1953 - PLUNDER OF THE SUN, a noir film more interesting for it's location

During the 1950's John Wayne along with his producing partner Robert Fellows formed a production company called Wayne-Fellows Productions.  Their goal was to make a series of modestly budgeted films some of which Wayne would appear in and some without him.  As with these actor created companies they had their hits and misses.  Plunder of the Sun was one of the films that was produced by Wayne-Fellows that did not star Wayne.

Glenn Ford plays a down on his luck adventurer who gets involved with a dealer of antiquities played by character actor Francis L. Sullivan.  Sullivan is looking for him to smuggle a map with the location of treasure supposedly hidden in the Zapotec temple ruins in Mexico.  Ford is channeling a Humphrey Bogart type of cynical character.  He has not one but two femme-fatale characters he has to deal with.  There is also another treasure hunter on the prowl played by a blonde haired Sean McClory.  McClory was part of John Ford's stock company and is the bad guy this time instead of some whimsical boob of an Irishman in a Ford film. 

 

Frankly the treasure hunt story isn't anything special.  The director John Farrow does a decent job moving things along but the script doesn't really do him any favors.  What this film really has going for it is the on location filming at the spectacular Zapotec temple locations and the city of Oaxaca, Mexico.  This is really the only reason to watch this film.  The locations are well photographed in black and white.  The film has a nice noir look to it.

 

The film was written by Jonathan Latimer, the running time is 82 minutes.