Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Dalbert Pringle Even though American insurance adjuster, Al Colby (who was presently visiting Havana, Cuba) was somewhat of a disagreeable brute who thought nothing of shoving around both men and women whenever it suited his mood, he was still deemed so irresistible that he found not one, but two, sexy babes lusting after him as if he were the hottest hunk in tweed trousers.With that in mind, I found Plunder Of The Sun (POTS) to be one of the most clichéd, predictable and, yes, decidedly dumb Crime/Adventure stories (with its preposterous double-whammy romance, thrown in for good measure) that I've seen, from the good, old 1950s, in a mighty long time.Featuring some real goof-ball villains, annoying/boring femme fatales and various implausible (and highly laughable) situations, POTS' story about hunting for hidden treasure amongst the ancient ruins and pyramids at Monte Alban, Mexico, just didn't have what it takes to cut the mustard, from my point of view.With its story being told mainly through flashbacks, including lots of voice-over narration by Al Colby (Glenn Ford's less-than-appealing character), POTS was definitely one of those movies that left this viewer quite dissatisfied and thinking to himself that this picture certainly had the potential to be a whole lot better than it was.Even though POTS' running time was only a mere 80 minutes, it sure seemed to me that so much of the general action was all but worthless and easily forgettable.As well, this film certainly lost a lot of its overall entertainment value by being filmed in stark b&w.The many scenes that were shot amongst the Zapotec ruins near Oaxaca, Mexico, would have been so absolutely wonderful to behold had they been given the full Technicolor treatment.And, finally, I thought that, as an actor, Glenn Ford was not at all well-suited for his part. Like, c'mon, Al Colby (that face-slapping heel) actually had 2 fairly hot women throwing themselves at him regardless of what dangers this might have posed to their immediate safety.And, to me, that was preposterous beyond words.

Hunt2546 Thin, ultimately silly film is given unearned heft by virtue of Jack Draper's cinematography which turns ancient Mexican ruins into the nightmare city of classic noir, the wet streets and shadowy alleys that are the essence of the genre. Glenn Ford is sour and surly as an American insurance man who travels the tropics with a full wardrobe of tweed suits (maybe that's why he's so grim). Down on his luck in a vividly evoked pre-Castro Cuba, he signs on to smuggle a certain antiquity BACK into the Mexico from whence it came for reaasons that never make much sense. Soon there are three or four factions vying for whatever he has taped under his left nipple: a sleazy archaeologist (Sean McClory), an American hot thang with plasticene-brassiere breasts that jut like nose cones (Dianna Lynne), a sultry hispanic gal (Patricia Medina), and finally some kind of Mexican expert and his thug son. There's too much fist fighting over a gun--Glenn and Sean duke it out about four times over Sean's Colt Detective Special--and the whole thing never makes much sense. But damn, it looks GREAT! Don't know who this Draper guy is--he seems mostly to have worked in Mexico--but his deep focus photography really brings the location to menacing, palpable life. The best passage follows as Ford evokes the ruins and what they mean to dim, pointy-titted Lynne, and it's pre-PC so he's able to make vivid the human sacrifice that blasphemed the place and thus give it a vibration of tragedy and death otherwise unearned in the movie. The other delight is McClory's debauched archaeologist, under a blonde crewcut and some heavy tortoise-shell specs. He's very vivid and far more charismatic than the dreary, mumbly Ford The movie really looses it in its climax, and ends in a silly shootout and fistfight in a backlot Hollywood set that wastes all the good will it had built up with the location work; suddenly, it looks like early TV and in a sense it has become early TV.

Lechuguilla Illegal looting of ancient human artifacts is the unusual theme of this adventure story, set mostly in Mexico. Told in flashback, the lead character is a man named Al Colby (Glenn Ford) who gets involved in intrigue when he agrees to deliver a small packet from Cuba to a Mexican destination via ship.Assorted characters complicate Colby's courier task. But none of these characters are interesting, least of all the flippant Jefferson (Sean McClory), with his crew cut and awful glasses. Indeed, the main problem with the film is the script, with its contrived and hokey premise, and the Jefferson character as a villain.On the other hand, the tours of the various archeology sites are fascinating. And if the script had dumped some of the characters and focused more on the treasure hunt, the film would have been better.The B&W cinematography is quite good, with its dark shadows and strange camera angles. It's almost noirish. Filmed on location in Mexico, the outdoor visuals convey a sense of grand scope and historical authenticity.Francis L. Sullivan is well cast as a shady businessman. And lovely, exotic Patricia Medina is ideal as the mysterious and sultry Anna Luz. But Glenn Ford is a poor choice for the lead role. Had he been any less animated, he could have passed for one of those stone statues at the ancient ruins.The film is worth watching once, mostly for the outdoor visuals and the small part of the plot that deals with characters using clues to find missing treasure. But the film could have been so much more entertaining with a more adventure-minded actor in the lead role, and a plot geared more to the frustrations and unknown dangers linked to the task of finding buried treasure.

bkoganbing I'm sure the primary reason that Glenn Ford and the rest of the cast did Plunder of the Sun is that they got a chance to film the whole story on location in Havana and later on in the Mexican city of Oaxaca. Pity they didn't shoot the thing in color.I for one was disappointed that Francis L. Sullivan was killed right at the beginning of the film after he hires Glenn Ford to smuggle a small package into Mexico on board a ship that set sail from Havana. Sullivan is always good and I certainly looked forward to a film where he was once again the villainous mastermind.What Ford was carrying was some ancient Aztec writings about a buried treasure located in Oaxaca. And then a whole bunch of people come into his life ready and willing to be his partner. Including the beautiful Patricia Medina and the trampy Diana Lynn. Lynn was surprisingly good as an alcoholic, poaching on the kind of parts Gloria Grahame took out a patent on. I wouldn't be surprised if Grahame wasn't who Batjac productions had in mind for the part originally.My guess is that the film had a lot of relevant parts left on the cutting room floor. Scenes changed without any transition and characters seemed to be left without motivation. And Sean McClory really looked dumb in a blond wig. Detracted from his performance as a rapacious and disgraced archaeologist, an Indiana Jones gone to seed.John Wayne produced this and had the good sense not to star.