There is some impressive location shooting here. Nice shots of Zapotec ruins in Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, along with explanations of what it is we're looking at. Those ball courts at Monte Alban are pretty old. Some courts date to 1600 BCE. They had a flourishing civilization in Mesoamerica then. Know what was going on in Europe in 1600 BCE? Nothing.
All these monuments and ball courts at Monte Alban don't impress the pragmatic American hero much. That would be Glenn Ford. "This is literally a doorway to the past," he narrates. Then he walks through the door and it's all forgotten because it's eclipsed by intrigues sexual and economic, and everything is dominated by the search for a hidden treasure. Bing Crosby and Bob Hope did this sort of thing better.
It's almost a film noir pastiche. The bluesy musical score is a parody. There are scenes derived from, oh, I don't know -- "Murder My Sweet," various adaptations of Raymond Chandler, "Out of the Past," and "The Maltese Falcon." Ford, out of money in Mexico, which is -- I grant you -- a desperate condition to be sure, gives us the hard-boiled narration. "I took a black hairpin and a hunch and parlayed it into action." He's offered a thousand dollars to do a simple job of smuggling an envelope from Cuba into Mexico and it turns into a spider's web of villainy, greed, and betrayals. Ford gets knocked out. He knocks others out. A snub-nosed revolver is heard discharging from time to time. Patricia Medina is a good girl, or maybe not.
Diana Lynn is definitely a bad girl. She was a cute teen ager in "The Major and the Minor" and in "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek." Here, ten years older, she essays the Gloria Grahame role but it's not her style but, I swear, if you close your eyes and listen to her voice she sounds exactly like Gloria Grahame. She's an attractive woman but I suppose the director has given her instructions to hold her shoulders back in order to thrust out her bosom. The result is an awkward bird-like posture that doesn't get more graceful when she moves around.
Ford, who could be good, is wooden and inexpressive. And the worst casting error was making Sean McClory the worst of the heavies. They've died his hair blond and given him a flat top haircut. He always wears shades. And, no matter how hard he tries, he can't hide his Irish accent. He's handled roles that were mostly cheerfully comic but sometimes dramatic ("Island in the Sky") but as a slimy villain -- no.
The best feature of the film is the location. The rest isn't worth going out of your way for. It's pretty humdrum.
All these monuments and ball courts at Monte Alban don't impress the pragmatic American hero much. That would be Glenn Ford. "This is literally a doorway to the past," he narrates. Then he walks through the door and it's all forgotten because it's eclipsed by intrigues sexual and economic, and everything is dominated by the search for a hidden treasure. Bing Crosby and Bob Hope did this sort of thing better.
It's almost a film noir pastiche. The bluesy musical score is a parody. There are scenes derived from, oh, I don't know -- "Murder My Sweet," various adaptations of Raymond Chandler, "Out of the Past," and "The Maltese Falcon." Ford, out of money in Mexico, which is -- I grant you -- a desperate condition to be sure, gives us the hard-boiled narration. "I took a black hairpin and a hunch and parlayed it into action." He's offered a thousand dollars to do a simple job of smuggling an envelope from Cuba into Mexico and it turns into a spider's web of villainy, greed, and betrayals. Ford gets knocked out. He knocks others out. A snub-nosed revolver is heard discharging from time to time. Patricia Medina is a good girl, or maybe not.
Diana Lynn is definitely a bad girl. She was a cute teen ager in "The Major and the Minor" and in "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek." Here, ten years older, she essays the Gloria Grahame role but it's not her style but, I swear, if you close your eyes and listen to her voice she sounds exactly like Gloria Grahame. She's an attractive woman but I suppose the director has given her instructions to hold her shoulders back in order to thrust out her bosom. The result is an awkward bird-like posture that doesn't get more graceful when she moves around.
Ford, who could be good, is wooden and inexpressive. And the worst casting error was making Sean McClory the worst of the heavies. They've died his hair blond and given him a flat top haircut. He always wears shades. And, no matter how hard he tries, he can't hide his Irish accent. He's handled roles that were mostly cheerfully comic but sometimes dramatic ("Island in the Sky") but as a slimy villain -- no.
The best feature of the film is the location. The rest isn't worth going out of your way for. It's pretty humdrum.