Secret Of The Incas

Secret of the Incas (1954)

Runtime: 98 minutes

Directed by: Jerry Hopper

Starring: Charlton Heston, Robert Young, Nicole Maurey, Thomas Mitchell

From: Paramount

Here' a random movie most haven't heard of but it did have a big influence on a legendary movie character, so I had to eventually watch it once I found out about it then was able to track it down. The IMDb plot description then the Letterboxd review:

"An Inca legend says the Inca Empire was destroyed by the gods when a gold and jeweled star burst (a fancy plate) was stolen from the Temple of the Sun centuries ago, and the ancient civilization will spring anew when the treasure is returned. The natives want it but so does Harry Steele, an American adventurer of slightly-shady ways who wants it for personal gain, as does his adversary, a grizzled old man even more into skulduggery than Steele. The latter teams up with Elena Antonescu, an Iron Curtain refugee fleeing from the MKVD (basically, Soviet military police)."

It's really not a surprise I decided to see this film after having seen a pair of Indiana Jones ripoffs as of late. After all, if you were to stumble upon this film and started watching without knowing anything about its plot or having seen any images, you'd be shocked to see that it was a 1954 film where Charlton Heston plays an adventurer who dresses EXACTLY like Indiana Jones: the brown jacket & hat, tan pants... if you see it yourself, you'll understand it is not a coincidence; I mean, besides appearance there are scenes in Raiders that were at least heavily inspired by this film and one was pretty much lifted wholesale.

Thanks to the Rupert Pupkin Speaks website for alerting me to the existence of this movie and thankfully I was able to track this down and give this set and filmed in Peru tale (the natural scenery-such as Machu Picchu-provided a lot of nice local color) and review a rare film for the site.

Basically, adventurer HARRY STEELE (Heston) joins up with a young lady and they look for missing treasure while eluding various people. Don't worry, it is more complicated than my threadbare plot description.

One thing different between Harry Steele and Indiana Jones; unlike Dr. Jones, Steele often comes across as an ass who has a voracious appetite for money and the acquisition of money that would rival the avarice of Gene Simmons! He's not looking for the treasure for purposes of archaeology, oh no. He's doing it for the cash. 

Let me note some of his other demerits: he acts forceful against several women-including an older lady and I noted a rather sexual vibe between the two as if there was an underlying relationship that wasn't shown-in order to advance his own causes, he plays Peeping Tom, he'll steal items large and small, he lies to a woman in order to hook up with her, and he even sometimes have other people do his dirty work. He's technically an asstagonist but I usually laughed at him rather than get offended by his boorish behavior. Besides, there's an even sleazier guy that's the villain.

Some things don't always make a lot of sense but overall this is a fine tale, although you should not expect it to be action-packed like an Indiana Jones film as it's not like that at all. What you do see (and hear via songs) is some Peruvian/Incan culture, which was different, at least to me. There's some amusing dialogue and “Well, THAT escalated quickly” moments; like I said this is fine.

I'll return tomorrow night.