A Thief of Time (TV 2004)

Officers Leaphorn and Chee search for a missing anthropologist suspected of stealing artifacts from a burial site.

Director:

Chris Eyre

Writers:

Alice Arlen, Tony Hillerman (novel)

Stars:

Gary Farmer, Adam Beach, Ernest Tsosie III

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gary Farmer	...	Captain Largo
Adam Beach	...	Jim Chee
Ernest Tsosie III	...	Dispatcher Clem Allison
Wes Studi	...	Joe Leaphorn
Sheila Tousey	...	Emma Leaphorn
Kelly Byars	...	Delbert Tsosie
Alex Rice	...	Janet Pete
Beth Grant	...	Ranger Mildred Luna
Natowa Garcia	...	Larry
Kenneth White Eagle Wings	...	Pete Etcitty
Dawn Lewis	...	Maxie Davis
Graham Greene	...	Slick Nakai
Lee Tergesen	...	Randall Elliot
Susan Conklin	...	Marcia
David House	...	Dumont's Butler

Storyline

An anthropologist, Ellie Friedman-Bernal, is suspected of selling ancient Anasazi pottery on the black market. Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee are sent to investigate. Ellie's hyper-competitive colleagues, Maxie Davis and Randy Elliott, claim to be clueless about her whereabouts. Hailing from a hard-scrabble farm, Maxie is an improbable success at the academic game, while East-Coast patrician Randy is more at home as a scholar. Ellie's cryptic notes lead Leaphorn and Chee to preacher/fencer Slick Nakai, and his musician/accomplice Pete Etcitty, who later turns up dead--along with another pot poacher. Then there are the rich, unsavory collectors Richard DuMont and local rancher Harrison Houk, who was the last person to see Ellie alive. If the mystery is to be solved, some nettlesome questions need to be answered: Why did Ellie trade a saddle for a kayak just before she disappeared? Why does the crippled Houk himself own a kayak? And what's that hunched-over form in the ...

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Plot Keywords:

navajo | pottery | third part | murder | grave robbing | 

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Genres:

Mystery

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Details

Official Sites:

PBS

Country:

USA

Language:

English Esperanto

Release Date:

11 July 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ta mystika tou tafou

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Granada Film Productions, Wildwood Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Follows The Dark Wind (1991)

User Reviews

Best of the series to date!

Joe (Wes) & Jim (Adam) re-acquaint us with the beauty, isolation (psychological as well as physical) and utter terror of "murder most fowl" in the Navaho Southwest. Characterizations, settings and plot continually build .. . even if at times the personal asides leave us wanting "more" .. . with some interesting alternative choices as to "who done it?" Flashbacks (e.g. Peter Fonda . .. good to see him) provide clues but they don't go where you might think. Comic asides (e.g. the Preacher) are mild and appropriate. Where "Skinwalkers" and "Coyote Waits" start to drag .. . "Thief" engages the clutch and four-wheels you around the next corner, never quite sure what's there. Disagree with Joe Leaphorn's manic comment to Jim Chee to "slow down" for the potholes. Wrong ... there are no potholes in the plot, just tracks to follow. On to the next episode! Great photography (as always), appealing characters and more to explore!