Les pillards de Mexico

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.