unscrupulous antiquities dealers, disgraced archaeologists, and desperate women all clash in a search for buried Zapotecan treasure. Glenn Ford is serviceable as Al Colby, but the plot is murky, the characters are under-developed, and the location is inexplicably changed from Peru to Mexico. Although it is long out-of-print, copies of the book are still relatively easy to find (unlike prints of this film, which is still tied up in Wayne estate litigation), and reading the book is a much better use of one's time.