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David Dodge's novel is brought to the screen with Ford excellent as protagonist Al Colby. The script however, plays fast and loose with the novel, changing the locale from Peru to Mexico and now the search is on for Aztec artifacts instead of Incan. All things considered, this is a tightly directed and well acted tale. It has not been available for viewing as it seems to be tied up in litigation along with "Island in the Sky"(1953) and "The High and the Mighty"(1954)as the Wayne Family battles Warner Brothers and we are the losers.

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 Dodge's 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.

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!

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.

Too many wanna be's for my taste. In the first twenty minutes alone I counted three; Patricia Medina's Rita by way of Ava, Francis Sullivan's Sydney G, and S McClory's P Lorre. And then, as Snoop suggested below, there is Glenn Ford's I Don't Wanna Be as in I'm Phoning This One In. So before I could stick around for Diana Lynn's imitation (Mary Astor would be my guess) I bailed. Good location shooting, though, removes this John Farrow offering from the realm of utter crap.

I only decided to review this film after seeing other reviews that I feel had an unfair opinion of a honest work. The performances are excellent and the location and cinematography is beautiful. This film is very atmospheric and enjoyable in my opinion. Give it a look.

I have never read the original novel by David Dodge, so I cannot in any way compare this movie to his book. I assume the other reviewer who felt the book was MUCH better was right--that usually is the case.

It's worth seeing this film just so you can get a glimpse of 1950's Cuba. There are only a few films set there (a couple of Errol Flynn's last films were shot there) and it's a nice chance to see the country--as most Americans have never been there or seen the place in films.

The film begins in Mexico. Glenn Ford is being held by the authorities and a worker from the US Consulate tells him to explain what happened. So, Ford begins to talk and the film flashes back one week to Havana. It seems he's been stranded there without funds and is waiting and hoping a letter with money soon arrives. When an odd man in a wheelchair offers him way too much money to deliver an 'unimportant trinket', Ford rightly figures that it's VERY important. And soon he's on his way to Mexico to go treasure hunting.

All in all, it's amazing how uninteresting the film becomes. While it all concerns a HUGE treasure trove, the film never seems very realistic nor exciting. It's hard to put my finger on it, but I felt pretty bored bored during all these betrayals, drunken brawls and the like. Much of it was, I think, because Ford's dealings with the white-haired man never made much sense. Also what made no sense was the casting of Diana Lynn. At times the film tried to have her behave like a vamp or femme fatale--it was akin to seeing Donna Douglas or June Lockhart doing this! She just seemed ill at ease and the wrong lady for such a role. Cute and perky yes---a drunken slut, certainly not!

Glenn Ford,(Al Colby),"The Big Heat",'53 played an insurance man down on his luck in Mexico and meets up with Patricia Medina,(Anna Luz),"The Beast of Hollow Mountain",'56, who buys Al Colby a drink and makes sexual advances toward him and manages to involve him with a man who gives Al a package to deliver for $1,000 and that makes Al very happy, because he is completely broke. Diana Lynn,(Julie Barnes),"Track of the Cat",'54, plays the role of a sexy blond who is drunk most of the time and is always trying to get Al Colby into bed with her. It seems that Al Colby has some secrets that concern a very wealthy treasure and everyone either wants to kill him or go in business with him. Glenn Ford was at the top of his career and gave an outstanding performance.

Even though American insurance adjuster, Al Colby (who was presently visiting Havana, Cuba) was somewhat of a disagreeable brute who thought nothing of shoving around both men and women whenever it suited his mood, he was still deemed so irresistible that he found not one, but two, sexy babes lusting after him as if he were the hottest hunk in tweed trousers.

With that in mind, I found Plunder Of The Sun (POTS) to be one of the most clichéd, predictable and, yes, decidedly dumb Crime/Adventure stories (with its preposterous double-whammy romance, thrown in for good measure) that I've seen, from the good, old 1950s, in a mighty long time.

Featuring some real goof-ball villains, annoying/boring femme fatales and various implausible (and highly laughable) situations, POTS' story about hunting for hidden treasure amongst the ancient ruins and pyramids at Monte Alban, Mexico, just didn't have what it takes to cut the mustard, from my point of view.

With its story being told mainly through flashbacks, including lots of voice-over narration by Al Colby (Glenn Ford's less-than-appealing character), POTS was definitely one of those movies that left this viewer quite dissatisfied and thinking to himself that this picture certainly had the potential to be a whole lot better than it was.

Even though POTS' running time was only a mere 80 minutes, it sure seemed to me that so much of the general action was all but worthless and easily forgettable.

As well, this film certainly lost a lot of its overall entertainment value by being filmed in stark b&w.

The many scenes that were shot amongst the Zapotec ruins near Oaxaca, Mexico, would have been so absolutely wonderful to behold had they been given the full Technicolor treatment.

And, finally, I thought that, as an actor, Glenn Ford was not at all well-suited for his part. Like, c'mon, Al Colby (that face-slapping heel) actually had 2 fairly hot women throwing themselves at him regardless of what dangers this might have posed to their immediate safety.

And, to me, that was preposterous beyond words.

San Francisco insurance adjuster Glenn Ford (as Al Colby) is in hot water. He tells US authorities in Mexico what put him there… Quickly, we flashback as Mr. Ford arrives in Havana, Cuba. Strapped for cash, Ford meets alluring Patricia Medina (as Anna Luz) at a bar and takes a job offered by her old and ailing companion Francis L. Sullivan (as Thomas Berrien). Plagued by a bad heart and confined to a wheelchair, Mr. Sullivan hires Ford to help them smuggle a small package into Mexico. En route, the newly formed trio meet sneaky blond Sean McClory (as Jefferson), who is interested in small packages. Ford also encounters tipsy tramp Diana Lynn (as Julie Barnes), who propositions him with the line, "I like well built men." Finally, the package Ford is carrying opens, and mysteries are revealed. Unfortunately the plot thins and several in the cast act types rather than parts. However, the location photography by Jack Draper makes it nice looking.

***** Plunder of the Sun (8/26/53) John Farrow ~ Glenn Ford, Patricia Medina, Diana Lynn, Sean McClory

"Plunder of the Sun" is a very good and interesting story of adventure, mystery, crime and drama. It's an adaptation of a 1949 novel of the same title by David Dodge. That was set in Peru and the film adaptation is set in Mexico. Many in the fine cast contribute to the intrigue of the story.

Glenn Ford is Al Colby, an American adventurer. Francis L. Sullivan plays Thomas Berrien, a collector of ancient artifacts. Patricia Medina plays his wife. Diana Lynn plays Julie Barnes, Sean McClory plays Jefferson, and Douglass Dumbrille plays the American Consul.

The movie was shot on location in Oaxaca, Mexico. And, it also has some excellent scenes of archaeological sites in the area. Places like the ruins of Monte Alban and others are in scenes of the film. So, it also provides a little education in ancient history and geography. All those who enjoy mysteries should like this film.

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.

Near the beginning, in Mexico, Glenn Ford goes up to the bar and the bartender has on a sweater. A second later, at another angle, the sweater is gone!

This is an interesting, archaeological treasure hunt flick. The story is pretty good and the characters interesting.

I only wish it had been filmed in color so the beauty of the ruins could be seen by all. Nevertheless, even in black & white it is still beautiful.

This movie could easily be remade and brought up-to-date. Any number of today's top actors could fit into Glenn Ford's role.

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.