Secret of Treasure Mountain

Secret Of Treasure Mountain is an excellent movie I saw on Sony Movie Channel last night. What really makes it work is with the exception of evil Raymond Burr, until the very end, you have no idea who is really good and really bad. It is about Americans, British, a Mexican Apache's, and in a flashback Spaniards lusting after gold and ( or) the opposite sex, and how most of them pay a severe price for their actions. There is a lot of attention to detail that you rarely find in Hollywood films of that era, including casting British actress Valerie French as an actual Brit ( instead of choosing an American with a fake accent), and because the movie took place in a remote area of Arizona, the producers made sure she does not look like Jean Simmons or Diana Dors ( two beautiful British actresses of the 1950's). I will not spoil the movie but if you want to be pleasantly surprised, do not miss this movie. 9/10 stars

I remember reading about Arizona's Lost Dutchman Gold Mine as a boy. It sure fired up my imagination, the various clues to its location and the lore going with it. Columbia used the material twice: the first in 1949's Lust for Gold with an A-list production, at least for that budget-minded studio. This movie is the second, but generally inferior to the first.

Nonetheless, production does a good job here with staging desert sequences, especially Kendall's clambering search for the third gold cross. Seems a diverse group (Prince, Burr) has come together at a desert cabin where an old man (Sheffield), his daughter (French), an Indian girl (Cummings), and a half-breed (Fuller) live. Clashes occur because of conflicting aims, especially as Burr and Prince search for the lost Treasure Mountain mine.

Reviewer Hefilm is right: the movie is uneven. Except for Burr, the rest of the cast doesn't really register, especially Fuller in his pivotal role. Then too, Prince is a nice guy, but lacks the gravitas to be convincing, particularly when he trades punches with the burly Burr. Note too the racial aspect of Indian and white. This was occurring at a time when the civil rights movement was getting headlines across the country, and I expect there's some cross-over here.

All in all, despite the pedestrian first part (familiar San Fernando Valley), the movie's visually entertaining. And that's along with a generally unpredictable storyline that manages a few twists. The package may not equal the 1949 version, but still remains a decent little adventure flick.

This starts out as seeming like it's going to be a typical low budget western, but the script helps lift it later on.

The first third of the film is the weakest element. Watching Burr's poor stunt double and then watching the real Burr climbing up and down off of horses is not a real encouraging start. But the by the numbers set up has some unusual pay off elements later. Burr is fun, as he always was playing a bad guy, his career is a testament to changing and image as he became a highly successful good guy on television for the rest of his life after a career as bad guys in supporting parts in films. He's really a supporting player in this film too as there is a large section in which his character is off screen.

Once the movie settles down with the mismatched group --Bad guys, good guys, English father and daughter, Mexican and Native Americans who are all stuck in a house and the possibility of Spanish gold nearby the plot takes some nice twists and turns. The script introduces a few elements of racial tension and bigotry but these elements don't work very well with the poor performances of non-Indian actors in these parts.

The film seems to be a totally low budget bad guys on the run from a posse affair when it starts but don't give up on it. The photography by later A list DP (Credited here as Ben Kline, later to be known as Benjamin H. Kline) helps and elevates it throughout. There is/ are some poor stunt doubles in a few spots and a really poor rubber snake.

But on the plus side there is a large scale flashback scene to a set bound battle, and there is a well done real outdoor series of scenes with a character searching out clues to the missing gold. There are some not bad, for the time, special effects and the highlight of the film is a longish fist fight that goes on against and across various steep cliffs---it would make a good scene for a James Bond film. And there is some nice plot shifting that will lead you to wonder just who the heroes and bad guys really may be.

Too bad the supporting parts aren't better acted and more convincingly cast. It's a short movie with its heart in fast pace and B action, but that actually helps the film. Also this isn't necessarily a western, this plot could work just as well in other settings. Not that that makes the film good or bad, just another slightly unusual element in a film that has some usual low budget problems. The movie seems to use some stock footage in spots though this is pretty well done. The films virtues, and pretty well done script, help off=set these problems, if not totally overcoming its faults.

The best part of the film was a sequence taken directly from Lust for Gold 1949 where the Indians attack gold prospectors in a remote valley many years before. Very much a studio set but extremely well done with production quality well ahead of the rest of the film. Interesting to note that the Englishman that played Valerie French's father in the film was Reginald Sheffield who was the father of Johnny and Billy Sheffield who were boy stars in films - Johnny playing Boy in the Tarzan films and later Bomba The Jungle Boy. I well remember seeing this film as a youngster and somehow the plot has always stayed with me - and on seeing it again last evening - the main elements that had stuck in my mind were there. I had remembered a search for the Braganza crosses - small metal crosses - that if found would lead to the famous Braganza treasure in Treasure Mountain. I have looked for the name Braganza before - and not been able to find it - and thought I had this wrong but I was pretty sure I had it right - and so it proved to be the case. The production values of the film were not top class by any means but the flashback sequence to the man who had discovered the treasure 200 years earlier when the Indians attacked and killed the searchers and Braganza himself in the cave was very well done - these scenes were pinched for an earlier film Lust for Gold with Glenn Ford. It has taken a long time searching for this film but I now have it and have seen it again.