Thursday, August 19, 2021

Thursday Movie Picks #371: Treasure Hunt

This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. The theme this week is "Treasure Hunt":

Er, maybe not that Treasure Hunt, especially since this isn't a TV-themed edition of the blogathon. I had two movies right away, and had a certain third movie in mind, but it turns out that's not really a treasure hunt movie so instead I decided to resule a movie that I picked in a late 2017 edition of the blogathon:

Mara Maru (1952). Errol Flynn plays a charter boat captainwho served in World War II and lives in Manila, having served in the Philippines. He gets a call from Raymond Burr, who is looking for what turns out to be a jewel-encrusted crucifix that was being transported one of the passengers on a PT boat Flynn was on and got blown up. So Flynn should know the location of the wreck, and Burr will stop at nothing to get the crucifix. Ruth Roman plays the widow of Flynn's business partner.

God's Little Acre (1958). Robert Ryan, as patriarch Ty Ty, and his overheated southern Gothic family live on a farm in rural Georgia in the depression. Ty Ty is convinced that there's buried gold on his land, supposedly buried there by his grandfather, so he keeps digging and digging for it. Among the cast are the obviously southern Buddy Hackett as a candidate for sheriff; Tina Louise as Ty Ty's daughter-in-law; and Michael Landon as an albino, which is important to the plot because reasons.

Night of the Hunter (1955). Bank Robber Peter Graves hides $20,000 in his daughter's rag doll so the authorities won't find it. After Graves is executed, his widow Shelley Winters marries "preacher" Robert Mitchum, who is really a con artist who only married Shelley to get at the kids because he thinks they know where the money is. And he'll chase the kids to the ends of the earth to find them and the money.

2 comments:

joel65913 said...

Mara Maru has a great cast, I'm a huge Ruth Roman fan, but it's unquestionably a B with Errol way past his glory days. Still it's a passable flick for a rainy day.

The same holds true for God's Little Acre though it is a better film all around just not great.

The Night of the Hunter however is great but so dark it's not surprising that it wasn't successful at first and took decades for its reputation to grow.

I wish I could say all of mine are undiscovered gems but while I enjoyed the first two they aren't terribly distinguished. The last is pretty bad but I just watched it the other day and using it at least made the time I wasted watching it not completely useless.

Green Hell (1940)-A group of fortune hunters lead by Keith Brandon (Douglas Fairbanks Jr) including David Richardson (Vincent Price) and Forrester (George Sanders) head deep into the South American jungle in search of rumored Incan treasure. Shortly after Richardson is killed by natives his wife Stephanie (Joan Bennett) arrives. Despite his loss she decides to stick it out and look for the booty but as the months tick by tempers and passions flare as the local heathens become increasingly hostile.

Plunder of the Sun (1953)-Down on his luck and short on funds insurance adjuster Al Colby (Glenn Ford) makes a deal with Thomas Berrien (Francis L. Sullivan), a crooked collector of antiquities to travel by ship to Oaxaca, Mexico smuggling a small package. During the voyage Berrien dies, Colby opens the package finding three parchments and a stone medal. Contacted by rival archaeologist Jefferson (Sean McClory) Colby discovers the parchments are a key to hidden treasure and the search is on!! Filmed in Mexico at the Zapotecan ruins of Mitla and Monte Alban.

Beyond Atlantis (1973)-When a fisherman wants to trade in his pearls for cash pimp Fast Eddie (Sid Haig) smells a fortune to be made and embarks on a treasure hunt to locate more. Joining with scuba driver Logan (John Ashley), adventurer Vic (Patrick Wayne, The Duke's son) and Dr. Kathy Vernon (Lenore Stevens) they head to the island. Upon arrival they are met by a tribe of half fish/half humans led by Neraus (George Nader) and his beautiful daughter Syrene (Leigh Christian) who only seems to possess a skimpy bikini. The gang are looking for loot, but Syrene is looking for a chance to propagate for the good of the tribe! A real piece of Roquefort Cheese!!

Birgit said...

OMG! That suit the man wears and seeing the station wagon and the TV sets...amazing what was top of the line back in 1974 or so. I have not seen the first 2 films but would like to see the usually tanned Michael Landon as an albino. I love the third film which is a true gem. It really is a nightmarish fairy tale and how I love Lillian Gish keeping the big bad wolf away.