Long unseen due to legal complications, Plunder of the Sun is now available on DVD and recently popped up on TCM. It was worth the wait. Glenn Ford is excellent as usual as Al Colby, an American who succumbs to temptation and gets involved in the artifact smuggling trade in Latin America. For the princely sum of $1,000, he's hired by Berrien (Sydney Greenstreet stand in Francis Sullivan) to transport the Maguffin from Cuba to Mexico. Things get complicated when Berrien turns up dead, and Colby finds others on the trail of his valuable package. The film features outstanding cinematography by Jack Draper--whose atmospheric, carefully lit work is best known to baby boomers thanks to his work on horror films such as Curse of the Crying Woman and World of the Vampires--and magnificent location footage of the Oaxaca ruins. Also noteworthy is the supporting cast, which includes bleach blonde Irish thespian Sean McClory and the brilliant veteran character actor Charles Rooner, an unheralded talent whose performance as a dissipated doctor in 1947's La Perla remains a landmark of cinematic malevolence.

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!

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!